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Examples Of Civil Disobedience

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Peaceful resistance is a practice followed by many great leaders throughout the world. Such an example as Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King and Thomas Jefferson. Regardless of if these men experienced peaceful or violent disobedience, all of these men experienced civil disobedience in one way or another. I believe that peaceful resistance to the laws positively impacts a "free" society. I first would like to introduce the definition of the word "freedom", "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint." The United States of America includes the phrase "liberty and justice for all" in its pledge. The Pledge of Allegiance was originally composed by Colonel George Balch in August 1887, later revised …show more content…

One of Thoreau's most famous quotes came from this story, he stated: "The government is best which governs not at all." Also remember this as the moral of this entire essay. In Thoreau's story he wrote "It is not a man's job to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong...but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support." I agree with this as it pertains to the era in which Thoreau is currently subscribing to; slavery. Thoreau claims that he "has paid no poll-tax for six years." As many know this is a crime. Thus, he must be punished by being thrown in jail where, he states "if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was." This topic of being free as possible in prison is important to positively influencing a "free" society. Breaking the "norms" and standing up for what you believe in without harassment is the definition of freedom. Comparatively, when Thoreau chooses freely not to pay his taxes he is institutionalized and his freedom is stripped. So, how can one paint America a "free" society when it captures freedom? Civil disobedience is necessary to bring light to this

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540 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the writing “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau spoke often of the idea he supported, which was “That government is best which governs least;” In his text he talked about not paying the government’s poll tax for 6 years, causing him to be thrown in jail. A poll tax is a tax of an equal amount of money for each individual paying it. This poll tax was for waging war on Mexico, which Thoreau disagreed with, therefore he did not pay it. When talking about his time in jail, Thoreau used many different rhetorical strategies, including an intense appeal to Pathos, as well as major uses of imagery and symbolism in order to achieve his purpose of persuading his audience that the best type of government is one one of laissez-faire.

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1995 Words | 8 Pages

Thoreau gives examples of slavery practice and the Mexican-American war to establish his point further. He asserts that the government itself becomes an obstacle between achieving its purpose, the purpose for which it was created. However, Thoreau makes it clear that he is against abolishing the government,

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1439 Words | 6 Pages

Thoreau was imprisoned for his violation. Being in prison to him seemed like a useless punishment because the State, the real danger, “did not know its friends from foes” (Thoreau, Paragraph 26) Thoreau makes a point to mention that it is not because he is against any particular item on the bill but he refuses taxes because he wishes “to refuse allegiance to the State” (Thoreau, Paragraph 35) This is his version of a peaceful protest because trying to make change with a vote will do nothing. One of his main problems made him share a common motive with Turner and Douglass, he did not believe in slavery. This piece is the most powerful approach of all reviewed through the semester.

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943 Words | 4 Pages

Thoreau and Steinbeck’s Ideals for Government Since the beginning of early societies, people have evaluated the written rights in which the government provides its people, and the unwritten rules that keep many from living freely. Henry David Thoreau, in his essay, “Civil Disobedience”, discusses the importance of protecting one’s rights and using those rights to protest the government for its discrepancies. John Steinbeck, in his novel, Grapes of Wrath, presents a similar argument in Chapter 17, through the story of a community of families with a set system of governing.

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897 Words | 4 Pages

Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience heavily criticizes the government for being too corrupt and also argues that the people have the right to refuse allegiance to the State. Because the government is unjust and corrupt, Thoreau calls for a change in how the government operates rather than abolishing the government entirely. Thoreau’s idea of a better government is a government that governs the least. This claim is elaborated as Thoreau states in his essay that the individuals with consciences should rule instead of the government officials that lack said consciences. For example, in part 1 paragraph 4, he mocks individuals such as soldiers and privates for showing respect to the government through marching admirably because they are going

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791 Words | 4 Pages

Thoreau’s essay focuses on his belief that the individual has the right and the duty to protest unjust laws or an unjust government. He even spent the night in jail because he refused to pay the poll tax in order to protest the Mexican American War. Thoreau’s night in jail was the inspiration for his reasoning that “There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are deviated, and treats him accordingly.” (Thoreau 1872). He believed in the power of the individual as an essential part of the State and that “a single man can bend [the government] to his will.”

