The review of Civil Disobedience

The review of Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau is recognized as an essayist, a poet, a naturalist, a philosopher and most importantly a transcendentalist. In July, 1846, Thoreau was put into jail since he refused to pay a poll-tax of $2.00 to a government he thought unjust. Though this event was insignificant enough, it inspired Thoreau to write his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience” which advocating passive resistance to unjust laws of society, influenced people such as Mahatma Gandhi. Through Gandhi, Thoreau’s theory has become a great tool in political activities.

The main topic in this essay is the relations between people and government. According to Thoreau, the inpidual is a higher and independent power than the government and the law. The authority of government is not absolute; it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. Just as he pointed out that, “I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.” Why did Thoreau come up with such an idea? There are two reasons.

Is civil disobedience the same as the right against the law? What is the difference between them? After reading this article, I’ve got an idea that in some sense they are alike. But civil disobedience should be described as the resistance against unjust laws based on conscience. The civil disobedience is a moral right, while the right against the law is one of the basic human rights. Thoreau stresses on the inpidual’s effect, so the civil disobedience is very important. “Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was.” So even one person who fights against the unjust law is in minority, his action may still have a great meaning. The reason for such an action was also revealed by Thoreau in Civil Disobedience. “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? Men, generally think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse.” So generally speaking, the civil disobedience is essential in our lives.