Civil Rights Violation Essay

641 Words3 Pages

Life, liberty, and property, the natural rights of every human that no other should violate without facing punishment for the gross infringement upon the basic unit of civilization: the individual. No violation of these rights, by either the individual or the state should ever be taken as "necessary," or any amount tolerated. Either a right is violated or it is not, there is not such thing as semi- or quasi- violation of a natural right. But what if it is the state, the law-making power, that has violated these rights? In the case that the state violates these rights, it is not only positively impact a free society but is completely necessary for a free society. If a law is unjust in the only sense that injustice can be measured, natural …show more content…

Now the people as a whole can choose whether they wish to live in a free society or not, but if a country, such as the United States, was founded upon the institution of freedom for the individual and a voluntary society, then the people should wish to maintain this freedom. Throughout history, some Americans have striven to maintain this freedom while others have done much to hinder it. In a voluntary and free society, the individuals consent is necessary in order to perform any action with that individual. Henry David Thoreau provides an example of this. He saw the Mexican-American War as a gross injustice against humanity and a war fought not for someone violating the safety of our own country but an offensive campaign. For Thoreau, to be offensive is to be interventionist and interventionism is the violation of one's natural rights for there is no consent thus a free society has been violated and no longer free. This is why he refused to pay taxes in order to fuel a war he saw as interventionist. This action though landed him in jail, but Thoreau did not care. He lived his life based on principle, and he saw consistency in his principle the essence to an honest man. "That's nice and easy for someone long ago," someone now may say, "but today it is impossible, if we want a stable society, we need to