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

On the Duty of well-behaved DisobedienceIn a concise essay, Thoreau proffers a challenge to all men, not to aim a respect for the law, so much as for the right. Over and over, closely redundantly, Thoreau stresses simplicity and individualism, as most transcendentalists (the new philosophical and literary figurehead of Thoreaus time) did. Thoreau clearly states, in his On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, that the government is foul and doesnt represent the will of the people, that one man cant change the government, and that people soften unconsciously to the will of the government. The first of these is a ridiculous notion the atomic number 42 contradicted and supported alternately throughout the essay so that one cannot be sure of what they agree or disagree with while reading 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 surmount that governs least, (222) b ut his harsh feelings stemmed from his dislike 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 jug for refusing to pay. Even the basic system of government was unfair and biased to him. He thought that the majority system was unjust, when the power is in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted to rule, not because they are most likely 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 on that point be in a non-monarchical government? He shoots down the wide-cut American gover... ...ch is a profoundly admirable position. On the Duty of Civil Disobedience is an opinionated yet sincere treatise on the efficaciousness and mistaken power of the United States democratic government. The three main points proposed in this treatment vary in sensiblity from tangible to impalpable. Unfortunately, it is a very difficult and, for some, soporific 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 massive philosopher and considered a hypocrite, and one has to look deep to discover the real nub behind his grand words and complex sentences.Works Citedi henry David Thoreau - Civil Disobedience from A World of Ideas - Essential Readings for College Readers, Lee A. Jacobus, Bedford Books, 2008, 1849