What type of government did Thoreau want?

What type of government did Thoreau want?

In “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau wrote that the best kind of government was the one “which [governed] not at all” (Thoreau 1)….

What does Thoreau advocate for in his essay?

Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience espouses the need to prioritize one’s conscience over the dictates of laws. Thoreau further argues that the United States fits his criteria for an unjust government, given its support of slavery and its practice of aggressive war. …

What did Thoreau think about the government?

Thoreau argued that the government must end its unjust actions to earn the right to collect taxes from its citizens. As long as the government commits unjust actions, he continued, conscientious individuals must choose whether to pay their taxes or to refuse to pay them and defy the government.

What best explains the reason for Henry David Thoreau’s act of civil disobedience?

Both felt that people have the moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Based on “Civil Disobedience,” what statement did Thoreau, like his modern-day successors, hope to make with his imprisonment? He wanted to suggest that one should be willing to go to great lengths for a belief.

What should a citizen do about an unjust law?

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 man… ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership…it would be the abolition of slavery in America.”

What does Thoreau believe is necessary for change?

Thoreau believes that “[a]ction from principle—the perception and the performance of right—changes things” (part 2, par. 2). Therefore, he believes that in order to enact change, the individual must understand what is right and then act on this understanding to do what is right.