This essay discusses the assumption, made in the Crito, that "one should never do wrong in return" within the context of civil disobedience.

The topic I have chosen to discuss is as follows: Examine the assumption, made in the Crito, that "one should never do wrong in return, nor injure any person, whatever injury one has suffered at his hands" within the context of civil disobedience. I will show how civil disobedience must incorporate pointing out the weaknesses of society, while showing respect for the rest of society and its authorities. Civil disobedience is disobeying the unjust rules …

…that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself." To justify his breaking of certain laws, he says "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" and he quotes St. Augustine, saying "an unjust law is no law at all." This sets him up to break only certain laws in order to create tension in the minds of those believing in other ways of thought, namely segregationalists.