Civil Obedience And Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience

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ivil Disobedience Civil Disobedience occurs when an individual or group of people are in violation of the law rather than a refusal of the system as a whole. There is evidence of civil disobedience dating back to the era after Jesus was born. Jesus followers broke the laws that went against their faith. An example of this is in Acts 4:19-20,”God told the church to preach the gospel, so they defied orders to keep quiet about Jesus,” In my opinion civil disobedience will always be needed in the world. The ability to identify with yourself and knowing right from wrong helps to explain my opinion. Often in society when civil disobedience takes place the weak stands against the strong and do not allow people of authority to force rules, or …show more content…

Thoreau was a very dedicated abolitionist. Majority of his works was for the abolishment of slavery. Thoreau even defended Captain John Brown, who was charged with treason for the uprising against slavery in Virginia. Thoreau expressed his feelings in a way that is still relevant in society today. His most radical work is his writing on “Civil Disobedience” in his essay Thoreau states, “government is best which governs not at all”(1).This powerful statement means that government is too corrupt to lead people in the right way so they need to take a step back and let society govern itself. Thoreau also explains, how without change society itself will always be the government 's machine (6). His statement iterates that government will always have power over people that do not rebel to make change; due to the fact that laws will be followed because people are often ignorant of the situation. Individuals have to understand that society can not just vote for a law and expect chang. Thoreau believed that explains to vote against their government, a simple vote is not enough(Civil Disobedience). People that rebel need to back up their vote with their actions to make a difference in …show more content…

They all believed the ultimate source of the government 's power was the society that gave into their unjust laws. For a law to be unjust according to all the abolitionist it must go against your moral conscience beliefs. To resist these laws they believed in nonviolence a person could simply protest, and boycott but one simply could not pick up a firearm and use it. When people choose to go against the government they believe that they need to stand up and take responsibility. Society will always be affected by civil disobedience, because without it there would not be change in the world. In today’s society we would not even be able to learn about government in school if we did not have civil disobedience because in class the teachers tell their students this information so it will not be repeated. The abolitionist backgrounds are something that they did not have in common Henery was a white male that lived in the United States studying nature. He then was thrown in jail and was pronounced guilty for not paying his taxes leading to his essay on Civil disobedience. Gandhi and Frederick Douglass were of color males Gandhi lived in South Africa and India, while Douglass was a former slave of the United States. However, they both faced hardship and segregation throughout their lives. No matter a person 's background there are always some sort

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