Civil Disobedience Rhetorical Analysis

The idea of civil disobedience brings much controversy when it’s being discussed. Many distinctive perceptions have been made regarding the topic, but a substantial amount of people have seen Henry David Thoreau’s assumption in his essay, Civil Disobedience. In his essay, Thoreau theorized, “That government is best which governs least.” The population of the United States is politically divided due to the fact that different groups and cultures of people have conflicting viewpoints on topics like these. Some of the population agrees with Thoreau, that there should be a more just government that what exists. Recently, there has been an uprising in the nation due to a protest made by a football team. Many people of America are debating the meaning
of the protest and whether it was disrespectful to the country or is it was just a simple way to get their point of protest across. The football team chose to kneel during the National Anthem instead of standing. When this was broadcasted on television, many people were shocked and immediately went to social media with their opinions. Most of the opinions were very negative towards the team, telling them that they were being disrespectful to the men and women that died for the country. Not only did this affect the people, but it affected the government as well. Many of the government officials have named the team as disrespectful and contemptuous. If Thoreau were alive today, he would more than likely believe that the recent protest against social and racial injustice is acceptable. On the contrary, the remaining part of the population could disagree with Thoreau. They would believe, unlike Thoreau, that the protest is completely unacceptable and distasteful to the country. All in all, the topic of civil disobedience brings up much deliberation within the country.