NationStates Jolt Archive

What qualifies a rebellion as being justified

Dependant really, I would assume a justifiable aggrevance or contentious issue.

You can justify any rebellion by quoting socrates :"I am the gadfly, on the ass of that great dilatory steed, society" socrates said, at his trial, that he was a the gadfly, or horse fly, that irritates society, that "great dilatory steed(lazy horse) into movement) meaning without being argumentative, or even rebellious, towards a society, it will not move, it will stagnate, and a stagnant society is one that sinks into entropy therefore, any rebellion that avoids stagnation can be said to be justified

Really, since justification lies in the eyes of the beholder, all rebellions are justified

What qualifies a rebellion as being justified
WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

{Snip The historical bits that don't have to obtain to make the above valid... http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/independ/declar.html }

Makes sense to me...

Historically, there has been one single criterion used to determine if a rebellion is justified or not. James Clavell expressed it rather succinctly in Shogun: Rebellion is never justified, unless you win.

:p

I think that rebellion is only justified when it is against an oppressive entity (totalitarian government, feudal lord, etc.)

I think that rebellion is only justified when it is against an oppressive entity (totalitarian government, feudal lord, etc.)

Democracies can be oppressive, too.

Democracies can be oppressive, too.
A true democracy is not oppressive (we're not talking Russia here ;) ). In any healthy democracy, most traces of excessive authority are constitutionally forbidden, or eventually rejected by elections.
Within a democracy, rebellions are just useless.