Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)

While I disagree with Thoreau mostly from his structural beliefs, I do think that he does possess some virtuous qualities. To be fair, however, the context and time period when Thoreau was writing was different than it is today. What I found most enjoyable about his essay, was his notion that if we thought that a law was unjust instead of using the political process and accepting the law until it was changed we must show the law no respect and intentionally break it. To an extent I can agree with this idea. Because why if we thought a law was unjust follow it; to do so sounds absurd. However, he leaves some questions unanswered like: what is just and unjust? But that’s a different topic which could be discussed for days on ends and has been discussed by different theorists throughout history. Thoreau goes too far though in saying if people think a law is unjust to withdraw their support for the government in question. I agree with him the essence that if you think a law is unjust you should not follow it, you can break that law, but to say withdrawal from a government is too outlandish for me. If that was the norm, I believe that it would lead to anarchy.

My perspective of the world comes from both Thomas Hobbes in his essay the Leviathan and John Locke and his view of human nature in his essay The Two Treaties of Government; essentially I believe that anarchy – or the state of nature – will only lead to a perpetual state of war. Because of this perspective, Thoreau and I are obligated to be on opposite sides. For Thoreau is promoting the dissolution of government, the taking back of liberties and sovereignty, and a state of anarchy. For Thoreau, governments are agents of injustice and oppression; and that even majority rule is inferior to his belief in a just world. On these issues I vehemently disagree. For simplicity, I will just say that I see governments as a first step towards a perpetual peace and that without governments (and more specifically democracies) this world would be more unjust than the world we have right now. The lack of democratic governments will only breed distrust and violence.