Ahmed Syed Professor Ravy Eng 112-536 04/27/2010 Civil Disobedience in an Unjust America According to the infamous essay by Henry David Thoreau‚ civil disobedience is the conscious and intentional disobeying of a law to advance a moral principle or change government policy. Throughout the essay‚ Thoreau urges the need for individuals to put their personal and social consciousness before their allegiance to their government and its range of policies. Thoreau believed that if a government is unjust
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Civil Disobedience in America There are many traps one can fall into when beginning an essay on civil disobedience. From the quoting of Thoreau‚ “There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power‚ from which all its own power and authority are derived‚” to the Merriam Webster dictionary definition‚ “the refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means
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The decision that civil disobedience is a necessary action is not one often made impetuously‚ as said by Mahatma Gandhi‚ “ it implies discipline‚ thought‚ care‚ attention and sacrifice”. For one to imply that civil disobedience is no more than an act of unlawful defiance against one’s government is a half-baked analysis and requires a more utilitarian way of thinking; simply put‚ peaceful resistance to law— in most cases‚ positively affects a free society. Civil disobedience
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Rawls argues that violence‚ when practicing civil disobedience‚ cannot be justified; however‚ violence is a part of civil disobedience; its qualities as both a practice and is justification hold true the goal of civil disobedience- a call for change in the laws or practices. Civil disobedience is an act in violation of a law‚ which is undertaken for moral reasons. Rawls’ view of civil disobedience is that it cannot be violent because of its nature. This practice does in fact have the abilities to
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Thoreau Civil Disobedience Throughout history the government’s gained too much power are likely to be corrupt. It is up to citizens to go against government and get rid of any negativity. In order to change the government citizens should vote for an individual who can change the country in a positive way. Henry David Thoreau was a philosopher‚ observer‚ and writer best known for his attacks on American social institutions and his respect for nature and simple living. He believed in civil disobedience
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Henry David Thoreau was looking to make such an impact by publicizing his transcendentalist beliefs and going a step further with his concept of civil disobedience. Lewis H. Van Dusen ’s essay entitled Civil Disobedience: Destroyer of Democracy was published in 1969 and opposes greatly the beliefs of Thoreau. Van Dusen essentially deems civil disobedience as the assumption that you can be above the law should it not tailor to your beliefs. Van Dusen explicitly refutes the concepts of Thoreau suggesting
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Declaration of Independence vs. Gettysburg Address The Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address are glimpses into America’s history. They were written in two different time periods: America’s first years in 1776 and the Civil War in the 1800’s. Despite their time gap‚ they are similar because they both explain to the reader what is going on during their time period. However‚ the country was going through different events and so these two documents are diverse as well. Both
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Indian Independence Movement‚ civil disobedience has been among us for so long‚ and each society is able to build off its predecessors’ mistakes.Henry Thoreau inspired generations to come in his essay‚ “Civil Disobedience”‚ and the effect of it was widespread.In fact‚ while in jail‚ Mahatma Gandhi picked up a copy of Thoreau’s essay and was able to utilize the tactics discussed by Thoreau to successfully challenge Britain’s control over India.That movement created a template itself as the Civil Rights
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Declaring my Independence from: Depression I am declaring my independence from depression. I would enjoy doing this since it invades my life. It isn’t something that can just be threw off. Depression consumes me and takes my life. I can’t be cheerful or anything that I usually would be and that is not tolerable. I want to be able to sleep at night feeling worthy of myself and my life. I need to feel as if I actually matter and being depressed allows that to be nearly impossible. The fifth amendment
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Thoreau wrote “Civil Disobedience”‚ in 1849‚ to explain his distrust for the government. He focuses greatly on how the government is actively working against the people. Thoreau also discusses all throughout his essay about how the ones who serve our country are not considered as important as the ones within the cabinet. In an excerpt from “Civil Disobedience”‚ Thoreau uses pathos to show how the government is corrupt by using strategic syntax‚ similes‚ and metaphors. In “Civil Disobedience”‚ Thoreau
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