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Civil disobedience


            Thoreau's Civil Disobedience poses the question of what a man should do if in the situation of following or not following an unjust law. Should this person follow the law and disobey his conscience? Thoreau's essay advocates how one must decipher his conscience and decide whether he is for or against an institution's laws. .
             In the beginning of Thoreau's essay he asks what a person should do if he is faced with an unjust law. He argues that most people abide by that law until the majority is persuaded to change it. The majority, he states, is not necessarily the right opinion- it is merely the strongest. Therefore, a government will always take the majority opinion even though it is not the wisest. A person is not required to stop all the evils of the world but he is required not to partake in them. These factors lead Thoreau to discern the government as being unjust. He also states that the government gives no effective way to remedy such things as unjust laws. It is the basis of the government that is wrong. The only effective way to not participate in unjust laws is to remove one's support in the government. Thoreau summarizes by stating, " the true place for a just man is also in prison." (Thoreau, 1223).
             When a person is faced with an unjust law I believe that he should, with reason, disobey that law. If a person follows an unjust law he is as unjust as the law itself. This person does not have to withdraw himself from the government; I think that he should quietly defy the wrongful law and go on about his business. Thoreau's point of view is very similar to mine. He believes that a person in the situation mentioned above should not wait, but remove himself at once from the institution bearing the unjust laws. For it is a violation of conscience not to violate the unfair law. .
            


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