Preview

Being a Good Citizen

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
955 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Being a Good Citizen
Does good citizenship necessitate following the laws despite some kind of injustice within them? Are good citizens obliged to blindly follow the government policies? It follows then, what is good citizenship? Henry David Thoreau provides an adequate definition of good citizenship within his essay, Civil Disobedience; Thoreau discusses certain characteristics of a good citizen. Examples of Thoreau's definition exist in both the ancient and contemporary culture. Sophocles describes Antigone as a good citizen by Thoreau's definition. Within the play, Antigone, Sophocles utilizes the character of Antigone to epitomize the proper role of citizens within a society. Currently in India, economic growth has given rise to the need for good citizens to help morally develop the growing country due to the government's mistreatment of its citizens. Good citizenship calls for members of society to act upon injustices; fine citizens perceive injustices within society and act in order to right unjust laws. Good citizens transcend human institutions in order to achieve the greater good. These citizens will accomplish all that they possibly can to correct erroneous establishments in order to attain morality. Henry David Thoreau defines bad citizens as those who remain politically apathetic when they witness injustices within the legal system; said citizens may disagree with the policies of the government, but follow these laws regardless of proper morality or ethics. An individual who disagrees with certain taxes, but pays the taxes regardless of their own views exemplifies Thoreau's description of a bad citizen. These citizens do not act against the government and, as a result, the injustice remains evaded and unresolved. Thoreau describes government as a machine that continues in one path and calls for citizens to "let [their lives] be a counter-friction to stop the machine" (par. 18). Good citizenship denotes acting within one's abilities to rectify injustice in a legal system.


Bibliography: Civil Disobedience-- Henry David Thoreau Antigone-- Sophocles

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Henry David Thoreau takes the motto "A government that governs least governs best" (1) to heart in his essay "Civil Disobedience". Throughout his controversial masterpiece, Thoreau criticizes the government for having too much power and interfering with the American population, but he also blames the governed for mindlessly obeying any law that is passed. Thoreau uses countless literary devices in order to make the touchy opinions presented in "Civil Disobedience" easier to understand and more convincing. Through use of innumerable similes and metaphors, Thoreau makes his arguments and ideas easier to understand, and effectively convinces anyone who reads his essay that the government is "each instant losing some of its integrity" (1), and that it should be done away with immediately.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human law and government are subordinate and antagonists to each other. Thoreau proposes that in an instance when each odd is against one another, an individual must choose their own moral path instead of the government path if necessary. Thoreau explains that people are not put in this world to make it a better place to live in, rather than to simply live it. He then describes that it is not man’s duty to devote himself to the moral wrong. It is man’s duty to avoid the moral wrong. For instance, if the government tells you to either kill your family members or be sent to jail, it is your duty to obey your conscience. Furthermore, Thoreau explains that the majority is not always correct either and thus, do not accurately determine justice. Although government has a place in human existence, man must eventually follow his own moral decisions and disregard human…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tim Dechristopher

