Civil Disobedience

Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience is a piece that denounces the role of government and promotes the individuality of man. He argues that government rarely proves itself to be useful, and that anything achieved under the influence of that government could have been even greater had the system not been involved, evident in paragraph 2, “Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.” (Thoreau, lines 12-16) He states that the American government derives its power from the majority, not the strongest group, and not necessarily the most moral. Thoreau wants us to believe that we the people should follow what we think to be ethically just, not what the government and the majority force upon us. In my opinion, I agree with Thoreau in the aspect that we need a more improved form of government, however I disagree with the type of government that Thoreau wishes for. He believes we work better without restraint and that we must command our individual respect, but I heartily argue the opposite; a society must have order and an infrastructure, we need a system to oversee the problems that we cannot solve as humans with individual mindsets. I do not believe that the government should have the right to pry into our lives without solid evidence, but I do believe that we need a fair and balanced administration that is required to look after its’ peoples’ well being.

Thoreau stresses individuality throughout his writing. “Let ...

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... what you can do for your country.” (Kennedy, 1961) I believe that this statement, spoken by President John F. Kennedy during his Inaugural Address, is what the American life is meant to be. We should not focus our lives so vigorously on gaining benefits from our country, but instead we should work to provide for our nation and for its proud citizens. We are all individuals, and we all have our own beliefs and talents; the government is in place to represent our interests and our vision for America, so in order for us to achieve our goals, we need to devote our time to our country. Socrates was right when he said that as citizens we should obey the government, and if we do not agree, then we should work to make change happen for the better. But his strong word choice, ‘must’, implies that under no circumstances should we have to disagree with the way things are run.