Civil Disobedience
Civil Disobedience means accepting that what you are doing is illegal and dealing with the consequences. Period.<p>"Fighting the system" is a different can of worms. Being a revolutionary is also different. But Civil Disobedience means that you put civility -- the willingness to not fight -- at the same level as your moral outrage. Civil Disobedience is doing the right thing, being willing to take the consequences without a fight, and daring the public to put up with such an immoral system. The person who is being disobedient is asking "How can our society continue in a practical way when we treat people this way?" It's both a moral and a practical question. It's not just outrage.<p>It's an important distinction. I'm fine with revolutionaries, after all, the U.S. started with a revolution. But we were very clear in the Declaration of Independence the reasons for our taking up arms. We had a job to do, and the king had a job to do. The king wasn't doing his, and after trying our best to meet his demands, power then reverted to the natural legislature of the people.<p>This wasn't a moral crusade. This was a reluctant servant taking the only action possible.<p>If you want a moral crusade and a revolution, then you have to answer one key question: what makes you so right? After all, if we're talking morals, other people have morals too, and I betcha they're not going to agree with yours. What do we do? All get clubs and run out into the street and whoever wins gets to decide what's right? Been a lot of that going around, and it never ends well. Majorities don't decide the correct construction of a society that's going to last. All they get to do is bully folks into getting their way.<p>I can't make a call on Aaron because I have no idea what his intentions were, and the story never finished. So the reader is free to add whatever he would like onto it (one of the reasons it is so powerful, probably)<p>But I know from Civil Disobedience. Powerful concept. Poorly understood.<p>ADD: Was going to link to MLK's letter from a Birmingham Jail, but that might derail us. MLK put this in religious terms, "So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love?", but the core of the question in my mind is not religious, it is this: how are we all going to continue getting along together if things continue like this?