Civil Disobedience Discussion
The quote I have picked from “Excerpts from Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience” is “The law is the law and should be respected regardless of content.”
I agree with Thoreaus’s sentiment. The criticism that Thoreaus provides aims at the type of respect that coils from a genuine honor for the government authorities. In this criticism, a good man is likely to become agents of injustice actions. The one thing that makes me agree with Thoreau’s notion is because not all laws are equal, but they should be respected. For instance, some acts, such as laws against tax evasion and contempt of court, exist for other various reasons other than guarding or protecting the government. In most cases, such laws are likely to have more severe penalties than the laws protecting people against violence.
When someone denies the government authority, it becomes sweeping and vague, and it is likely to invite arbitrary jail terms for that individual. The courts and lawyers are always part of the government’s defensive machinery. Hence, this is why the court fails to protect Thoreaus after refusing to respect the government authority. The sentiment makes Thoreau reject the unjust laws, and the people enacting the legislation. Thoreau went even miles to withdraw his sustenance from the statesmen who rarely made any ethical distinctions because he termed them to oblige the Devil without anticipating it as God. Here, Thoreau meant that even politicians who have good intentions respect the government because anything they plan, they only serve the government until the end.
The sentiment from Thoreaus holds today in the various government institutions. When an individual disdains a politician, the person deems to have a coherent extension of contempt to the law. However, the activists disrespect the law and fail to hold lawmakers personally responsible for the disrespect. In most of these, lawmakers enforce and create laws that they do not obey. Therefore, in “Excerpts from Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau argues that these officials who enforce laws they disrespect should be held personally responsible for their decisions.
Response to my classmate
“ All machines have their friction: and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer.”
I agree with Thoreau’s point of view. He compares the government to a machine; when the government demands that you become part of the injustice, then we have a moral duty to protest and rebel against it, much like what is happening today. We need to start holding our government accountable for its unfair treatment of African-Americans. Civil disobedience is necessary for the fight against systemic racism.
I agree with my classmate’s argument because, according to Thoreau, governments are harmful than helpful, and they cannot be justified. Therefore, the governments are primary agents of injustice, and we, the citizens, must rebel and revolutionize to ensure the government does not atrophy or overrule their conscience.
