What is Civil Thought

What is Civil Thought

When I was in College, I took a writing class where we were assigned to read and analyze Henry David Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience.

Civil Disobedience provided a path on how to analyze and think about our current government. The idea of questioning laws, and determining if we should follow them was a new perspective for me.

Thoreau mentions:

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?

He then provides how we can determine if we should obey, amend, or transgress them:

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth- certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine.