Civil Disobedience

Thoreau honestly thinks that the United States government is garabage and it goes against just about everything he believes in. His writing style sort of reminds me of the rationalism style. He has very strong opinions and truely believes that he is correct. He also has specific examples to prove his points. Such as saying that not everyone voices get to be heard. Just the majority is heard and to him that means the most thoughtful people do not have an input of what happens in the country. I believe that all he wants is peace and freedom. He wants the United States to be a place where people make the decisions on their own based on what they know is right and wrong. "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." (Thoreau) In his eyes the government was making all wrong decisions and treating people completely unjustly. You can tell Thoreau's writing completely follows the Transcendentalism style of writing. He believes in morality and individual intuition. He surely was an individual, standing up against such a government would be a hard thing to do. He does not agree with this system we have so he just decides not to follow it. He does not pay a tax as a way of protesting the government and the Mexican and ends up spending the night in a jail. While making his decision he knows he was going to War end up in prison. How could he not? He just believes strong in what he thinks is right. He decides to get rid of the government in his life "washing his hands" clean of it he says. He believed the government was "impure." In other terms he thought they were stupid jerks. Thoreau not only opposed war but he also was against slavery. His ideas of how the government should be is pretty far fetched. It would just never work out. " Thoreau reminded his fellow Americans that people, not the government which people created, must be held responsible for the good and bad in America: "the government itself never furthered any enterprise. . . . It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way." (Wayne) Thoreau means that people have all the deaths and suffering of the slaves and people in the war on their shoulders. The people decide what is going on in the country. Therefore, it is their fault for whatever happens to the people. Thoreau does not want to have the guilt of making the people suffer. All he wants is a peaceful country that lives on good moral values where people make their decisions based on their conscious.

"Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012

Wayne, Tiffany K. "'Civil Disobedience'." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc