（土）Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, Part II

A few words about Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau spent one night in jail because he didn't pay tax money that could be used to attack Mexico. He disagreed with slavery, and the government supported slavery in the South.

Thoreau was born (1817-1862) in Concord, Massachusetts. He had many jobs. He was an American author, philosopher (哲学者), poet, and environmental scientist. Actually, he lived in the forest for a few years and wrote Walden about his life there.

He was informed by variety of philosophies. He was familiar with modern philosophy and he studied ancient scriptures (聖書) carefully, classical Greek and Roman philosophy, and literature of Asian traditions. Many people were influenced by Thoreau's philosophy; for example, his friend, Emerson, and the German idealists.

In 1837, he began to write. In "Civil Disobedience," he insisted that people should act on what they believe to be right. He said that people in the U.S have strong patriotism (愛国心) and that it often causes them not to doubt what the government does. He felt frustration with the people who disagreed with the attack on Mexico but did not resist the government. By not paying his poll tax, he wanted to show the importance of acting on one's conscience (良心). Our conscience is ours alone. No one can give it to us. No one can take care of it for us.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (part 2 of 3 parts)

You must act on your conscience

Paragraph 1
Thoreau said that people have patriotism, and that this causes them not to do the right thing. Although they know the government's actions are not good, they don' try resisting the government because of their patriotism. The United States has two distinct areas, the South and the North. Each has a different attitude toward slavery. Thoreau wonders why they don't separate. Slavery does not fit their conscience.

Paragraph 2
All people have a conscience. Thoreau thinks we should not be satisfied simply to have a good opinion. You must act under your opinion. For example, if someone steals your money, what will you do? You will try to get your money back and try to prevent the person from stealing money from you again. In the same way, the people should reject slavery.

Paragraph 3
Generally, people want to reform unjust（不正な）laws, but only a few people are willing to act. So such persons act by themselves. A few people begin to realize that they are right. Many people don't act by themselves. They see a wise man as a crazy man. Christ, Copernicus, and Luther are respected by people long after their deaths, but they were treated badly for acting on their conscience. Thoreau thinks that we should all act on our conscience.

In my understanding, according to Thoreau's ideas, if I meet a new situation, I have to decide whether it is right or not. I must think according to my conscience and have to act myself. Some time it may be difficult for me, but if I stop acting for myself, it means that I will be acting for the sake of others. I will be like a machine.

Ai Muroya

When to stop the machine

Paragraph 4
There were various laws for each crime. For example, if a man stole money, he would be put in prison for a certain number of months. It is decided in advance how long a prison sentence each crime deserves. However, in Thoreau's time, there was no clear penalty for resisting the government by not paying taxes, so Thoreau was put in prison for an undetermined period of time. There was no clear penalty for not paying one's tax. If a man stole money, it only means that he wants money, but if Thoreau or someone else chooses not to pay the tax for reasons of conscience, it means he doesn't support the government. This is perhaps why the penalty jail time remained unlimited.

Paragraph 5
Thoreau thinks of the government as a machine. A machine is not a person and does not have the power of living beings. Machines never accomplish anything without people's assistance; they need people power. Like many machines, the government has many parts. Some parts may be bad. They may not work well or they may be annoying. For instance, the chain on a bike is annoying, because it is dirty. However, some of these annoying parts are necessary for the machine to work well, and we cannot do anything about it. It is not worth the trouble of going against the whole government simply because it is not perfect. However, if the government begins to require its citizens to support terrible actions (like slavery and stupid wars), the people should reject the entire government, and not just parts of it. This is what Thoreau means when he writes, "Let your life be a counter friction to the machine." A "counter friction" is an obstacle to the machine; it makes the machine slow down and stop. Thoreau thought that it was time not to obey the government, because the government was not bad only in parts, it was bad as a whole.

Paragraph 6
Thoreau doesn't think people can change the government by the ways which are given by the government. It cost people too much time to change whole government. People were born not to change the government and make the whole world better but simply to live in the world. Therefore, no one person has the responsibility of changing the whole world or improving the whole government. The important things is not to do what you think is bad, even if the thing is an order of the government. Not doing what you know is wrong is a duty for everyone. The duty can be found in their conscience.

Paragraph 7
Thoreau thinks people who were against the government should act on their opinions. They shouldn't wait until they are a part of the majority. Not all majority groups are right. The most important thing is to be free to follow one's conscience. If most believe the wrong thing and only one man believes the right thing, the big group seems to be a majority in general, but from the viewpoint of who is more right, the man single man is in fact in the majority. Thoreau argued this way to encourage his fellow abolitionists not to hesitate in fighting against slavery.

I learned from Thoreau that is important to explain and support my opinions with theory. When he wants to say that we shouldn't obey a bad government, he describes the government as a machine. It is easy to understand and a persuasive explanation. There is much persuasion in his opinion, but if I were alive in that period, I couldn't support him. I don't have as much courage as he had. To act different from the majority of people is too difficult. Still, I admire him for his courage.

