Civil Disobedience and Other Essays Response Questions

The Statue of Liberty is an American symbol of justice and freedom from oppression, yet in Henry Thoreau's opinion, the U.S. government is completely antithetical. In Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience, he introduces and accepts the motto, “That government is best which governs not at all.” In his eyes, the government does more harm than good for its people. Underneath his seemingly main idea, Thoreau implies an overall antithesis where he defines who, in his eyes, is allowed to be disobedient. In order to advance this main idea and reinforce this mottos throughout the essay, Thoreau uses metaphors and juxtaposition to strengthen this subtle antithesis found throughout the essay.

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its new foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most

-- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Henry David Thoreau uses Aristotle’s appeals in his essay “Civil Disobedience” to convey his beliefs and to convince others to think how he does. He wants people to realize how truly flawed the American system of government is, he does this by showing how he has been personally wronged by the government and how he knows the government can take control of you.

Political Power and Natural state: He explains the need for civil government; by detailing life with the absence of civil government. This is the premature state of an entity; through this one can see the need and a role for a government structure. He begins by defining

The Government is the collection of people from a single or multi parties who are elected in to power by the public with the goal of improving the nation, catering to public interest and attending to the public’s needs. – It’s important to provide a clear definition linked to the role of government. Moss is himself unsure as he uses the words “I think” which automatically create doubt among the readers. He also fails to use a clear definition linked to the meaning and purpose of the government which further affects the reader’s attention.

-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,

     The year was sixteen hundred and eighty-nine and a man by the name of John Locke wrote Second Treatise on Government (Zinn 73). In it, Locke wrote that in a natural state everyone, all people, are born free and equal, and possess certain rights. He said that these “natural rights” were life, liberty, and property. He also said that the evildoers who conspired to deprive others of their life, liberty, or property ruined the good life of the state of nature (Locke). The only way to protect these rights is by joining together to form governments. The power of government, then, stems from the consent of the governed, which entrust the government with responsibility for protecting

b: The main point of excerpt two is that the Government must implement reasonable laws that will govern the people and itself. That laws can help move a country forward, but as times change, laws must change to best fit the situations at hand.

Henry David Thoreau, born in 1817, is the author of Civil Disobedience, an essay the highlights the importance of individualism and maintaining autonomy within a society that strongly favor majority rule. In 2017, especially within the past election, this is of major significance. In his essay, Thoreau focusses on many ideas, some of the most prevalent being, standing up for what one believes is wrong, no matter the consequences, along with the idea that with the right leaders government can work.

Society is produced by our wants, and government is created by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last is a Punisher.” here he is saying that there is a difference between government and society in the next paragraph he says that society created government with a small portion of their property(their wealth), in order to protect their property. He says the difference between government and society is that society are the people want to work together with other people to fulfil their needs, and we need government to keep us from doing the wrong thing, so the purpose of government is the freedom and security of society.

In paragraph 26 of “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau claims the state punishes people who aren’t deserving, therefore all people deserve to be punished. In fact, Thoreau writes, the only place to be true to who you are is in jail. Thoreau thinks that jail is the only place that your opinion matters, as you’re in jail because of an action, and once in jail those same actions are better accepted by your peers. Thoreau adds that it is difficult to fight for what is right if you don’t know what is

"The current federal system of government in the United States is failing to meet its social contract obligations to the American people." There is nothing closer to the truth than this statement. While some may argue that the government is following the guidelines of a social contract, many aspects of the government have outgrown their britches and taken over.

The political concepts of justice and how a society should be governed have dominated literature through out human history. The concept of peacefully resisting laws set by a governing force can be first be depicted in the world of the Ancient Greeks in the works of Sophocles and actions of Socrates. This popular idea has developed over the centuries and is commonly known today as civil disobedience. Due to the works of Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. civil disobedience is a well-known political action to Americans; first in the application against slavery and second in the application against segregation. Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” and King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” are the leading arguments in defining

The choice of Peoria, IL – an IRS office in the Midwest to set the novel is anything but coincidental. Apart from being one of the very few rather unpopular American institutions, it is also, largely, extremely efficient, which is aptly summarized by the sardonic but true observation often ascribed to Benjamin Franklin (who used it in the current form in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789 but dating back to Daniel Defoe’s Political History of the Devil written in 1726), that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. But the inevitability of tax burden placed on an average citizen is not the only thing that is characteristic of the U.S. Inland Revenue: dealing with millions of tax returns and myriads of