Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience : The Conscience at Work

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2. Romanticism in 1916: Jack London's "Credo" I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn outin a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atomof me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/

3. A 1962 comment: • “During my early college days I read Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience for the first time. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I re-read the work several times. … It goes without saying that the teachings of Thoreau are alive today. Indeed, they are more alive today than ever before.” • --Martin Luther King, Jr.

4. “Essay on Civil Disobedience” • Aka “On Resistance to Civil Government” • Two tax refusals : • 1838 (church), • 1845 (poll) • The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail • The Emerson story (apocryphal?)

5. Method… Persuasive Essay: • Good attention-getter. • Gets right to the meat of the argument. • Convincing rebuttal. “I have heard some of my townsmen say, ‘I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico--see if I would go’…” (250, 2nd col) • Illustrates with personal experience. • Closes with a larger vision.

6. Style: the same man at work as in Walden • Conversational: “The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners in their shirt sleeves were enjoying a chat and the evening air in the doorway, when I entered. But the jailer said, ‘Come boys, it is time to lock up’….” (p.251) • Provocative: (Not afraid of overstatement) “It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.” (250)

7. Arrogance? • “I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services.” (251)

8. But also…the subtle knife! • “It was a closer view of my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions…. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were about.” (253-end) _____________

9. His argument: • Is the law the highest moral authority? • No. The right is the highest authority. • When the right and the law conflict…? • You must obey the right. • Is it your duty to right every wrong? • No, but you must (at least)… • Not cooperate with the wrong.

10. Great passage left out of the text #!$&… • “In a nation that imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man…is also a prison. It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race, should find him.”

11. Defining Civil Disobedience…? Three ingredients: • Nonviolence • Disobedience • A significant injustice (I.e. worth the disruption)

12. Examples for analysis • Radar love… • A boy drives 105 mph. When caught, he does not resist arrest (although he throws up on one of the arresting officers).

13. What goes around… • (1936) A group of Jews decide to defy a Nazi order forbidding Jews to worship publicly. They chant and sing as they walk down the street. When Hitler’s troops arrive to arrest them, they pull knives out and kill as many as possible. • (2001) To protest Saudi support of anti-American schooling, US citizens fire-bomb the Saudi embassy school in DC. No one is killed, but the building is destroyed. • An American group links arms and blocks Saudi diplomats’ access to their reserved UN parking spots.

14. Hunger artists… • A mayor closes homeless shelters because of an epidemic, and homeless activists begin a hunger strike till shelters reopen. • Local artists protest the shelter closing by posting portraits of the homeless (“Faces of hunger”) along the streets by City Hall. • A 3rd-grader wanting to stay up to watch news of the event, defies bedtime, singing “We Shall Overcome” as she is carried off to her bedroom and grounded for a week.

15. The choice wars… • A pro-life group blocks an abortion clinic. When police come, they go limp and are carried away singing “We Shall Overcome.” • Next day pro-choicers show up first and occupy the entire block, keeping any protesters away. • From a distance, pro-lifers photograph patients and doctors and put their photos on “Wanted for Murder” posters.

16. Black Elk… • Black Elk, a Sioux chief, files suit against South Dakota, claiming the state is rightfully his. • Black Elk performs a “ghost dance” and urges his followers to “purify the land” of “white vermin.” • Black Elk and supporters occupy SD’s capitol and refuse to leave. Finally, they poison themselves.

17. Heck no, we won’t go! • Two children required to go to bed before their favorite TV program (whose time has been pushed back due to a breaking news story) refuse to leave the TV room. Finally they leave but rip the plug out of the socket, causing a short which disables the TV—thus keeping their parents from watching their favorite show.

18. I was a child and she was a child… • A child reports abusive treatment by her stepfather to her guidance counselor. The father is arrested. • When the father is released on bail, the child runs away from home. • When the father tracks her down, the child slams his head with a literature book, causing permanent brain damage .

19. Net loss… • When athletic facilities are closed to student use after school because of vandalism, a student group has a “shoot-in” in which they stay in the gym after school shooting baskets and refuse to leave. When the sheriff is called, they bombard deputies with “fowl shots,” using dead turkeys, then go quietly.

20. Hot tips… • When waitresses tips make are required to be included in a business’s taxable income, the owner—afraid that will force him to reduce his number of waitresses, many of whom will not find work in the current recession—simply keeps the same staff but reports a lower number and does not report the extra tips.

21. 1st amendment follies • A student newspaper decides to protest a school rule against profanity in any student publi- cation by suing in federal court under the First Amendment. • The above newspaper protests by printing “Administration bans ‘___’!” as the next headline. (Consider 3 cases: they print the word, just the first letter, or just a blank.) The story treats several other words similarly.

22. Bored of education… • Students in a class (other than English) protest the “boring” nature of assignments by refusing to do any more homework for six weeks. • Other students protest by “morphing” their assignments till they find them more “interesting” • Other students link arms keeping teachers from the copy room.

23. Between Iraq & a hard place… • A citizen refuses to pay his income tax because it is going to support military action in Iraq. • An FBI agent, having traced an anthrax letter to a Baghdad address, mails an equivalent dose (without knowledge of her superiors) to the same address. • A citizen against attacking Iraq, burns a US flag on the Capitol steps.

24. Crashing the Dow… • Citizens organize a boycott of Dow Chemical's products because of its “environmental genocide.” • The same group organizes a march to Dow’s shipyard to protest “fascist genocidal chemicals” being shipped to third world countries. One ship mysteriously explodes & sinks after embarking.

25. What would Thoreau and Emerson say…? • Kelli and her friends have grown up near a pond surrounded by some woods where several rare orchids can be found. She frequently goes there by herself to think and write poetry. The woods contain the oldest known red spruce trees in the state. One of her friends says she should go with him to a particular place to “watch the sunset and smoke, or something.” He says it inspires great thoughts, but so far she has resisted that idea.

26. Thoreau’s take…? • She finds that a developer has bought the land and is going to drain the pond and clear some of the woods to build a freeway to reduce traffic congestion. She is horrified. Her parents tell her, “You’ll just have to get over it, honey. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

27. The “Squats” File… • A senior at W&M, class of 1969 (coincidentally named Walker) moves in with another student because his—Walker’s—roommate, who has dropped out, has left trash all over the place. • When time to check out for the year, Dean Squattriglia (aka “Squats”) points out it’s Walker’s room now and orders him to clean it. • The student offers to clean his half of the room.

28. continuing saga… • Student shoves all refuse under roommate’s bed, over which he posts a sign saying “Enchanted forest. Enter at own risk” • The Dean, not impressed, says student must clean up or not receive his degree. • Student tells him what he can do with his fascist reptilian pig degree. He’d rather not graduate than submit to the injustice of cleaning up a mess he didn’t make.

29. & finally… Former roommate’s girlfriend (still on campus and having heard about the confrontation) says “good grief” and offers to help clean student’s room. Student decides his honor has been protected and accepts her offer. Student eventually graduates, though wearing black armband to protest various other injustices.