Many people who value authority for the sake of authority recoil at the idea of rebellion, believing that to disobey is a moral outrage in itself. Frederick Douglass, as a former slave, had a different perspective on the idea of rebellion.
Douglass could understand the negative ramifications of rebellion: The disorder and the possibility of destruction. However, he was able to remember that the alternative to rebellion is often tyranny. Rebellion is not the natural state of human affairs. People don’t have an inherent urge to defy people in power. On the contrary, most people prefer to get along and not cause trouble.
Rebellion does not just happen. Rebellion is provoked. It is important to remember that, as, Frederick Douglass explained, “The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.”
Frederick Douglass on Rebellion
