Thoreau and Civil Disobedience

Thoreau and Civil Disobedience

Introduction

"All men recognize the right of revolution, that is to say the right to refuse loyalty and allegiance to the government and the right to resist when its tyranny and its inefficiency are great and unendurable." In 1846, the American writer Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay his taxes for six years. The State of Massachusetts endorses slavery, finance, supports and participates in the war in Mexico. Totally disagree with this government, Thoreau goes to the end of his ideas, objects and chooses to say "no" by a logical act (he refuses to fund the policy of the State in which he lives as it is disagree with this policy there) and non-violent (it does not take up arms and pays no blood). Based on this experience, he develops and provides a foundation for innovative concept "civil disobedience". "Civil Disobedience," published for the first time in 1849, is an attempt to present and resonances that inspired, among others, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. 160 years later Thoreau wrote this is still an incredible accuracy and relevance rare (Bloom & Hobby, 2010).

Henry David Thoreau

The expression of civil disobedience was the American Henry David Thoreau in his essay Civil Disobedience characterized, in which he explained why he made protest against the war with Mexico and slavery no taxes paid more. Thoreau did not deal directly with civil disobedience, but with the moral conflict, which he regarded as citizens, voters and taxpayers had discharge. Military service in war and the payment of taxes for Thoreau represent cases in which a citizen of the State on grounds of conscience to obey can refuse.

Based on the view that governments are artificial creations that have the purpose to serve the interests of the people, his ideas ...