To the editors:
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The most arrogant people in the world are those who are so sure they know better than everyone else that they feel entitled to rule others. The second most arrogant people are those who are so sure they know better than everyone else that they feel entitled to ignore the laws in a nation where the people rule themselves. Based on the profile in the Reader, it appears that Duane Bean is one of the latter.
In a country in which citizens have a substantial voice in making the laws, however, the matter is more complicated. Civil disobedience generally is then justified only (1) by groups unjustly excluded from the political process or (2) as to vital matters on which reasonable, informed people cannot disagree yet on which for some objective reason the process is unable to function. These categories follow from the general principle that people who had a fair chance to take part in making the laws, but who lost, have no right to impose their will on the winners.
