Introduction to “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau and how his ideas still change the world!

Henry David Thoreau “thorough” not “thu-ROW” "looking through the stars to see if I could see God behind them.“ Admired Ralph Waldo Emerson “Civil Disobedience”; “Walden”

Thoreau’s Night in Jail “ Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” --Henry David Thoreau

“Civil Disobedience” is an essay by Henry David Thoreau that was first published in It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War. “That government is best which governs least.”

From “Civil Disobedience” “…it is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and... not to give it practically his support."

“An unjust law is no law at all.” Antigone

Mohandas Gandhi “Thoreau was a great writer, philosopher, poet, and withal a most practical man, that is, he taught nothing he was not prepared to practice in himself. He was one of the greatest and most moral men America has produced. At the time of the abolition of slavery movement, he wrote his famous essay ‘On the Duty of Civil Disobedience’ He went to jail for the sake of his principles and suffering humanity. His essay has, therefore, been sanctified by suffering. Moreover, it is written for all time. Its incisive logic is unanswerable.”

Rosa Parks and Tibetan Monks “Civil disobedience - the deliberate violation of a law for a social purpose. To violate a law for individual gain, for a private purpose, is an ordinary criminal act; it is not civil disobedience.” --Howard Zinn

Martin Luther King Jr. “During my student days I read Henry David Thoreau’s essay On Civil Disobedience for the first time. Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery’s territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times.”

Letter from Birmingham Jail “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

Nelson Mandela “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people, I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if it needs be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Where do you see civil disobedience today? “..if the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go…perchance it will wear smooth – certainly the machine will wear out. If it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.”

The Three Questions: Things to think about as you read Who is ultimately more important; the individual, the citizens as a whole, or the government? Can we reach the government that Thoreau advocates? Under what circumstances should conscience outweigh the law?

Directions for CD This is a very helpful website that has parts of the document annotated. There is also a link on my website under Transcendentalism and Civil Disobedience. Directions: For Thursday: Read, annotate, and understand pages 1-4. As you read, annotate pages 1-4, writing down your observations and noting specific quotations with pages numbers. You will want to use a page for each of The Three Questions. These questions will not only keep you more focused while reading a rather dense document, but will also be the basis of a short answer question in which you are required to use quotations. For Monday: Do the same for pages 5-8. Add to your notes for The Three Questions.

Jot down a few ideas in response to each statement: Thoreau was correct in maintaining the idea that the individual supersedes the government  It is possible to reach the kind of government Thoreau advocates.  One’s conscious and moral compass justifies a violation of the law.

4 Corners: “Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.” --Thoreau

Thoreau was correct in maintaining the idea that the individual supersedes the government

Thoreau was right to refuse to pay taxes for the goods/services for which he did not believe in or use.

It is possible to reach the kind of government Thoreau advocates.

One’s conscious and moral compass justifies a violation of the law.