On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Essay -- Papers Henry David Thoreau

On the Duty of Civil DisobedienceIn a concise essay, Thoreau proffers a challenge to all men, not to wreak a respect for the law, so much as for the right. Over and over, almost redundantly, Thoreau stresses simplicity and individualism, as most transcendentalists (the new philosophical and literary movement of Thoreaus time) did. Thoreau clear states, in his On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, that the government is unjust and doesnt represent the get out of the people, that one man cant change the government, and that people succumb unconsciously to the will of the government. The first of these is a ridiculous notion the second contradicted and supported alternately throughout the essay so that one cannot be sure of what they agree or disagree with while knowledge it because it always contradicts itself in the following paragraph and the last, a well-thought-out and legitimate concept.Thoreau believed that That government is best that governs least, (222) but his harsh feelings stemmed from his hate of the government and its motivations at that time. He thought that everything the administration did was wrong their head-turn at the treatment of slaves, their land-grabbing war with Mexico, and the taxes that Thoreau himself was imprisoned for refusing to pay. Even the basic system of government was foul and biased to him. He thought that the majority system was unjust, when the exponent is in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted to rule, not because they are most in all likelihood to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest, (231) but what else can there be in a non-monarchical government? He shoots down the holy American gover... ...ch is a profoundly admirable position. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience is an opinionated yet sincere treatise on the efficaciousness and assumed power of the United States democratic government. The three main points proposed in this discourse vary in sensiblity from tangible to impalpable. Unfortunately, it is a very difficult and, for some, uninteresting and exasperating reading because in many parts of his essay, Thoreau, through ramblings and descriptions, unwittingly contradicts himself many times. Because of this, he is, by many, disregarded as a great philosopher and considered a hypocrite, and one has to take care deep to discover the real meaning behind his grand words and complex sentences.Works Citedi Henry David Thoreau - Civil Disobedience from A sphere of Ideas - Essential Readings for College Readers, Lee A. Jacobus, Bedford Books, 2008, 1849