Guidelines from Henry David Thoreau

“It is our duty to wash our hands of indifference and inaction
and withdraw our support from every injustice…”

Ladies and Gentlemen: In the last two hundred years, we have seen a great deal of progress in the direction of individual rights. This is a direct result of the evolution of governments from heavy handed dictatorships to monarchies with limited powers, to our current attempts at democracy. Obviously there are still significant improvements that can be made.

At best, a government is a tool to organize public services; unfortunately most governments are terribly inefficient organizers. So much time is wasted on elections and each year more integrity is lost in the process. Unfortunately honest people and patriots accomplish little more than a cheap vote or a weak petition, often choosing to hesitate, while waiting for the politicians to remedy their own evils. Truth be told, the character of one good person can easily accomplish more than a weak government. Ironically the best government is one which has to govern the least. Furthermore the only rights a government should have over a group of people or their property are the rights which they concede.

In the US Declaration of Independence, there is a clear understanding that citizens have the right to refuse allegiance to the government when corruption or inefficiency becomes intolerable. Unfortunately unjust laws still exist. Shall we try to amend them and in the meantime obey them until we have succeeded? Or shall we transgress them immediately?

It is far better to cultivate a respect for what is right than to cultivate absolute respect for the law; therefore we should be ethical human beings first and only afterward be good citizens. A common result of the undue respect for law is when a soldier marches off to war against his/her common sense. When this occurs, that person becomes a mere shadow of humanity, like a zombie buried under arms. Ironically even soldiers without conscience are esteemed as ‘good citizens’ when in truth, they deserve little more respect than a horse, a dog, a scarecrow or a lump of clay. Furthermore the objections against fighting are many and carry serious weight. In the end conscientious objectors deserve to prevail.

Instead of arguing with politicians about any of this, it is far more effective to cut off our business with the actual enterprises and merchants who lobby for unfair advantages. Practically speaking these are the ones who oppose legitimate legal reforms because they are more interested in commerce than they are in humanity. The problem is that government officials and many of the people who elect them are often unsure what their real goals are, so many potential improvements are slow in coming.

Fortunately civil disobedience can speed up the process of legal reform and reduce public reliance on the false security of the existing government. Furthermore it costs more in every sense to pledge allegiance to a corrupt State and her stagnant forms of security than it would to incur the penalty of non violent civil disobedience.

Let every one of us make known what kind of government would command our respect and that will be a big step toward obtaining a positive, useful and functional State.