Civil disobedience is fundamentally respectful of the shared project of having a civilization, but only when the protestor gets arrested voluntarily and without sneering at opponents. Instead, one hopes to raise consciousness with a flood of respect and compassion, even for those who disagree.

This bit, I think, bears repeating. Too many people claim to be engaging in 'civil disobedience' without understanding the actual philosophy behind it.

Civil disobedience works like this:

1. You find a law that is unjust (no Indians making salt, no blacks in the front of the bus)

2. You break that law, and that law only (Gandhi used to make the point that if you're going to be a civil disobedient it's important to obey other laws scrupulously, even the ones that others tend to disregard. This means: no more jaywalking. Unless you're a jaywalking civil disobedient.)

3. You get arrested and go along willingly and politely. Always be nice to the policemen whose job it is to arrest you.

4. Seeing you get arrested for breaking that law makes everybody realise that this law is, in fact, unjust, and the law gets changed.