What Role Should Majority Rule Play In The Government
Civil Obedience Questions
1. What was his position on the Mexican War?
He was in the position of authority. Thoreau asserted that the United States government lacked moral power because it overlooked slavery, and he saw the Mexican War, as an attempt to extend slavery to the western United States. Thoreau believed that publicly disobeying the laws of an unjust government would bring other people to oppose that government's actions. He refused to pay a poll tax and he considered the law to be unfair, even thought the government ordered by the rule of majority.
4. Thoreau states that, “no government would be best”. However, as a citizen what does he call for at once? Why?
He states, “ But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man made known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it” I felt that there wasn’t an answer given of what government would command his respect and had no help obtaining it. …show more content…
What role should “majority rule” play in the government?
The concept of “majority rule’ is something that America struggles to balance. They should play fair and balanced and it be constituted as a majority of one. The majority has the power to rule and the responsibility not to trample the rights of the minority. The minority must have the right to become the majority and have its voice heard. We should not wait until one has a majority of one to do the right thing. "Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already".
6. If injustice is part of the necessary function of the machine of the government, then what should one do before changing
1. What was his position on the Mexican War?
He was in the position of authority. Thoreau asserted that the United States government lacked moral power because it overlooked slavery, and he saw the Mexican War, as an attempt to extend slavery to the western United States. Thoreau believed that publicly disobeying the laws of an unjust government would bring other people to oppose that government's actions. He refused to pay a poll tax and he considered the law to be unfair, even thought the government ordered by the rule of majority.
4. Thoreau states that, “no government would be best”. However, as a citizen what does he call for at once? Why?
He states, “ But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man made known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it” I felt that there wasn’t an answer given of what government would command his respect and had no help obtaining it. …show more content…
What role should “majority rule” play in the government?
The concept of “majority rule’ is something that America struggles to balance. They should play fair and balanced and it be constituted as a majority of one. The majority has the power to rule and the responsibility not to trample the rights of the minority. The minority must have the right to become the majority and have its voice heard. We should not wait until one has a majority of one to do the right thing. "Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already".
6. If injustice is part of the necessary function of the machine of the government, then what should one do before changing