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102 Words | 1 Pages

Abraham Lincoln deserved to be called the first statesman of America, because he really represented the saying that there are no rules in war. The constitution is the force of any country. However, with U.S during Lincoln’s administration it was the other way around as the historian George D. Fletcher says in his Our Secret Constitution that the country’s central constitutional event, the event from which it received its present meaning, is not the original founding but the civil war i.e. Lincoln took the task of a carpenter to reinterpret the Declaration of Independence and the constitution. He continues that civil

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505 Words | 3 Pages

A peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society showing that information will always and forever be free to everyone and that civil disobedience can set people free in a just nation. In this current age, information always seems to be locked away from the populace. In other words, the populace only gets to know what is deemed safe and secure by the federal government. For civilians who want to know more they get shooed away.

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1097 Words | 5 Pages

Thoreau uses an aggressive and assertive tone to call his readers to action. He starts his essay by attacking the government and criticizing many of its policies. He declares, “That government is best which governs not at all” (WOI, 305). He goes on to write, “yet this government never of itself furthered… has not sometimes got in its way” (WOI, 306). Thoreau perceives the government as being useless.

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1005 Words | 5 Pages

Today we are all called to enact on our own civil disobedience when we are faced with injustice and unfair laws, we are called to make a stand and a declaration to stand up for what we believe

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141 Words | 1 Pages

Civil disobedience is the refusal of something in a friendly manner. Politically, America is in a rough situation. America as a whole is slowly separating as a nation. For instance, African-Americans believe they are experiencing prejudice from “white” people. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana there a revolt organized by the infamous “Black Lives Matter” organization.

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673 Words | 3 Pages

The individual's relationship to the state is a concept often entertained abstractly; at variance with this is Civil Disobedience, which analyzes Thoreau's first direct experience with state power in his brief 1846 imprisonment. Thoreau metaphorically detailed his search for virtue in the quote, "The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly." (Thoreau 8) In Civil Disobedience Thoreau as earnest seeker and flawed captive of the conscience concertedly attempts to correct this shortcoming within the context of slavery and the Mexican-American War.

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404 Words | 2 Pages

Thoreau criticizes American social institutions, preaching to Americans the unjustness of the government. Not only does Thoreau expose Americans to the unjust actions of the government but asks what Americans are willing to do to change the unjustness happening. By not paying taxes, Thoreau expresses his civil disobedience. He chooses to break the law because he prioritizes his conscious over society’s rules. Thoreau expects people to also make the choice he makes of civil

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704 Words | 3 Pages

At the moment that I am writing this essay, already CNN, ABC7, and other news stations are broadcasting several protests going on across the country. While most of these protests seem like they're not doing much other than standing and yelling, they're actually performing one of the most powerful tools a citizen can use in a time of crisis: Civil Disobedience. This form of disobedience has not only been used in today’s recent protests, but has been a strong form of protests for the past several decades. In Martin Luther King’s freedom marches, women’s marches, today’s marches against seemingly unfair bills and legislation, civil disobedience is used by the American people every day, and is used to help positively affect our free society.

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724 Words | 3 Pages

Despite the historical acceptance of civil disobedience, there is no universally accepted definition. For this argument, we will adopt a concept of civil disobedience that is characterized by a specific set of criteria; the act must be “nonviolent, open and visible, illegal, and done with the moral purpose to protest an unjust law” ( ). In this way, “mere dissent”, “protest”, or “disobedience” for the law does not qualify. A proponent for civil disobedience would suggest that there are situations in which this form of protest is necessary for society; however, there are many opponents of it who claim that it is unjustified. Ancient philosophers, like Socrates, believed that there could be no moral justification for civil disobedience.

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