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Thoreau civil disobedience and civil rights
Thoreau civil disobedience and civil rights
Thoreau civil disobedience and civil rights
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In the first two paragraphs Thoreau is using local reasoning, he is giving facts about events that have happened in our history to help build our government to how it is today. He then goes into ethical reasoning. He is trying to explain to people that we need a better government, one that does less in personal affairs and gives everyone the chances that they deserve. “Government is best which governs least.” He is placing his own thoughts out on the page, so people see where he is standing with the government. Thoreau is using what people think about the government to help aid him in his letter. He knows that not everyone is happy with how the government is currently working, and he uses this to his advantage. Martin Luther King Jr. Seemed to use logical reasoning, …show more content…
He switches easily to the ethical reasoning, he claims that the oppression of Negroes - instead of saying colored persons - has been forced on them for so long, that he knows that they won't put up with it for any longer. He says ‘It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.’ He wants to show all of the people reading his letter, that it could have been any city that he decided to speak out too, but because of the oppression they had been going through, the colored people in the Birmingham community spoke out for themselves. By the end of the letter, Luther seems to almost be begging for people to understand that colored people have the right to be living freely in our country. ‘I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith.’ Luther is trying to play on people's emotions by making it seem as if he is thinking about all of their lives. Luther was easily able to demonstrate all three of the reasonings listed. Both Luther and Thoreau were using more than one way of reasoning, which I think helped get their
Though Henry David Thoreau lived more than one hundred years before the time of Martin Luther King Jr., his philosophy lingered in the minds of many individuals. Thoreau was opposed to injustice in general and refused to support or to follow the unjust laws. His idealism and anarchism influenced the thinking of King. Douglass' narrative shows how his thinking would have been similar to that of Thoreau's.
"There is a higher law than civil law- the law of conscience- and that when these laws are in conflict, it is a citizen's duty to obey the voice of God within rather than that of the civil authority without," (Harding 207). As Harding described in his brief explanation of Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, there are some instances in which it is necessary to disobey a social law. Martin Luther King, Jr., in addition to Thoreau, reasoned that should a civil law be judged unjust, one had a moral obligation not only to himself but also to those around him to disregard that particular law in exchange for a higher one voiced by God.
In Henry Thoreau’s essay, Resistance to Civil Government, the harmless actions he takes to rebel against the government are considered acts of civil disobedience. He talks about how the government acts wrongful such as, slavery and the Mexican-American war. This writing persuades Nathaniel Heatwole, a twenty-year-old college student studying at Guildford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, to take matters into his own hands, by smuggling illegal items on multiple Southwest airplanes. The reason in that being, is to show the people that our nation is unsafe and dangerous. In doing this, he takes his rebellion one step too far, by not only jeopardizing his life, but as well as many other innocent lives.
Comparing Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and Martin Luther King's Letter From a Birmingham Jail. The two essays, "Civil Disobedience," by Henry David Thoreau, and "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," by Martin Luther King, Jr., effectively illustrate the authors' opinions of justice. Each author has his main point; Thoreau, in dealing with justice as it relates to government, asks for "not at once no government, but at once a better government. King contends that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
on ways to be civil but disobedient, they have opposite ways of convicing you. Dr.
Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", was written to answer a critical "Call For Unity" by a group of clergymen in Birmingham. The clergymen were critical of King for "interloping" in the activities of their city. Dr. King said that he had every right to fight unfairness in the country that he lived in. The letter he wrote, in response to the "Call for Unity", and a statement that he would battle racial inequality wherever it was. The "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was the main point in his life. In this letter, he perfectly described his reasons why he felt this way, appealing to logic, emotion, and ethics.
Without any government intervention, the state would be in shambles with no regulations on food, drugs, or the workforce. As for government based on conscience, Thoreau’s argument falls flat when he fails to recognize that majority rule is the only fair rule. Thoreau needed to learn that when friction takes over a machine, the machine is to be fixed, not thrown away. Evidently, Henry David Thoreau’s argument against organized government in America is much too flawed to be
Martin Luther King Jr. is known for his use of religion to justify actions, with this letter as a prime example. He believes that the morality of laws should be put into question to see if they are just, where the measurement of morality comes from an inner scale that is balanced by religion. Martin Luther King Jr. was a revolutionary, inciting nonviolent change in America through government protests, not conforming to the rules and norms has set for him to accept his poor condition in life. He says, “...segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.” Therefore, he believes that the government’s rule is not legitimate unless it follows his perception of what is just, which is fueled by religious beliefs. This causes independent action because he senses a problem in life, and feels like he must serve a greater purpose to be able to solve
When you look at today’s government, it is viewed that everyone will be treated equally and decisions will be made in the best interest of the people. But when thinking about the government of the past, one must ask if these same views were expressed by the people of that time? Did everyone fill that they were apart of a just system? According to Frederick Douglass and Henry David Thoreau the answer to that question is no. The government was unjust because so many followed the wrong doings of the law rather than doing what was right, subjected African Americans to harsher punishments
In his famous essay, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,’’ Martin Luther King, Jr. cites conscience as a guide to obeying just laws and defying unjust laws. In the same way, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” that people should do what their conscience tells them and not obey unjust laws. The positions of the two writers are very close; they use a common theme of conscience, and they use a similar rhetorical appeal of ethos.
When it comes to civil rights, there are two pieces of literature commonly discussed. One of these pieces is Henry David Thoreau’s persuasive lecture On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. In this work, Thoreau discusses how one must combat the government with disobedience of unjust laws and positive friction to create change. The second piece is the commonly known article Letter From a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. This letter covers the ways in which peaceful protest and standing up against injustice can lead to positive results. Both pieces conveyed a similar message of standing up for what is right. The strongest rhetorical methods which Thoreau uses are allusions, logos, ethos and rhetorical questions. However, King’s use of
Though Thoreau 's basis was more along the lines of environmentalism he was quite the political man in his essay Civil Disobedience. Thoreau 's thoughts on the American government can be seen in the first few paragraphs
Thoreau was against the The Mexican American War and the act of Slavery in our society and was very skeptical towards the U.S government regarding these issues. The U.S government did more to harm the citizens of America more than it did to protect them and Thoreau realized that and was not afraid to speak his mind.. The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free” Thoreau is saying that don't just wait for change to come, make the change happen. He stand for what is right regardless of the consequences, therefore, he wanted the citizens of America to be bold enough to do the same.
With the statement, “Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them,” Thoreau is saying that many people in the world, including the United States, are not able to enjoy life because they are too preoccupied with working and earning wealth to buy unnecessary goods. Thoreau believes that men only need four things to survive: fuel, food, shelter, and clothing. However, according to Thoreau, people still strive to obtain more and more unnecessary material goods. To obtain these goods, Thoreau writes, “He has no time to be any thing but a machine,” meaning that men are so busy working to make excessive money that work consumes their entire lives. Thoreau, on the other hand, ignores “factitious cares” such as excessive wealth, furniture, and a large home, in order to enjoy his life and not be forced to live his life as a machine.
If you want to protest laws that you feel are unfair or unreasonable there is a way you can do it in a nonviolent way. You could have a neighborhood meeting at a local community center. You can do this by passing out flyers to people’s homes and you can put them on peoples cars and on that flyer you could explain how the laws are unfair and unreasonable and that we should stand up for these unfair and unreasonable las that are being passed. I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Thoreau is saying that the government is not doing what they are supposed to do and he says this in a calm manner. He also says “That government is best which