CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

"He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist. How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also.
All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. 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. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army."


If you do whatever your fellow-men tells you to do without analyzing it, then they will consider you as useless. they can manipulate you anyhow.Thoreou saw goverment laws as slavery. that is,a person does not have the right to his own opinion but to abide with all that is in the law. He argued that men have the right to refuse government laws especially when it does no good to the governed. Thoreau also points out that all government make unwise decisions once in a while which is ok but when all it does is to impose burden on its people, then they must get rid of that particular government.

I find this quote to be very interesting. Thoreau made his argument clear. Government sometimes make decisions that helps only few but affect majority of its people .