Philosopher, writer, idealist, Henry David Thoreau believed and openly expressed his opinion on many different controversial issues. He advocated for the movement of transcendentalism and believed in the redistribution of power in America. In his published essay, Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau claims that American citizens should not conform to a government that they do not support. Throughout the essay he goes on to list a number of faults in the United States government and leaves readers with this thought: the only reason the people in power have the abilities and positions they do is because of the people who elect them, so why do we as a society keep giving them that right? Even though Thoreau lived two-hundred years ago, the values he imposed on the society he lived in are not lost on ours today.
Thoreau was passionate about his beliefs. He lived during the mid 1800s, a time period where slavery was still very prominent in the south. Slavery was something he resented. Thoreau was also openly against the Mexican war. He opposed it so strongly that he refused to pay taxes in protest and therefore was arrested and spent the night in jail. That kind of passion is not lost on today’s society. Four years ago, a group of about one-hundred gathered in Westborough, Massachusetts to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. In the 2013 article written about this protest, Thoreau’s Radical Moment - And Ours, it states that twenty-five activists were arrested during a peaceful protest of the pipeline. These civilians felt so strongly about protesting the pipeline they willing went to jail in support of it. However, most felt their arrest unreasonable because due their protest was done in a peaceful manner. Nevertheless, they stood by their decision to protest, just like Henry David Thoreau did. He talks about how jail did not break his spirit, it only made him stronger. In fact, he felt so confident that he actually says he began to pity the government because they could not break him emotionally. He writes "I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to break through, before they could get to be as free as I was.”
In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau writes about how the government takes too many precautions in attempt to keep the American public safe and in result they are invading peoples privacies. He dreams of a government that does not have to intrude upon peoples lives in order to do there job. Many Americans firmly believe that the government oversteps its boundaries when it comes to personal privacy. In the article Nowhere to Hide: The Government's Massive Intrusion Into Our Lives author Christopher Calabrese writes about how the government has been using AT&T’s phones records to catch people selling illegal drugs. So how far is too far? Are we as citizens okay with allowing the government to search through our personal phone records because they say it is justified. Calabrese claims that the government is violating our privacy, and as a society, we’re letting them continue the violation without consequence. What Calabrese writes about are some of the philosophies Thoreau believed in. He thought that the government deprived its citizens of their civil rights by keeping the power away from the majority. He believed that the government holds the most power and therefore are the strongest group, however, that does not necessarily mean they hold the most diplomatic viewpoint - which is what Christopher Calabrese was describing in his article when he talks about how the public’s relationship with the government has “come to resemble a one-way mirror.” They control all the power. The taxpayers can do nothing to stop them except refuse to conform.
Thoreau’s methods have been called unorthodox, extreme, and just down right crazy, so why have his legend and writings lived on long past his death? Even though Thoreau was sometimes irrational he still knew that there is a need for government. He never wanted anarchy in America because he knew it would not be better than the democratic system we have today. He knew dismembering the government was not realistic, he just wanted a better one. Thoreau brings up the idea that citizens have a civil duty to abstain from blindly conforming to a corrupt government. People should recognize unjust situations in the world. Thoreau believed that civilians are not required to eliminate evil, but to disassociate from those evils. To Thoreau, the government was that evil.
Thoreau concludes his essay by saying that he has very little faith in most of the people in America. Real “men” do not support a government that they do not believe in. He backs up his claim by understanding that the imperfect nature of government causes people to relate to this idea. Everyone has problems with their government because no system is perfect. Too much respect for the law creates an opportunity for people to forget their morals in order to obey, so Thoreau asks the question “How should Americans act toward their government?” The answer? Disassociate all together.
