In his article “Civil Disobedience”, Henry David Thoreau deals with his vision of justice in Massachusetts. He is worried about so many problems that exist in the system of law and the justice of the state. He calls out his audience to act against the government to help the afflicted people gain abolition and other freedoms. In this essay, I aim to review his article to find important issues regarding injustice and its implications in.
At the beginning of his argument, Thoreau states that some laws in the country are extremely ghastly, and they do nothing else, but bring great pains and problems to the citizens of the country (Thoreau 184). So, he urges the audience to disobey the government and become rebels against such idle-headed regulations. He says that people act foolishly when they decide to be patient, and tolerate less than even-handed treatment. Thoreau proposes to follow the examples of cool dudes from the past such as Copernicus, Luther, Washington, and Franklin (Thoreau 185). He explains that even though these great guys were seen as rebels and rioters by their contemporaries, at the end of the day, they became heroes. Today, no one remembers those who opposed Copernicus, Luther, Washington, Franklin, and the other enlighteners, but many people do remember mutineers.
In the main part of the argument, the author is talking about all sorts of different examples of evil laws that bring nothing but harm to the nation. When he splits the log of a bad law, he asks: “why on earth should we obey the government that makes traps to its people?” And he answers this question by stating that there are no reasons for this. On the contrary, he concludes that it is better to resist the government like this, and do one’s best to cut up this government along with its laws. He even takes notice of the fact that the law endorsement system makes no efforts to protect people against evil. Nothing, no slightest fact or evidence, no faintest hint exists to identify at least some small effort by the government to protect people against the wickedness that exists in the world. Instead, the government only wants to promote its own interests. So, there is nothing strange in disobeying this kind of regime. More than this, God himself wants to punish this government, and this is one more reason to go ahead and slay these terrible people who claim to be the representatives of justice on the earth (Thoreau 186).
In the final part of his argument, Thoreau addresses the most silver-tongued example of an awful injustice by the government which is in protecting slaveholders and making corresponding laws that help them in committing this evil. He says that honest people must raise and punish those disgusting offenders of law and justice.
All things considered, Thoreau’s main point in this article is in the necessity of overthrowing the government that promotes evil laws. His argument raises many issues regarding justice, the protection of justice, and the validity of the actions of those who rebel against the government that advocates wickedness. The implications of these issues are well represented by the author in different parts of the article. They can be seen in the cases of the law on private property, the law on slavery favoritism, and the law on collecting taxes.
References
Thoreau, Henry David. “Civil Disobedience”. Justice (n. d.): 184-186. Print.