Nao Iwakawa

The importance of obeying one's conscience

Paragraph 8
Thoreau has a neighbor who collects taxes for the government. Thoreau wonders whether the officer will treat him kindly or be rude. If he acts on the basis of his conscience and is honest, he may treat Thoreau justly; but he is a tax collector. If he does his job unquestioningly, he will put Thoreau in jail. Thoreau thinks many people do not obey their conscience because they fear the government. He thinks that the more honestly people act, the sooner slavery will disappear, because there will be no one to support the government and it will not be able to continue war and slavery.


Paragraph 9
The government imprisons people who do not pay their taxes. However, Thoreau thinks that prison is the best place for him because in prison he can be an example of resistance to the government. In prison, he can confirm that his true idea is much better and more stronger than the government's wrong idea. The government attacks Mexico to widen slavery and its actions are violent and bloody. Contrary to this, not paying taxes is not violent and bloody. The government wants to get more money because carrying out the war takes a lot of money, and Thoreau thinks that if many people refuse to pay their taxes, the government may have to give up the war and stop supporting slavery. The government needs public officers to gather taxes, and Thoreau thinks the war and slavery will be finished if government workers quit their jobs and refuse to obey it. 　　　

Paragraph 10
Thoreau regards having more money as having less goodness. If we have much money, we do not care of paying money very much. For example, if you had 100,000,000 yen and you want to buy brand-named goods that cost 100,000 yen, you would not hesitate to buy them. However, if you have only 1,000 yen, you would think carefully about what you should pay or buy and whether you need it or not. Therefore, people who have a lot of money pay their taxes easily and purchase things easily and do not think about the consequences of their tax-paying or of their buying things. They do not think about slavery or unjust wars. The government treats people who pay taxes kindly and helps them to stay rich. Speaking about money, Thoreau discusses the following story from the Bible:

Some followers of Jesus asked Jesus, "You say that you are our leader. Should we give our tax money to you, then, or to Caesar?" When asking Jesus this question, they wanted to test him. If he said, "to Caesar," then, they might think, Caesar would seem more powerful than Jesus. But if Jesus said, "to me," then Jesus would do an illegal thing, by taking money that does not belong to him. Jesus answered the men by saying, "Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God those things which are God's" This can be restated like this: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." In this sentence, Caesar represents a political leader, like a president, and God represents a spiritual leader, like Buddha. The men asked God, "Should we pay taxes to you?" and he said," You should pay it not to me but to Caesar because his image is stamped on the coin and so it belongs to him." In this way, Jesus showed that there are two kinds of leaders: political and spiritual. Jesus is not a tax-collecting leader. Like Thoreau, he wants men and women to behave justly, even if the consequences of one's actions are terrible. However, unlike Thoreau, Jesus does not say whether to pay or not to pay taxes. He says that money does not concern him at all. For Thoreau, the taxes are not important as money; they are symbols of agreement or disagreement.



This means the ideas of our conscience -- of what is right and wrong -- have nothing to do with our obligations towards the government. He uses this expression to make many people realize they should obey their ideas.

In my opinion, many people don't act on their conscience because they fear losing the goverment's support. Because of this, they tend to be self-centered. I think it is important have courage enough to obey our consciences.

Ayami Ijichi


The cabin that Thoreau lived in alone for two years in Walden Pond, Massachusetts.

Laws and the Law

On paragraphs 11-14:

As we studied last week, Thoreau didn't obey the government by not paying his poll tax. The reason why he did so was that he obeyed his conscience. In contrast, since many people around him feared that their property would be endangered by acts of disobedience, they obeyed the government by paying their poll tax. Thoreau thought that if people want to live without losing their property, it is impossible to live honestly since they have to show outward respect toward the government.

After he was put in jail, he spent one night there. In the jail cell, there was a wall of stone. At first sight, we think that the wall can restrict humans because people are separated from the outside by it. This is obviously true, but Thoreau says that the prison walls can restrict only our bodies. However, how about our thoughts? Our thoughts remain free wherever we go.

The most important thing Thoreau thought about was the law of one's conscience. The laws of states are written in the plural form, "laws." However, the law of conscience is written in the singular form, "law." What is the difference between them? Each state has many laws, so there are many laws in the country. Talking about the law of conscience, each person has his or her own original standard. We can't find the same law of conscience in the world. There is only one law of conscience that each person has. In addition, if people don't obey the laws of state, they may be punished by the state. However, if they don't obey the law of their own conscience, no one punishes them, but they may have a sense of guilt. This is the biggest difference. The laws can be changed and are never perfect. However, the law of conscience remains both individual and permanent. It does not change from year to year. Therefore, Thoreau thought the law of conscience is higher than the laws of the state.

It was difficult for me to understand the essay because there are many peculiar expressions in it. When reading it, I thought that Thoreau was a brave man. It is easy to tell or think my own thoughts, but it is not so easy to act in the right way. Most of us are inclined towards others' opinions. However, we have our own will. We must carry out our intentions even if everyone around us is against us. To have a strong will, and to act on it: these are the important things that Thoreau wanted to encourage, I think.

Naoko Fujinaga