Don't Obey All Orders
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a figure known worldwide for advocating non-violent civil disobedience.
Last week, we had an interesting topic about “Disobedience” in our lesson, which made me remember some great thoughts and thinkers of our modern history.
When I was child, there was a dictatorship in power in my country, which killed a lot of free-thinkers and censured the press, among other atrocities. So we learn, since our early days, to disobey the rules. Because it was impossible to be a part of this regime, we have to disagree with the wave of injustices, murders and arbitrariness. Our neighbours, friends and relatives were persecuted by the dictatorship; many had to live as clandestine for a long time, far from their families. There was no freedom of expression, we practiced a silent disobedience, which gradually became audible, hit the streets and brought democracy back to the country.
In those days, the entire world was disobeying the rules. Many events stand out those years: French students in 1968 proclaimed: it was forbidden to forbid. After that, Americans were against the Vietnam War. Women stripped their bras and wore miniskirts, getting free of old customs, while young men tore their convocations for the war. The advent of the contraceptive pill brought freedom for new approaches of sexuality. The youth tried all sort of drugs, to board in trips pursuing new doors for the perception of them and of the universe.
One important author read in this epoch was Thoreau, with his theory about Civil Disobedience. I could guess then he was more widely read than Karl Marx. Later his ideas were adopted by relevant personalities of our contemporary history, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. They put in practice the theory of no-violence, showing to the world they were disagreeing with the status quo, the apartheid, the colonization – widely spreading their belief in freedom, in the free will of everyone.
In the other hand, could be interesting to see the subject from another angle, when the condition is other, exactly when we are in the other side, where we do not disobey, we are disobeyed. Here I make a personal consideration. My 15-year-old daughter doesn’t obey me. She disagrees with me in everything, in small or big issues. I know she needs to do it, to grow up and affirm her personality. But in my role of mother I need to establish rules and discipline for set up parameters for our life together. Could be tiring argue for 30 minutes about the necessity of washing up. However we need to be open to debates. Especially because life is always in motion.
Summarizing: it is rather easier to disobey rules than to be disobeyed. I can imagine how the teachers felt in the experimental phase of Summerhill School, where the students were allowed to choose everything: what to do and where, what to study and how.
Whatever is our position, it is essential to evaluate the rules and disagree with them when necessary. This behaviour can improve worlds: small worlds formed by our relationships or the global world formed by multicultural thoughts, beliefs and hopes. It is the least we can do for ourselves.
By Vera Nonaka
When I was child, there was a dictatorship in power in my country, which killed a lot of free-thinkers and censured the press, among other atrocities. So we learn, since our early days, to disobey the rules. Because it was impossible to be a part of this regime, we have to disagree with the wave of injustices, murders and arbitrariness. Our neighbours, friends and relatives were persecuted by the dictatorship; many had to live as clandestine for a long time, far from their families. There was no freedom of expression, we practiced a silent disobedience, which gradually became audible, hit the streets and brought democracy back to the country.
In those days, the entire world was disobeying the rules. Many events stand out those years: French students in 1968 proclaimed: it was forbidden to forbid. After that, Americans were against the Vietnam War. Women stripped their bras and wore miniskirts, getting free of old customs, while young men tore their convocations for the war. The advent of the contraceptive pill brought freedom for new approaches of sexuality. The youth tried all sort of drugs, to board in trips pursuing new doors for the perception of them and of the universe.
One important author read in this epoch was Thoreau, with his theory about Civil Disobedience. I could guess then he was more widely read than Karl Marx. Later his ideas were adopted by relevant personalities of our contemporary history, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. They put in practice the theory of no-violence, showing to the world they were disagreeing with the status quo, the apartheid, the colonization – widely spreading their belief in freedom, in the free will of everyone.
In the other hand, could be interesting to see the subject from another angle, when the condition is other, exactly when we are in the other side, where we do not disobey, we are disobeyed. Here I make a personal consideration. My 15-year-old daughter doesn’t obey me. She disagrees with me in everything, in small or big issues. I know she needs to do it, to grow up and affirm her personality. But in my role of mother I need to establish rules and discipline for set up parameters for our life together. Could be tiring argue for 30 minutes about the necessity of washing up. However we need to be open to debates. Especially because life is always in motion.
Summarizing: it is rather easier to disobey rules than to be disobeyed. I can imagine how the teachers felt in the experimental phase of Summerhill School, where the students were allowed to choose everything: what to do and where, what to study and how.
Whatever is our position, it is essential to evaluate the rules and disagree with them when necessary. This behaviour can improve worlds: small worlds formed by our relationships or the global world formed by multicultural thoughts, beliefs and hopes. It is the least we can do for ourselves.
By Vera Nonaka