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Thoreau, a Harvard philosopher, wrote in 1849 an essay explaining himself, who spent a night in jail to protest taxes that funded the Mexican-American War. Likewise, Tim Dechristopher, an environmental activist in 2008, disrupted the bid for oil drilling leases, to hinder and protest the destruction of the environment. Thoreau explains his antithesis, “If [U.S. Citizens] pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxes, to save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere with the public good” (Thoreau 3, 10). Hence, he states that doing unjust and illegal activities is justifiable, if it boosts public welfare. Similarly, Dechristopher’s illegal act of fraud is justified in the New York Times article, “Activist said the sale would threaten Utah’s wild lands and spoil the view from some of the state’s spectacular national parks with drilling rigs” (Associated Press 11). As many environmental activists agree, the public welfare of the people relies on the health of the environment. Seeing Dechristopher verbally support his own act of civil disobedience, and in like manner, Thoreau justifying his act and accepting it, it is deducted that they are both embodiments of civil disobedience. If civil disobedience was construed, Thoreau and…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Civil Disobedience” by Henry Thoreau warns its readers that we are at the mercy of our government and have no power as a minority that conforms to the majority, which represses our desire to resist the wrongs we believe in without the support of the masses. The place for an honorable, just man is within prison, which he explains through his personal experience. In part 1, Thoreau exposes how the government is without a conscience, susceptible to corruption for their own advantage, and are served not by men but by “machines” (5). We are left “to the mercy of chance” under the power of the majority. Part 2 explains that Thoreau didn’t believe in the voting system so would not pay poll tax, and was sent to jail only to find that he felt more…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thoreau begins his essay by arguing that the government intervenes too much and it would be better if they were not involved at all. He believes men are too absent minded and do whatever the government says without thinking about their morals. Those who listen and follow the government are not wise and do not trust their conscience.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result, of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest” (McElrath & Andrews, 2007).…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thoreau states in the text that this exact lack of scrupulous intentions would affect the decision-making and state of mind of any individual citizen. "If... the machine of government... is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." "It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support." (On Duty of Civil Disobedience.) Thoreau explains that every citizen has the obligation to oppose all unjust occurrences and has his or her own individual responsibility within their own…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “If the law requires you to be the agent of injustice, then, I say, break the law” (Henry Thoreau) This famous quote is taken from the famous essay Civil Disobedience written in 1848, Civil Disobedience still stands as an expression of moral and individual conscience against a un just government. To begin, the quote written by Henry Thoreau, “If the law requires you to be the agent of injustice, then, I say, break the law” is essentially saying If following the law results in a wrong done to another person, then do not follow the law, and that morals from human to human come before government rules or laws resulting in disobedience.…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Case Against Civil Disobedience the unknown author claims in his very first sentence that “the most striking characteristic of civil disobedience is its irrelevance to the problems of today” and that it is “the resort… exercised because the subject cannot or will not take up the rights and duties of the citizen.” What he fails to realize is that the rights and duties of a citizen is to keep an eye on the laws that rule the land and to revolt when those laws become unjust. It’s all part and parcel to the social contract thought up by Locke and heavily leaned upon by Thomas Jefferson. As Henry David Thoreau says in Civil Disobedience, “a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscious.” Civil disobedience can never become irrelevant because corruption will forever attempt to corrode even the best intentions of a government and so there will always be a need to revolt when unjust laws get pasted.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Ralph Waldo Emerson's eyes a good citizen or a good man would be someone who could control their own destiny, who was educated, and they were also faithful to God. Someone in Mr. Emerson's eye that was a good man rely on himself and only himself. This type of devotion and work ethic empower such a man to successes in life. This "man" has the philosophy of "fairness". I say the philosophy of fairness because, fairness does not mean everyone gets what they want or the same as other people, it means everyone gets what they need. This ties with Emerson's belief to count on you and only you because,the only way to get what you need is to make it happen yourself. Also Mr. Emerson saying that…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau expresses his strong disapproval of the American government. He even makes the following statement: "the best government is the one that governs the least." This quote shows us that Thoreau really does have a strong dislike for the government and that he will rebel against it. Thoreau does in fact rebel against the government by not paying his taxes. This causes him to suffer one night in jail. In his isolation, he is able to think, and concludes that he would rather be in jail than out in the real world.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Paine begins the pamphlet “Common Sense” with differentiating between government and society. He argues that society is a “blessing”; on the other hand, government is nothing but a “necessary evil.” Society is everything positive that people join together to accomplish. Government, on the other hand, is only there to protect us from our innate evil. Government has its origins in the evil of man and is therefore considered a necessary evil at its best. If all people acted morally, then government will not be necessary. But since we are all sinful humans, government’s role is essential to protect our life, property and provide security.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sioux Tribe Research Paper

    • 1664 Words
    • 7 Pages

    He follows this up by explaining that “If it is of such nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law.” This also clarifies that when the nature of the law is unjust, then following good conscience resulting in the breaking of the law is actually the duty of the people. According to Thoreau, for a law “to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed.” Strangely enough, Thoreau believes that a citizen’s duty is not to force others to eradicate the wrong by breaking the law, but only eradicate the wrong in one’s own life. Thoreau shows how remove injustice from one’s life in an influential line that reads as…

    • 1664 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thoreau writes in his essay Civil Disobedience that “The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Citizenship Themes

    • 1792 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Throughout the year in Western Civilization, there have been many opportunities to become much more enlightened about the history, theology, and philosophy of the words past and present. After reading novels and readings such as Looking backwards, the Rerum novarum, and even Women on the edge of Time; there are many themes that have a direct correlation between all three. However after analyzing and going through the discussion had between each novel, it seems that the overall theme connecting the stories together is citizenship. The best way to describe citizenship is as the overall burden and commitments that are linked when being a part of society. Throughout these stories a common ideal of citizenship is how utopian work portrays the government…

    • 1792 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays