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Thoreau And Civil Disobedience

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What Thoreau means by the Civil Disobedience is that every person should be govern more by his own moral compass that gives him much clearer answer to his deeds, rather than some laws of a government. “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think we should be men first, and subjects afterward.” (1) On the first reading of such statement, one can easily agree, but it is unimaginable that it could really work in reality. It would count on every citizen being moral and righteous. Are we really capable of such an honest line of thinking? Is it not in the human nature to try to bend the rules or even go around them? Could we be honest enough to …show more content…

In the eyes of the law, this man is guilty and should be punished. However, is it right for that man to forget about his own conscience and fight in a war he does not see as a just one? Is it right to make him choose between forsaking his wows to the country and his moral responsibility to his conscience? It is my strong belief that even nowadays there are still some unjust laws. The decision than lies in front of every individual, whether to follow the unjust laws, or not. Thoreau would definitely choose the second option and he even urges everyone to follow his example – to be the “counter-friction”, as it fits to his metaphor, where he compares the government to a machine and the injustice as a friction. “For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once done well is done for ever.” …show more content…

It speaks to every individual to look into himself and to think about his deeds as well as about the things he let happened. It is well over a century ago when Thoreau wrote this and many things have changed. On one hand, the question is, if it would be still possible to make a similar stand as Thoreau did. In our time we found a different way to show our revolt. We usually make some small stance to ease up on our conscience, but is it enough just to grab a banner and go into the streets calling out loud? On the other hand, if all of this would be manageable, would it

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