Shadan 1

Ahmad Bashir Shadan

Prof. Shimi Moni Doley

MA in English 1st semester

23.11.2016

Civil Disobedience as Resistance Text Based on Individualism

Henry David Thoreaus Civil Disobedience is a text of resistance based on
individuality. In his text which is an essay, Thoreau resists the governments policies of various
forms like poll tax, Mexican war, government oppression and so on.
Thoreau starts Civil Disobedience by challenging the governments dominant with a
motto That government is best which governs least and then goes on to say , That
government is best when there is no governs at all,. The government exists by consent of the
governed. The governed must ensure the individual freedom that allows the pursuit of deep
living and high thinking. Although it is liable to abuse, Thoreau nevertheless concedes that it is
necessary: "But it is not the less necessary for the people must have some complicated machinery
or other, to satisfy that idea of government which they have." Powerful statement though it is,
Civil Disobediences written in a relatively measured tone. Despite popular misinterpretation,
Thoreau does not advocate the dissolution of government in it. He asks "not at once for no
government, but at once better government."
He resists as an individualist toward government for not paying the poll tax, since paying
the poll tax was a kind of filling pockets of some politicians and improving their luxurious lives
and carry out the Mexican war. Poll tax was not for developing and improving the country and
the countrys citizens. Thoreau spent one night in jail because of not paying the poll tax, as he
mentioned in his essay that I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on
this account, for one night, which is a kind of resisting as an individual towards something that
is not beneficial to the country. And since he was one the follower of the school of
Transcendentalism, he was not afraid of any kind of punishment, although, his rejection and
being against the poll tax made him a bad subject to the country, and put him in jail for a night,
but in his speech he says, I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this
account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet
thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I
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could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were
mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at
length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my
services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen,
there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free
as I was. I did not for a moment feel confine, and the walls seem a great waste of stone and
mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did not know how
to treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In every threat and in every compliment
there was a blunder; for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone
wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations,
which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was
dangerous. As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if
they cannot come at some person against whom they have spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that the
State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not
know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.
Thoreau was not against paying the taxes which was for the aim of developing the
country. This proves him to be a good human or good neighbor as he added in his essay, I have
never declined paying the highway tax, because I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I
am of being a bad subject; and as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my
fellow-countrymen now.
Continuing his speech, he goes on to resist the corruption of his government as an
individual. He says that when the government itself is corrupt then obviously citizens will
become corrupt too. He says that because government is man-made, not an element of nature or
an act of God, Thoreau hoped that its makers could be reasoned with. As governments go, he
felt, the U.S. government, with all its faults, was not the worst and even had some admirable
qualities. But he felt we could and should insist on better. "The progress from an absolute to a
limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect
for the individual. Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in
government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the
rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to
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recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and
authority are derived, and treats him accordingly."
To sum up this discussion, it can be said that Henry David Thoreaus Civil Disobedience
is a text of resistance based on individuality. He resists the government for its unfair laws, such
as poll tax, slavery, Mexican American war and so on. For proving his speech he claims logical
justifications, which later on his essay and his speech influence Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther
King. Jr, Martin Buber and others. It is also important to mention that Thoreau was a
Transcendentalist and the school of transcendentalism arouses as a reaction to or protest against
the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time.