Tagged: classim

“What we are trying to do, I assume, is really to get back to the principles and aims and spirit of the Declaration of Independence. This spirit is resistance to illegitimate authority and to forces that deprive people of their life and liberty and right to pursue happiness, and therefore under these conditions, it urges the right to alter or abolish their current form of government — and the stress had been on ‘abolish.’ But to establish the principles of the Declaration of Independence, we are going to need to go outside the law, to stop obeying the laws that demand killing or that allocate wealth the way it has been done, or that put people in jail for petty technical offenses and keep other people out of jail for enormous crimes. My hope is that this kind of spirit will take place not just in this country, but in other countries because they all need it. People in all countries need the spirit of disobedience to the state, which is not a metaphysical thing but a thing of force and wealth. And we need a kind of declaration of interdependence among people in all countries of the world who are striving for the same thing.” — Howard Zinn

I heard this quote while watching Matt Damon give a speech [a couple years ago] where he read excerpts from a speech given in 1970 by Howard Zinn titled “The Problem is Civil Obedience.”

To read the full speech, click here: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/CivilObedience_ZR.html.