Civil Disobedience

In his essay, “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau presented to citizens everywhere a challenge to act against society and “stop the machine” of injustice. He wrote that America had, “dwindled into…a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful self-reliance,” and that citizens should let their lives become a “counter friction” by acting according to free will…

Civil Disobedience Thoreau was once sent to jail for refusing to pay his taxes and I support this episode of civil disobedience as justified. Thoreau did not pay his taxes because he objected the use of the revenue to finance the Mexican War and enforcement of slavery laws. He did not request for his money…

Philosophers, historians, authors, and politicians have spent centuries pondering the relationship between citizens and their government. It is a question that has as many considerations as there are forms of government and it is rarely answered satisfactorily. A relatively modern theorist, author Henry Thoreau, introduced an idea of man as an individual, rather than a…