Mandela accomplished what he set out to, but it basically took him his whole life to do it. And what happens if the people with his level of dedication are executed rather than imprisoned?
Often what has happened is that more come forward to take the martyrs place. Mandela wasn't the first to be imprisoned or killed for his cause. To stop this sort of behaviour you have to go on massive killing sprees to cow the population. That kind of behaviour hasn't been feasible in the West for several centuries, which is why our empires have crumbled and full citizenship rights are pretty much universal.
It works when people take part on a mass scale.
And did I ever deny that? I just pointed out that civil disobedience has rarely just been about people getting a slap on the wrist. In fact when the penalty is just a slap on the wrist it is really hard to get laws thrown out, in those cases the government just tends to stop bothering to enforce the law.
There are undeniably non-frivolous causes worth taking action over that aren't worth going to prison over.
Again, did I ever deny that? What I said/implied was that if a cause isn't worth going to prison for IT ISN'T WORTH COMMITTING AN OFFENCE FOR.
Going to prison for a few years isn't a big deal if it gets "your people" the same rights as the privileged class, or gets rid of a massively unjust law. So why the hell are you trying to make it seem like civil disobedience can't happen with the threat of a few years jail? In fact considering how you have escalated the penalty every time your argument has been demolished I think you are just wedded to the idea that civil disobedience is impossible these days despite all evidence to the contrary.
Hell, your whole attitude is so negative about the possibility of civil disobedience that you may as well be arguing for the status quo.
P.S. People are dying in Syria and Libya right now committing mass acts of civil disobedience. People died in Tunisia and Egypt doing the same things.
P.P.S. Plenty of activists have continued to influence the debate and run entire political parties while imprisoned.