Literary research paper topics and analysis

Thoreau's Resistance To Civil Government

This is a paper discussing the Henry David Thoreau's essay 'Resistance to Civil Government' and arguing that his ideas represent the extreme individualism and anarchist ideology.

The renowned American author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau is considered to be one of the most influential minds in the American thought and literature. Thoreau had not only great influence on American thought but also on the politics of the world, some of his ideas and concepts that he developed were the most original political doctrines devised by American thinker. We appreciate this more, considering the fact that he was an unconventional thinker. At the heart of Thoreau political philosophy was the concept of individualism, he was a supreme individualist and championed the human spirit against materialism and social conformity. His most famous book, "Walden" 1854 is an eloquent account of his experiment in near solitary living in close harmony with nature, it is also an expression of transcendentalist philosophy. One of Thoreau's most important work, the essay "Resistance to Civil Government" which was later published as "Civil Disobedience 1849, grew out of an overnight stay in prison as a result of his conscientious refusal to pay poll tax that supported the Mexican War which to Thoreau represented an effort to extend slavery. Thoreau's advocacy of civil disobedience as a means for the individual to protest those actions of his government that he considers unjust has had a wide-ranging impact.

Thesis Statement

At the heart of Thoreau's philosophy of resistance and civil disobedience is the concept of anarchism. In "Civil Disobedience," Thoreau expressed his belief in the power and the obligation of the individual to determine the right and wrong, independent of any dictates from society and government.

Analysis

Throughout his life, Thoreau emphasized the importance and significance of individuality and self-reliance. The basic philosophy of civil disobedience entails that man must determined the right and wrong, he is capable enough to do that and does not need governments and society to dictate terms or tell me what he should do about matters of politics. According to him man is superior to all laws and principles and if he sees any conflicts in civil laws, or that it is devised to harm other individuals not only may we violate it we must violate it. For him no law civil or any other no matter how well crafted, can never be the final authority because the individual is prior to any laws. The reason for this huge emphasis on individuality and its responsibility to determine the right and the wrong stems from the fact that government which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people van act through it. Further if the government makes an action that is against the will of the people or individuals it automatically becomes illegal. According to Thoreau "That government is best which governs not at all" meaning that governments are unnecessary, they actually just a tradition, the individual is best equipped with reason to determine right and wrong for him [Witherell & Dubrulle 1999]

According to Thoreau the inability to decide for oneself and for the government to dictate terms and decide for an individual means the inability to act in accordance with common sense and their consciences. Because Thoreau believes human nature to be essentially and fundamentally good, he believes that an individual is in the best position to decide for himself and about different issues, because in deciding he will invariably think in terms of goodness of all human being and that his actions does not harm anyone or are not in conflict with other individual. Thoreau also believed that independent, well-considered action arose naturally from a questing attitude of mind. Thus he was first and foremost an explorer, of both the world around him and the world within him. Thoreau knew that by making the individual the measure of all things, the society can be made in balance and harmonious, the government has not the vitality and force of a single living man, because a single man can bend it to his will.

Thoreau in the beginning of the his essay argue that the American government is necessary only because "the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have." However according to Thoreau the only times when the government has been useful, is the time when it has stood aside. In addition Thoreau argues that the government does not achieve what we credit it, the government does not make us free, settle the West, or educate us. On the contrary these are achieved by the incredible character of the individual Americans and they would have been even more successful in these endeavors had government been less involved. Thoreau then argues that we must be men first and subject afterwards, what he means by this is that right and wrong should be decided not by majority but by conscience. Conscience if man is superior to the legislator. He asserts that it is most important that we develop a respect for right, rather than the respect for law, for people's obligation are to do what is right [Alicia 2002]

The question arises as to what must an individual do and how he should behave toward the government. Here we can see Thoreau propagating the most radical of his ideas and extreme individualism. Thoreau's answer to the question of how an individual should behave towards the government is to avoid associating with it altogether. He declares. "I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as may government which is the slave's government also." Thoreau says that we have not only the right, but indeed the duty, to rebel. Thoreau criticizes the attitude that civil obligation should be maintained for the sake of expediency, he argues that expediency does not take precedence over justice. People must do what is right and just and not what government and the law tells them.