Civil Disobedience Key
-
Upload
jacob-lundquist -
Category
Documents
-
view
227 -
download
0
Transcript of Civil Disobedience Key
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
1/19
Civil
Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
2/19
What does it mean to be a good
citizen?
Vote in elections?
Conform to majority opinion?
Participate in protest marches? Obey laws?
Other ideas?
Always, usually, sometimes, or never?
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
3/19
Three ways to serve the state?
P. 372 2 starting with line 65 With their bodies
Army, militia, etc.
No judgment Heads
Legislators, politicians
Dont make moral distinctions Consciences
Heroes, patriots, reformers
Often resist the state
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
4/19
What is your first reaction to
Thoreaus ideas on civil
disobedience, or nonviolent
resistance?
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
5/19
According to Thoreau, what should
be respected more than the law?
Conscience
Must the citizen ever for a moment resignhis conscience to the legislator?
The only obligation which I have a right toassume is to do at any time what I think isright.
Justice
Law never made men a whit more just
Example of men who fight in wars theydisagree with
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
6/19
What should a citizen do about an
unjust law?
If it is of such a nature that it requires you
to be the agent of an injustice to another,
then, I say, break the law.
If one honest manceasing to hold
slaves, were actually to withdraw from this
copartnershipit would be the abolition of
slavery in America.
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
7/19
How does Thoreau respond to
being jailed?
Under a government which imprisons any
unjustly, the true place for a just man is
also a prison.
I did not for a moment feel confined
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
8/19
2. How convincing do you find
Thoreaus argument?
A man must live according to his nature
Circumstances under which he advocates
breaking the law
His views on majority rule
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
9/19
3. How important to Thoreaus
argument is his idea about the
different ways of serving the state?
Three ways of serving state:
Body, mind, conscience
Its very important because he points out
that great people serve the state with their
conscience, and therefore often resist it.
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
10/19
4. What might some find
threatening about Thoreausideas? What if everyone resists everything?
How far is too far with civil disobedience? Powerful may be afraid of the power of
people working together
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
11/19
5. A paradox is a statement that
seems to contradict itself butmay nevertheless suggest an
important truth. Example: a good citizen must sometimes
break the law
That government is best that governs not
at all (cont. next slide)
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
12/19
5. (cont) Paradox
Under a government which imprisons any
unjustly, the true place for a just man is
also a prison.
Those who serve with their conscience
often resist the state.
I did not for a moment feel confined, and
the walls seemed a great waste of stone
and mortar.
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
13/19
What connections do you see
between Thoreaus views and
Gandhis? Gandhis satyagraha is similar to
Thoreaus civil disobedience Resist injustice peacefully
Cheerfully accept the consequences
We will gladly die and will not so much astouch you. But so long as there is yet life
in these our bones, we will never comply
with your arbitrary laws.
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
14/19
Transcendentalist LiteratureAnalysis Chart
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
15/19
Self-reliance/intuition
The only obligation which I have a right to
assume is to do at anytime what I think
right.
What I have to do is to see, at any rate,
that I do not lend myself to the wrong
which I condemn
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
16/19
Importance of nature
Nature/earth
If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it
dies; and so a man.
Human nature
The only obligation which I have a right to
assume is to do at any time what I think right.
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
17/19
Free thought and expression
Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in
the least degree, resign his conscience to
the legislator?
Why does it not encourage its citizens to
be on the alert to point out its faults, and
dobetter than it would have them?
Refused to pay poll tax due to anti-slavery
and anti-war beliefs
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
18/19
Importance of
individual/nonconformity A minority is powerless while it conforms
to the majority; it is not even a minority
then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by
its whole weight.
Let your life be a counter-friction to stop
the machine.
-
7/28/2019 Civil Disobedience Key
19/19
Confidence
Let your life be a counter-friction to the
machine.
A very few as heroes, patriots, martyrs,
reformers in the great sense, and men
serve the state with their consciences
also, and so necessarily resist it for the
most part; and they are commonly treatedas enemies by it.