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    Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies On Law and Order
    Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies On Law and Order
    Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies On Law and Order
    Ebook120 pages2 hours

    Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies On Law and Order

    By Howard Zinn

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    About this ebook

    Howard Zinn's cogent defense of civil disobedience with a new introduction by the author. In this slim volume, Zinn lays out a clear and dynamic case for civil disobedience and protest, and challenges the dominant arguments against forms of protest that challenge the status quo. Zinn explores the politics of direct action, nonviolent civil disobedience, and strikes, and draws lessons for today.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublishereBookIt.com
    Release dateApr 26, 2016
    ISBN9781456609924
    Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies On Law and Order
    Author

    Howard Zinn

    Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a historian, playwright, and social activist. In addition to A People’s History of the United States, which has sold more than two million copies, he is the author of numerous books including The People Speak, Passionate Declarations, and the autobiography, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.

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    • 5/5
      Concise argument against the constraints of power. Remains a potent reminder of the strength of individuals, especially when united, to check the power of the state and institutions.
    • 4/5
      Written as a critique of Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas´Concerning Dissent & Civil Disobedience, this really serves as an excellent rebuttal to any critics of extra-legal civil disobedience, dismantling their arguments one by one. Zinn's language is precise, accessible, and utterly logical. One can sense the seething emotion behind his words even though he does well maintaining his argument dispassionate. I suffered a minor cringe within the first few pages upon seeing his "The time for action is now" reference, bracing myself for a dated 60's political diatribe. Most of his argument, however, is beautifully timeless. Only towards the end does Zinn lapse into somewhat generalized ideas of the ripeness of the 60s for political change, and the extreme turbulence of the period begging for revolution. He then betrays a now-quaint idealism, though it does little to damage his main argument. This is a must-read for anyone sympathetic to civil disobedience as political action. Zinn offers invaluable arguments in its defense.

    Book preview

    Disobedience and Democracy - Howard Zinn

    Titles in Print by Howard Zinn

    ARTISTS IN TIMES OF WAR (Open Media/Seven Stories Press, 2003)

    THE BOMB: Essays (Open Media/City Lights Publishers, 2010)

    DISOBEDIENCE AND DEMOCRACY: Nine Fallacies of Law and Order (Vintage 1968, reprint edition South End Press, 2002)

    EMMA (South End Press, 2002)

    FAILURE TO QUIT: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (Common Courage Press, 1993; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)

    THE FUTURE OF HISTORY: Interviews with David Barsamian (Common Courage Press, 1999)

    HOWARD ZINN ON DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION, with Donald Macedo, (Paradigm, 2008)

    HOWARD ZINN ON HISTORY (Seven Stories Press, 2001)

    HOWARD ZINN ON WAR (Seven Stories Press, 2001)

    JUSTICE IN EVERYDAY LIFE: Eyewitness Accounts (Beacon Press, 1977; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)

    A JUST WAR, with Moises Saman & Gino Strada (Charta Press, 2006)

    LAGUARDIA IN CONGRESS, (Cornell UP, 1959; reprint 2010)

    LA OTRA HISTORIA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS (Seven Stories Press, 2001)

    MARX IN SOHO: A Play on History (South End Press, 1999)

    NEW DEAL THOUGHT, Ed. By Howard Zinn (Bobbs-Merrill, 1966, reprint edition Hackett Publishing Co., 2003)

    ORIGINAL ZINN: CONVERSATIONS ON HISTORY AND POLITICS, with David Barsamian (HarperCollins/Perennial, 2006)

    PASSIONATE DECLARATIONS: ESSAYS ON WAR AND JUSTICE, formerly DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE (HarperCollins/Perennial, 1990, 2003)

    A PEOPLES HISTORY OF EMPIRE; written with Paul Buhle & illustrated by Mike Konopack,(Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 2008, graphic edition)

    A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S., updated edition 2003 (HarperCollins/Perennial)

    A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S., Abridged Teaching Edition, (New Press, 1997)

    A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S., the wall charts (New Press, 1995)

    THE PEOPLE SPEAK: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known (HarperCollins/Perennial, 2004)

    THE POLITICS OF HISTORY, second edition (University of Illinois, 1990)

    POSTWAR AMERICA: 1945-1971 (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)

    A POWER GOVERNMENTS CANNOT SUPPRESS (City Lights Publishers, 2007)

    SNCC: THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS (Beacon Press, 1964; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)

    THE SOUTHERN MYSTIQUE, (Knopf, 1964; reprint edition South End Press, 2002)

    TERRORISM AND WAR, with Anthony Arnove (Open Media/Seven Stories Press, 2002)

    THREE PLAYS: THE POLITICAL THEATER OF HOWARD ZINN – EMMA, MARX IN SOHO, DAUGHTERS OF VENUS (Beacon Press, 2010)

    THREE STRIKES, with Dana Frank and Robin D.G. Kelley (Beacon Press, 2001)

    THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: A PEOPLES HISTOR, updated. 2003 (HarperCollins/Perennial)

    UNCOMMON SENSE: FROM THE WRITINGS OF HOWARD ZINN (Paradigm Press, 2009)

    UNRAVELING OF THE BUSH PRESIDENCY (Seven Stories Press, 2009)

    VIETNAM: THE LOGIC OF WITHDRAWAL (Beacon Press; 1967; Reprint edition South End Press, 2002)

    VOICES OF A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S., with Anthony Arnove (Seven Stories Press, 2004; second edition 2010)

    YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF OUR TIMES, second edition (Beacon Press, 2002)

    A YOUNG PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE U.S.: Adapted by Rebecca Stefoff (Seven Stories Press, 2007)

    THE ZINN READER: WRITINGS ON DISOBEDIENCE AND DEMOCRACY (Seven Stories Press 1997, second edition 2010)

    PRAISE FOR HOWARD ZINN

    What can I say that will in any way convey the love, respect, and admiration I feel for this unassuming hero who was my teacher and mentor, this radical historian and people-loving ‘trouble-maker,’ this man who stood with us and suffered with us? Howard Zinn was the best teacher I ever had, and the funniest.

