Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and to disobey and resist unjust laws.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
Is it true that every individual should obey all existing laws? Or should we resist laws we find unjust? Unjust laws have always existed and one of the only ways to change these laws is by resisting them. As in the past there were laws that required racial segregation that were only nullified after civil disobedience, today we have laws against gay marriage that are beginning to be cancelled following public manifestations.
It can be argued that laws exist to be obeyed and if every individual was to disobey any law he found unjust, we would have complete chaos. In addition, laws are created by the people we choose to represent us and therefore we should trust them to pass laws that are in the best interest of the population. By believing this, we could trust politicians to nullify laws that are found unjust by the people, without the need to any resistance.
On the other hand, resisting existing laws is the best and most effective way to achieve changes. Racial segregation was a reality in the United States and most countries until a few decades ago. Although part of the population agreed with the law, there were those who saw the injustice in it. It was only through civil disobedience and public manifestations against enforced segregation that such laws ceased to exist. If it were not for the resistance, we could still have these unjust laws that separated people solely according to their skin color.
In a similar context, we have today laws that forbid gay marriage in several states and countries. In recent years, these laws started to be questioned by part of the population that engaged in public manifestations. Such manifestations attract the attention of more people that start supporting the cancellation of the law. As a result, some states are beginning to allow gay marriage.
Ultimately, it is clear that individuals should disobey and resist laws they find unjust. As we have seen in past and present situations, in order to achieve changes it is important to fight the injustices. To obey all laws and never question their existence means to simply become inured to an unfair reality.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 362 350
No. of Characters: 1728 1500
No. of Different Words: 174 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.362 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.773 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.638 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 118 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 78 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 55 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 43 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.053 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.353 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.263 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.353 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.556 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.189 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5