Civil Disobedience Debate essays

Civil Disobedience Debate essays After having read Henry David Thoreaus Civil Disobedience and reading what Socrates says in Crito, I believe that the disagreement is only apparent. The idea of what is right and wrong between the men is very similar. However, I think that if Socrates lived in todays society that he would also intentionally violate the law because he believes that nothing is more important than morals, including laws. Throughout Thoreaus essay civil disobedience he talks about how our nation is unjust and how anyone who partakes in even paying taxes is doing an injustice, in which he did jail time for. Although I believe that Thoreau makes many good points and is right by what he says in many cases, but for anyone to actually live a just life in his eyes is not logical. For example, he throws out the idea that a person must sacrifice their values to support the government. For Thoreau this is not a just way of living. He believes that if individual compromises, negotiates, or passively accepts, it is the same as committing a crime. Thoreau also believed that the only laws he had to abide by were his own. Individualism was a main point in Thoreaus theories. He said that people only have to worry about the evil they created, and the evil they didnt create they didnt have to worry about. A person does not have to make the world a better place, but just does not have to make it any worse. In addition, Thoreau was very critical to democracy. He said that people who value democracy are moral sellouts. The fact that our country allows decisions to be made on a majority level is not just at all. So the question is, do we abide by the laws that elected officials that we vote for make for all of us and live unjustly, or do we live justly in a manner and spend our lives like Thoreau did writing essays and trying to make people see how this way of living will make the world a ...