Civil+Disobedience

• Strategies…how do you know?
== Activity: Write a well-crafted sentence, from Thoreau’s point of view, responding to each of the assertions or questions below. Also provide textual evidence in the form of a quotation from “Civil Disobedience” to support your sentence. Two separate sentences! ==

1. Majority rules in the USA.
Majority is in charge of the U.S.; citizens have to right to voice opinions and reform government since they are counted as the majority in the country. "After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest."

2. Jail cannot imprison thought.
When one trusts in oneself and believes in one's own belief, something else will separate one's thought. "If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is //not // never for a long time appearing //to be // to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him."

3. Fair-weather friends.
Friends are good to socialize with, however, they are selfish ones who care only about themselves at the end, not about others."I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions.....that in their sacrifices to humanity, they ran no risks, not even to their property; that after all they were not so noble but they treated the thief as he had treated them, and hoped, by a certain outward observance and a few prayers, and by walking in a particular straight though useless path from time to time, to save their souls....for I believe that many of them are not aware that they have such an institution as the jail in their village."

4. What makes a good government?
Thoreau distrusts government and views government as a fundamental hindrance to the creative enterprise of the people it is meant to represent. His famous motto is, "That government is best which governs not at all"; the quote shows his belief that the government was created to protect the individuals and not limit their freedom.

5. What can one person do?
Thoreau believes that the most important thing is to be yourself and search for inner-self divine and personal interests."You must live within yourself, and depend upon yourself always tucked up and ready for a start, and not have many affairs."

6. How dare an individual set himself over the U.S. government?
An individual has to stay strong on his belief and willing to take the consequences that the government might invoke."Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform."