Civil Disobedience (Response 2)

Civil Disobedience 2

Peter Joelson

12/16/08

Dear Mr. Thoreau,

Once again I find myself writing to you. After reading the second half of your “Civil Disobedience” essay I once again find your ideas interesting, yet once again have clear, sensible, logic, as to why your ideas do not work. Your ideas on rebelling against your government by not paying taxes in a “peaceable revolution” would not work. Your idea is that, “if a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood.” Your theory is correct, but you chose the wrong battle to fight. After your time, there have been a few people who have followed your example, such as Martin Luther King Jr. (fighting for black civil rights). He used and tried to enact other protestors to use the tool of a “peaceable revolution.” The only difference between his revolution and your theoretical revolution, is that his had heart behind it. His revolution inspired hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions), to take part in a rebellion. Your idea of people not paying taxes has a few flaws. For one, the majority of your rebels will only be poor people, who are not paying taxes, not because of principal, but because they do not have the money to do so. Such a rebellion will not go far unless there is heart behind it. It also will not work because a government can strike you down and “shed innocent blood” without any effect. To the average civilian, the government taking actions against a person who hasn’t paid a tax is only a government that is punishing a lawbreaker. However, as it was in the Civil Rights Movement (a point in history I wish you could have seen), the people saw innocent blacks being attacked by dogs or destroyed by fire hoses. Such an image will bring a revolution closer to their objective, for they have the pity of the public people. This is unlike your idea in which not many people will take pity with you, thus bringing you and your revolution nowhere.

P.S. I hope that you take my letters as “constructive criticism” and not contempt.