    —Alice Walker

    Howard Zinn, who almost single-handedly popularized a people’s perspective on U.S. history, never stops inventing new ways to educate ourselve.... Zinn is, quite simply, a national treasure.

    —Elizabeth Martinez

    PRAISE FOR MARX IN SOHO

    Winner of the 2000 Independent Publisher Award for best visionary fiction.

    A witty delight that will engage both new and old acquaintances of the Marxian corpus.... Even conservatives will find Zinn’s [book] ... an intelligent and diverting read.

    —Library Journal

    A cleverly imagined call to reconsider socialist theory__ Zinn’s point is well made; his passion for history melds with his political vigor to make this a memorable effort and a lucid primer for readers desiring a succinct, dramatized review of Marxism.

    —Publishers Weekly

    An imaginative critique of our society’s hypocrisies and injustices, and an entertaining, vivid portrait of Karl Marx as a voice of humanitarian justice—which is perhaps the best way to remember him.

    —Kirkus Reviews

    Finally a show by lefties, about lefties, that’s no preachy polemic. Writer-historian Howard Zinn has crafted a stirring, funny play that delves into the true meaning of Marxism.

    —LA Weekly

    By showing us Marx the man, Zinn poignantly humanizes him. By showing us Marx the theorist, Zinn gently educates us. And by bringing Marx into today’s era, Zinn cleverly and unmistakably argues the relevance of Marx’s ideas in our time.

    — Backstage West

    Disobedience and Democracy

    Nine Fallacies on Law and Order
    Howard Zinn

    Copyright © 1968 and 2002 by Howard Zinn

    Acknowledgment is hereby made to The New American Library for permission to reprint from Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience by Abe Fortas. Copyright © 1968 by Abe Fortas. Reprinted by permission of The New American Library, Inc., New York.

    Any properly footnoted quotation of up to 500 sequential words may be used without permission, as long as the total number of words quoted does not exceed 2,000.

    To

    Peter Irons

    and the other

    draft resisters.

    Contents

    Preface

    First Fallacy

    Second Fallacy

    Third Fallacy

    Fourth Fallacy

    Fifth Fallacy

    Sixth Fallacy

    Seventh Fallacy

    Eighth Fallacy

    Ninth Fallacy

    Preface

    Among the first Americans to commit acts of civil disobedience in protest against the war in Vietnam were young black civil rights workers in the South. In the summer of 1966, six members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were arrested for invading an induction center in Atlanta. The American intervention in Vietnam had escalated dramatically in the spring of 1965, and almost immediately there were mass refusals to be inducted in the military. By mid-1968, there were more than three thousand prosecutions of such resisters. The burning of draft cards by young men, the invasion of draft boards by religious pacifists, became rituals of the anti-war movement. When David O’Brien burned his draft card on the steps of the courthouse in South Boston, he was prosecuted, and the Supreme Court, by a vote of 1–1, upheld his conviction, rejecting his claim that it was an act of free speech protected by the Constitution. When Abe Fortas, one of those justices condemning David O’Brien, wrote a booklet on civil disobedience, justifying such prosecutions, I decided to write a response. The result was this little book, which sold over 70,000 copies and served as the theoretical buttress to the many acts of civil disobedience committed during those years of the war in Vietnam. In the decades that followed the end of the war, many more acts of civil disobedience continued, to protest the militarization of the country and the production of weapons of mass destruction. In the prosecutions, that followed, I was called on many times to testify on behalf of the defendants, and drew repeatedly on the arguments contained in this book.

    Disobedience and Democracy

                   A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonels, captains, corporals, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.

    —HENRY DAVID THOREAU

    IT IS STRANGE. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, thoughtful Americans speak earnestly about how much change is needed, not just elsewhere, but here in the United States. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, disturbed by the tumult of the previous evenings, when various people (blacks, students, draft resisters, mothers on welfare) have, in a disorderly way, demanded change, the same people call for law and order.

    On Sundays, our dilemma is solved. The New York Times tells us change is necessary and protest desirable, but within limits. Poverty should be protested, but the laws should not be broken. Hence, the Poor People’s Campaign, occupying tents in Washington in the spring of 1968, is praiseworthy; but its leader, Ralph Abernathy, is deservedly jailed for violating an ordinance against demonstrating near the Capitol. The Vietnam war is wrong, but if Dr. Spock is found by a jury and judge to have violated the draft law, he must accept his punishment as right because that is the rule of the game.

    Thus, exactly at that moment when we have begun to suspect that law is congealed injustice, that the existing order hides an everyday violence against body and spirit, that our political structure is fossilized, and that the noise of change—however scary—may be necessary, a cry rises for law and order. Such a moment becomes a crucial test of whether the society will sink back to a spurious safety or leap forward to its own freshening. We seem to have reached such a moment in the United States.

    The signs are everywhere. Urban uprisings, exploding out of poverty and racism, have brought a flood of contrite words (the Kerner Commission report), but no concrete action to redistribute the enormous wealth of the nation; in the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the most enforceable section will be that which provides five years in prison for those who encourage a riot, and one of the Titles of the Act is called, appropriately, Civil Obedience. Student rebellion, culminating in the occupation of various university buildings all

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