"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"
Civil Disobedience Story
Original Story Written by: Henry David Thoreau
Summarized & Analyzed by: Dawit Thepchatree (Joe) [27/10/2002]
�The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual.�
�On the Duty of Civil Disobedience�, written by Henry David Thoreau, is a short story mostly based on the author�s opinions and experience regarding the US government. It is very well written, suggesting that the writer is a very educated scholar. Other than that, it strongly criticizes the US government, while not directly insulting it. This story by itself is probably an act of civil disobedience, for obvious reasons. Not only that, but it is also evidence that the writer has moral courage, since he stood for his beliefs and actually wrote it down, despite the fact that his opponent is the government. It seems that this story is a classic too, since there are various innumerable copies of it posted on the Internet.
The story begins with a famous motto, �That government is best which governs least.� The author continues with how he agrees with it to some extent, but believes more in �That government is best which governs not at all." In other words, the narrator believes that the government should not interfere with its people�s lives at all. He disagrees how the government functions and criticize some of its policies. One of them is about the military. He discussed how individuality is lost, while a person is in the army, which, according to him, is unacceptable. He gave countless examples of how the government should give more independence and freedom for people. One of the most important points in the story is the fact that he actually �disobeyed� the government. Because he despises the system of taxing (he stated that �tax gatherers� should resign from their offices), he refused to pay poll taxes for about six years. As a result, he had to spend time in jail for some time. In the end, he concluded that there is already a whole new revolutionary system ready to be born, but the leader who would trigger its birth had not appeared yet.
Read the full story HERE