"Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and
to disobey and resist unjust laws"
The characteristics which differentiates human being from other living
bodies is that human being is a social animal. So being in society every people
has his own responsibility to make the society a better one in terms of
peacefulness and humanity. Peacefulness in a society can only prevail when
there will be certain rules and norms pertaining to equality, justice and other
aspects. These rules in written form are laws. Each people have the right to
explore those rules and give opinion to the correctness of those laws otherwise
the main motivation of making those laws will not be fulfilled. Whenever there
are some unrest within the society, then applying those laws and with proper
evidences, the wrongdoers should be punished.
As every dwellers of the society should look into the betterment of the
society, it is apparently true that each individual has a responsibility to
obey just laws and to disobey and resist unjust laws. To me, to certain extent
this is correct. Because unjust laws can’t do the betterment of the society
rather it can insert more turbulence within it. However, if the argument is
examined closely then there will arise some reasons which will oppose the
apparent freedom of every individual in a society.
First of all, the word ‘just’ and ‘unjust’ are totally relative to the
large population of the society. What is ‘just’ to a man of a society can be
purely ‘unjust’ to others and vice-versa. The situation may arise like, every
laws are unjust to some people. If this is the case, then there is no need to
make the laws. And if there are no laws then an anarchy will prevail. When
there is certain law, then it has been made after considering certain
situation. It has to have some good prospect which may not be realized by every
people in the society. The laws which are ‘unjust’ to some people now, may
prove a purely ‘just’ one when such kind of situation will arrive.
Secondly, resisting laws means some people are recalcitrant to the
authority. There is no point to resist laws. Things people in society can do is
they may discuss with the authority about the disadvantages of such laws. But
blatantly refusing laws will not be the intelligent solution. They can make the
laws an adaptive one which becomes rigid in pressing situation otherwise
flexible. But they can’t disobey the laws because disobeying laws means
disobeying the lawmakers which may otherwise provide an adverse effect to the
hierarchy of the society.
Finally, to make the society healthier and smoother to live, there
should be a good understanding within its people. They must care for each other
and feel for one another. Then only a society will be a happy place which can’t
be obtained from just condemning some laws which are felt ‘unjust’ to a stint
people.