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Civil Disobedience

Civil Disobedience. Henry David Thoreau. Mexican War. The war was an evil comparable to slavery Annexation of Texas was bad because it allowed the expansion of slavery Thoreau was upset that people supported the war through paying taxes.

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Civil Disobedience

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  1. Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau

  2. Mexican War • The war was an evil comparable to slavery • Annexation of Texas was bad because it allowed the expansion of slavery • Thoreau was upset that people supported the war through paying taxes

  3. "Civil Disobedience" is an analysis of the individual’s relationship to the state that focuses on why men obey governmental law even when they believe it to be unjust. • The only political duty of a man is to correct any injustices he directly causes and to deny his cooperation to other injustices.

  4. Reasons • It is an extremely personal response to being imprisoned for breaking the law. • Because he detested slavery and because tax revenues contributed to the support of it, Thoreau decided to become a tax rebel. • There were no income taxes and Thoreau did not own enough land to worry about property taxes; but there was the hated poll tax – a capital tax levied equally on all adults within a community. • Thoreau declined to pay the tax and so, in July 1846, he was arrested and jailed. He was supposed to remain in jail until a fine was paid which he also declined to pay. • Without his knowledge or consent, however, relatives settled the “debt” and a disgruntled Thoreau was released after only one night. The incarceration may have been brief but it has had enduring effects through "Civil Disobedience."

  5. He wanted to translate his thoughts into action. • The individual is the final judge of right and wrong • Since individuals act, only individuals can act unjustly- a person can decided to do an unjust act/deed • Government only really expresses the will of the elite, thus the will of the people is abused

  6. Thoreau’s Ideas Work • Gandhi • Martin Luther King • 1940s Danish resistance • 1950s opposition to McCarthyism • 1960s anti apartheid movement in S. Africa • 1970s anti war movement

  7. "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 went to goal 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." - Mohandas Gandhi

  8. "I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest." - Martin Luther King, Jr, Autobiography

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