{"id":1002,"date":"2025-11-18T22:21:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:22:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:22:19","slug":"civil-disobedience-1849","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/?p=1002","title":{"rendered":"Civil Disobedience (1849)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As pro-democracy protesters continue to peacefully fill Hong Kong\u2019s streets, despite tear gas and paid thugs, we\u2019re reminded of past successes.<\/p>\n

Of Mahatma Gandhi\u2019s fight for Indian independence, of Martin Luther King\u2019s American civil rights movement \u2013 and of the man who inspired both, by being the first to define nonviolent resistance: author, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, in his essay, \u201cOn the Duty of Civil Disobedience\u201d (first printed inAesthetic Papers<\/em>\u00a0by G.P. Putnam in 1849).<\/p>\n

An abolitionist, Thoreau had returned from two years\u2019 isolation at Walden Pond inflamed by America\u2019s slavery crisis and its war with Mexico during the mid-1800s. It was soon after that he delivered the speech that became \u201cCivil Disobedience\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat government is best which governs the least,\u201d Thoreau begins. And for the next few thousand words, he lucidly, philosophically and passionately argues his discontent with taxes that would prolong slavery and encourage expansionist warfare.<\/p>\n

His arguments are largely based on respect for the individual, rather than the collective mass, and Thoreau spends much of the essay questioning one\u2019s relation to the state and the possibilities of true independence.<\/p>\n

However, what made Thoreau\u2019s refusal to pay taxes and thus create the idea of civil disobedience so significant wasn\u2019t just that he disobeyed the law \u2013 but that he publicly protested against it and brought light to the law\u2019s injustice in a nonviolent manner. He risked prison for what he believed in, even spending a stimulating night in jail, and inspired many of his comrades to do the same.<\/p>\n

That outright refusal to obey the rules because they challenged one\u2019s moralistic beliefs separated Thoreau and his work from the many blas\u00e9 political writers of his era. He might at times go too far, with his hatred for Western democracy, dismissal of the voting system, and generally massive ego sometimes coming off more Russell Brand than a man of intellect. But his ardent and justifiably angry contentions mean that \u201cCivil Disobedience\u201d inspires in modern times.<\/p>\n

At a time when greed clouds the judgment of governments, racism and xenophobia threaten to destroy civility, and peaceful methods are met with acts of violence, Thoreau\u2019s thoughtful and inspiring words in \u201cCivil Disobedience\u201d are a manifesto for never taking things lying down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As pro-democracy protesters continue to peacefully fill Hong Kong\u2019s streets, despite tear gas and paid thugs, we\u2019re reminded of past successes. Of Mahatma Gandhi\u2019s fight for Indian independence, of Martin Luther King\u2019s American civil rights movement \u2013 and of the man who inspired both, by being the first to define nonviolent resistance: author, poet and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005,"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vagal.lakhanitechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}