Is Rebellion Always Righteous?

Rebellion has happened throughout history, often for good. Think of the fight against slavery, women's suffrage, and the civil rights movements. It is a group of people rising up against something which they believe is wrong. Standing up for what you believe in can be viewed as admirable and necessary, whatever the cost.

But what happens when rebels stand up for something which isn’t good? Or, with a more complicated twist, stand up for something good but end up becoming everything they fought against? Take the French Revolution, designed to liberate and make things more equal, but years later thousands were executed, often on suspicion alone. Because when tearing down a society, rebuilding one comes with its own set of challenges, and when you’re in the mindset that you’re undoubtedly the ‘good guys’, the outcomes might not be morally aligned.

Let's take another example: Guy Fawkes. In England, Guy Fawkes is well known for attempting to blow up Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot. The King was targeted because the rebels believed that he was leading with the wrong religion. Had he succeeded, he would have killed the King, politicians, and many innocent servants and staff in the building at the time.

Guy is so well known in England that, four hundred years later, every November the nation puts on large bonfires and fireworks, and will often burn a dummy known as a Guy to commemorate his failure. The irony is that we’ve forgotten which King it was, and most of us couldn’t tell you what the religious implications were, and yet Guy lives on since 1605. Had he succeeded, there was no plan. Like the French Revolution, a new society would have to be born.

So was this righteous? The circumstances behind the plot feel distant to us now. Monarchs no longer hold the same power, and religion doesn't shape British politics in the way it did in 1605. But would sacrificing other lives to remove one ever be acceptable? In my opinion, no. But there are likely others who would disagree.

In conclusion, some rebellions have been necessary to change unjust ways, to get voices heard, overcome suffering. But is rebellion always righteous? Absolutely not.