Disobedience technologyMathias Klang @klangable mklang@sju.edu

Thoreau

“Resistance to Civil Government” (1849)We are sometimes obliged to defy the government

Gandhi

Duty to disobey the unjust leader.

Difference between civil disobedience & lawlessness

Martin Luther King

Letter from Birmingham JailDirect action to initiate negotiationUnjust law is against God’s law

M. L. King, Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)

“For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’…We must come to see…that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’…One may well ask, ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust...One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

Rawles: Theory of Justice (1971)

I shall assume, as requiring no argument, that there is, at least in a society such as ours, a moral obligation to obey the law, although it may, of course, be overridden in certain cases by other more stringent obligations. …a public, nonviolent, conscientious yet political act contrary to the law usually done with the aim of bringing about a change in the law or policies of the government.

H. A. Bedau: Civil Disobedience in Focus

“committed openly…non-violently…and conscientiously…within the framework of the rule of law…with the intention of frustrating or protesting some law, policy or decision…of the government.”

Peter Singer: Civil disobedience

...if the aim of disobedience is to present a case to the public, then only such disobedience as is necessary to present this case is justified...if disobedience for publicity purposes is to be compatible with fair compromise, it must be non-violent.

Critique

Not defensible in a democracyDemocratic processHave ALL other methods been exhausted?Obeying social contract

Disobedience criteria

1. Disobedience Purpose of civil protest for change2. Civil Public, open, acceptance of consequences3. Non-violent respect people & property4. Legitimacy Conflict of laws or morals

Does Technology change everything?

Wikipedia: The weirdest idea

No pavements online

The sit-in

Going virtual

1998 DoS attack againt Mexico’s presidents web8,000 hacktivists blocked the site in support of the Zapatistas

Technology is all about automating tedious tasks

What about using malware?

Is this slacktivism or activism?

THANKS!

Mathias Klang mklang@sju.edu or @klangable

www.klangable.com

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