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Show Majority can justify civil disobedience BY BRUCE DECKER and LYDIA WASOWICZ Chronicle Staff A Chronicle survey has revealed that the majority of Univcrsm l Utah students at some time, under some circumstance, think disobedience is justified. The survey, made fall quarter, was conducted among classes in IV, departments - Business, Engineering, Education, Music and Sodoku with nearly 300 students participating. It posed only one question-"When question-"When is civil disobedience justified". Henry David Thoreau, in his essay on civil disobedience, noted thai "All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or ii inefficiency axe great and unendurable". Apparently University students stu-dents are not united in recognizing this "right of revolution", althougj-most althougj-most agree on its validity. Results reveal surprises The results revealed some interesting attitudes and a few surprise: Though most students answered the question seriously and wit concern, the responses reflected attitudes from definite advocation t extreme disapproval to outright rejection. The following are sample responses: Q. When is civil disobedience justified? A. Civil disobedience is justified only when it doesn't violate an laws. A. When the protesters want to go to jail. A. If the teachers aren't teaching what's expected of them. There were also some contradictory and surprising answers, reflcctin perhaps the exhaustion and confusion produced by an essentiall circumstantial issue. A. Peaceful, nonviolent devices should be used. Anytime property! destroyed or life is in danger, people should be shot! A. I'd like to see all the messed up liberals and hippies shot. Few references Few of the responses referred to Socrates, John Locke, Adam Smith Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Ghandi or Marti; Luther King, men whose names have been linked with opinions on civ: disobedience. Many references, however, were made to hippies, weathermer panthers and police. Students seemed to be less concerned with th philosophical and moral justifications of past advocates of disobedienc than with judgments of right and wrong among contemporar lawbreakers. The names of Rubin and Hoffman occurred in answei more frequently than Marx or Lenin, indicating that the opinions give were oriented toward today's problems rather than the lessons o history. Men were more apt to justify civil disobedience than womer Undergraduates were much more prone to condemn it than olde graduate students. It was initially expected that significant difference would occur among students in different fields of study, i.e., tha answers from sociology classes could be distinguished from music, c business from education. But apparently field of study had little tod with answers because classes in different departments could not b distinguished from one another. (The exception was found in engine ering students who had incredibly poor handwriting.) Older students respond The most interesting discoveries were made in the 25 and over grou and among graduate students. Four percent of those 25 and over sail civil disobedience was justifiable "anytime", while no one aged 21 through 24 could justify "anytime." Only a third as many graduate students replied "never" as undergraduates. An encouraging trend was also uncovered. Although there was m mention of violence in the question, nearly 40 percent made spon taneous remarks advocating "no violence" and "respect the rights o others." The burning of buildings and banks and destruction of record and files came under heavy criticism in the students' comments |
