Not Respect for the Law, but Respect for the Right

answered by Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"

1849년 발표, 19세기 미국

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

The Great Escape (1963)

dir. John Sturges · USA

Prisoners of war dig tunnel after tunnel despite repeated failure. Knowing the odds of success are slim, the attempt itself becomes, for them, a form of dignity.

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Is an escape attempt made knowing it will likely fail recklessness, or the last stronghold of human dignity?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

💡 TL;DR

Thoreau said what deserves cultivation is not respect for the law itself but respect for the right.

📝The Classic Answers

Thoreau said what deserves cultivation is not respect for the law itself but respect for the right. A POW camp's rules forbid escape, but a prisoner's refusal to give up the right to try again is a rightness that precedes that rule. A low probability of success does not erase the reason to try. Breaking the rule is not the point in itself; the point is that a human being does not surrender the right to resist as a human being. Before an uncertain endeavor, I first ask what rightness the attempt itself is trying to protect.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If you have put off an attempt today because the odds are low, write in one line what rightness that attempt is trying to protect.

📖 Classic Source: Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience". Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.