Oscar Wilde's Idea Of Civil Disobedience

In the essay “Resistance to Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau, Thoreau argues about the unjust laws by the government and what we should do to resist their demands. The essay argues against the government and how the government cares very little about what we think. Thoreau lets us know that as a single person we do little effect on the government, but if we were to unify and work together for what is right then we would see a change. Thoreau’s argument on the resistance to civil government is, in fact, effective because he mentions the effectiveness, examples, and our rights to unjust laws.

Henry David Thoreau’s essay basically begins by stating that the government is of no good for the American people. Thoreau’s essay talks about occasions in which the government has done bad instead of doing things to help out the people, for example the Mexican-American War. Also, the essay informs that the people give a lot of credit to the government for things they believe it has achieved when in reality those achievements have happened thanks to the people and he also states that better things would come out of those achievements if the government was less involved. Overall, Henry David Thoreau’s essay tries to inform or persuade people to understand that the country would be better if the government was less involved and allow the people to have more say in what is happening to the country as a whole. Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” is rhetorically effective because of his attention to pathos and logos.

Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation. Thoreau 's infamous ideas on "Civil Disobedience," written in 1849, have been monumental in the fight for change. It has helped influence change anywhere from the 1940s fight against Danish resistance, to the 1950s and McCarthyism. Thoreau 's words have helped lead the way to freedom. It has made the people of the world think about how they are being governed and how they are being treated. Thoreau 's message of freedom in “Civil Disobedience”, transcend his own time to be so influential to those throughout history for three main reasons which are that he is read around the world, it had to do with helping yourself, and he connected it to real life.

This quote sparks interest due to disobedience often containing a negative connotation. However, in this quote disobedience is honorable, and to be called disobedient is a compliment. According to Wilde, disobedience is beneficial and without it social progress could not be made. Without disobedience, society is unable to change or improve from past mistakes. Without rebellion or disobedience, what will promote people to act on their injustices? Rebellion and disobedience are beneficial in promoting social progress. Through it, citizens are able to bring issues and injustices they want acknowledged to the forefront. Through these ways, they try to make the world a better place for everyone and to bring people to the realization as to why the issues that they face are at fault and that they should be restored.

“Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength… They only can force me who obey a higher law than I.” According to Thoreau the government didn’t have a strong non-violent solutions instead they will stop any problem with force and Thoreau did not see it as a fair respectful government. He realized that this government was not good and beneficial and decide to disobey and using his knowledge he suggested others to do the same. “The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to- for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I…”

In the pieces Henry David Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” and Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter From Birmingham Jail” both analyze civil disobedience through their own experiences on the way that were runned. They both not only analyze but seem to question whether to trust who can run the government with the governments true intentions being questionable. In Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” he questions the morals of how the government sees its people, to them only having us being seen as machines they can just control which is crossing between ruling and being unjust. In MLK’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he also explores and questions on not how the city or ‘government’ is ran, but rather the men who run it, using the experiences that he himself along with his fellow community have gone through from the segregation of the clergyman and the states. Civil disobedience is seen as a way to go against the government, a way to voice out the people’s opinion for a call of change. An idea that is still used today which has developed the nation into what we are now, a nation that states their beliefs for the whole world to see and know.

An object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Newton’s first law of motion identifies what is needed to produce change. Oscar Wilde shared similar observations when he said, “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” Both Newton and Wilde recognized how force was essential in order to successfully achieve change. Although Wilde was an influential leader in the late 1800s, his ideas are still applicable to today’s world just like Newton’s laws of motion. The force of disobedience and rebellion has followed Wilde’s claim by historically altering the world and continuing to serve as a powerful platform for change.

We must be careful not to mistake for civil disobedience what is actually all too often these days, rather uncivil disobedience, in the forms of riots and looting and other forms of criminal conduct that sometimes takes place in the course of large-scale protests and demonstrations that get out of hand. The modern fathers of civil disobedience as a method of political expression and change are, of course, Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King, in the 1950s and 1960s, convinced hundreds and thousands of black Americans to peacefully agitate towards full legal and political equality in the United States. Both men -- and their followers -- faced police and military might and ruthlessness, and both suffered imprisonment, and worse, for their efforts. His followers and supporters, endured tremendous brutality and degradation, but instead of responding in the way they were being treated, they reacted peacefully, offering themselves as living sacrifices for the causes in which they believed.

In Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience he explains that it is unjust that the government derives it power from things such as majority rule. Majority rule does not suggest mean that that the majority holds a legitimate point. He suggests that people need to follow there own path regardless of what the majority believes and need to fight for what they believe. And this where his idea of civil disobedience comes into act. Thoreau believes that civil disobedience needs to involve peaceful protest. The peaceful protest must remain peaceful because protesters will face consequence if it gets violent. An example of how Thoreau believes people should protest is doing things such as not

Another issue I have with the idea of civil disobedience is the fundamental understanding of America’s social contract. While Americans do have the right to protest according to the Constitution, the majority of the “peaceful” assemblies are not, well, peaceful (more on this later). On top of that, as US citizens, we conform to our social contract, which restricts certain liberties, but provides us the right to live in the United States instead of more corrupt places in the world -- Mexico, North Korea, and Syria come to mind.

I agree wholeheartedly with Wilde; disobedience has been the thing to keep humanity progressing. While consequences follow every action, and rebellion can cause chaos, the virtues of rebellion have been exemplified in history, deified in fiction, and called for in modern society. Historically, change has followed rebellion. America began with the rebellion against England. Throughout American History, disobedience has pushed forward progress and society as a whole.

In Civil Disobedience Thoreau argues against american society, and their democracy. Arguing about how the government barely proves themselves being useful in american society, and how the government also gets most of their power from a majority group, more because they are the strongest group in that society. Thoreau also argues that each person should live for themselves, and take advantage of their short time on earth to follow their own

Through the course of history, many things were needed to be reformed in order for the world to be in the state it is today. As early civilizations attempted various ways to govern, change was necessary in an attempt to maximize the efficiency of their systems. Although some members of society may be blind to necessary progressive reforms, others will always attempt to make changes for the better. Irish author, Oscar Wilde, claims that it is due to man’s virtue of disobedience that social progression was able to be achieved. Many would argue against Wilde’s claim of disobedience as a virtue due to the violence and disruptions that come as a result; however, it is through civil acts of disobedience that social progress can be made.

For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in his community and believed that civil disobedience was the way to change the laws and feelings that were set against the colored people in America. King believed the only way to get his point across is by taking action, but he believed action should be taken in a form of non-violent protests and without the use of any physical force. King claims to justify acts of civil disobedience,

Dr. King takes a lot of inspiration in the principles that Thoreau presents in Civil Disobedience and applies them to his own situation. He applies the idea that morally wrong laws should be disobeyed to his own argument of the purpose of the protesting. Martin Luther King Jr. says that, “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws” (King 93). With this statement he is using on of Thoreau’s main points in civil disobedience, that of not following laws based on the right or wrong. Another way Dr. King applies the principles of Thoreau is belief that laws voted by majority are never just. This applied through the argument that segregation laws were made by the majority and have kept the community oppressed, “a law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law” (King 95). He is throughout the entire letter attempting to justify the civil disobedience to those who do not agree with this method saying it is, “…activities unwisely and untimely” (King 85). But Martin Luther King Jr. uses the same points Thoreau does successfully.