Just like Rosa Parks as a citizen refused to give up her bus seat due to her skin color and how Martin Luther King Junior lead protests and marches that advocate for civil rights, all these events caused social change through civil disobedience acts.
He advocates for the need of prioritizing your personal ethics and values over the dictated laws by the government.Īs Thoreau, I believe that civil disobedience is acceptable since it is our duty as citizens to stand up and accept only what we believe in (Thoreau, 1849). He also ensures that a responsible man does not avoid punishment or prison for his mistakes but instead he breaks the law and gets imprisoned for breaking the law that supports unjust decisions or actions by the government. Thoreau believes in three types of men in every country, those who serve with their body such as soldiers and martyrs, those who serve with their brains and heads, and finally those who serve with their conscious which is the best way to serve because they do with their mind and are aware of the injustice acts and stand against it (Thoreau, 1849). Citizens can express and protest against their government will for war by refusing to pay taxes the same way soldiers refuse to fight an unjust war. He also believes that people that are against the war in Mexico but pay taxes are part of this injustice and have a hand in the war but instead they should boycott the taxes that the government has put. According to Thoreau, this is an oppressed and corrupted act by the government since a moral will was imposed on all citizens whether they are with or against it. The Mexican war was created by eminent individuals that have manipulated the government to their benefit against the citizens’ will. He also sees that there is a moral difference between practicing injustice and failing to prevent injustice explained by the Mexican war.
This justifies the moral need for civil disobedience because the government has no right to impose on the citizens’ laws that are against their principles, beliefs, morals and values. Thoreau opens his essay with “that government is best which governs least” believing that government should be an expedient for the citizens to reach their needs and rights and the minimum number of governments means the most freedom.
0 kommentar(er)
