April 10th Virtual Debate Topic: Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified.

In this season of Covid-19, we are daily exploring new ways to thrive. It is my middle school FIRE debate team that is helping to lead this effort. They are amazing!

​If you've never debated competitively, you may not understand how much the debate community can miss competing, or how much we grow from participating. If you decide to join us in launching virtual competition and you have never debated before, no one ever feels completely ready to debate until after they actually start debating! So, I have an encouragement for you. Dive in and you will find that even losing gets you on the road to success. As Nike promotes, "Just do it!" That's what we're doing in launching virtual debate. We're just doing it! Our learning curve is huge. Stick with us and help us build. 

A quick post giving some initial thoughts on the April 10th debate topic:  

• Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified.

Let’s consider some definitions: Always start with definitions so both sides of a discussion are talking about the same thing. (I’m not suggesting that these are the perfect definitions for the debate, just a starting point.)

• Civil disobedience: the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest (Oxford Dictionaries https://www.lexico.com/definition/civil_disobedience)
• Democracy: 1a : government by the people especially : rule of the majority. b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. (Merriam-Webster)
• Morally Justified is defined in a controversial article as “Moral justification is, simply put, a process whereby a person who is evaluating a morally questionable act attempts to make it seem right. This person looks for a way to shine a favorable light on such an act in order to maintain a clear conscience.” (The Immorality of Moral Justification https://www.philosophyetc.net/2005/08/immorality-of-moral-justification.html)

Questions to consider:

• Can civil disobedience be immoral?
• What is the test of whether an act is actually civil disobedience?
• What is meant by “peaceful” in the Oxford definition above?
• How do we determine what is moral? Let’s don’t argue about God or put opponents in a position to argue against their personal beliefs. Let’s think this through as a society filled with people who would approach this topic with many different considerations. We are, after all, a society that embraces freedom of religion.
• How is the morality of an act evaluated?
• Would the topic be evaluated differently based on the definition of democracy? Direct democracy? Representative democracy?
• Are we considering this only in the United States?
• Although it may not fit the above definition of civil disobedience, can terrorism ever be morally justified?

Some mentions of civil disobedience in the news:

• “Sacramento pastor encourages 'civil disobedience' as 30% of county coronavirus cases are linked to church gatherings” https://www.abc10.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/sacramento-coronavirus-cases-linked-to-church-gatherings/103-49570dff-1a9a-4815-92b0-4de1ab0dd4ad
• “Civil disobedience in the time of climate crisis” https://www.recorder.com/my-turn-hynes-CivilDisobedience-33049513
• “History shows when civil disobedience takes place, revolutions occur” (Opinion article https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2020/03/10/civil-disobedience-takes-place-when-injustice-trumps-citizens-rights/5004070002/)
• “On Resisting ICE and 'Civil Disobedience'” (Center for Immigration StudiesLow-immigration, Pro-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies, Low-immigration, Pro-immigrant https://cis.org/Cadman/Resisting-ICE-and-Civil-Disobedience)

Some possible search terms: (the placement of the quotation marks matter)

• “civil disobedience” pro con
• "the problem with civil disobedience"
• "civil disobedience leads to"

​Please send me any ideas you can share.
​We will achieve more if we work together.