Civil Disobedience vs. Sociology of the South
Civil Disobedience vs. Sociology of the SouthExamining two pieces of writing from 1800 US history, we see two writers with strong polar backgrounds agreeing on minor issues of the time. It is hard to find a common ground between Henry Thoreau and George Fitzhugh, but they share similar views toward government and its relationship with the masses. They opposed the government and wanted the people to dictate their wants to the government.Henry David Thoreau, writer, naturalist, and philosopher, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817. Thoreau became involved in the transcendentalist movement, a discipline promoting self-education and the development of the individual.Thoreau's most famous essay, Civil Disobedience (1849), was a result of an overnight visit in 1846 in a jail, when he refused to pay his taxes in protest against the Mexican War and the extension of slavery. Believing that his money should not go towards programs he did not believe in, Thoreau ended up in jail for one night.In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau's advocacy of civil disobedience as a means for the individual to protest those actions of his government that he considers unjust has had a wide-ranging impact. Emphasizing the magnitude and significance
On the other hand Fitzhugh believed that slavery was a catalyst to good economy and prosperity. Thoreau viewed the government as the conventional order that serves only to prevent reform and change, as can be seen in the following passage from Civil Disobedience: "Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary. " Here, Thoreau questions whether it is not better or not to decide right and wrong by appealing to the ethics inborn in all individuals, rather than the rhetoric of a self-serving entity like the government. He believed that free trade and capitalism widened the gap between the poor and the rich when he writes, "To encourage it [free society], is to encourage the strong to oppress the weak. Thoreau was strongly anti-slavery and believed that people should have the freedom and liberty to do what they please. Furthermore, Fitzhugh had some feminist views that came out of the fact that women were paid less than men for the same jobs. " Fitzhugh also blames capitalism for the inequality between men and women. As a result of mankind's frustration at not being able to get around these obstacles, man instead marches in line at the governments bidding, believing only with the governments control will they be able to successfully plot the path to individual freedom. His definition of slavery was broad and included all kinds of labor. Fitzhugh saw free trade as an evil because it overrides the human ethics and morals. conformity, Thoreau expresses a strong distaste for the interfering role of the government in people's lives. He disliked trade and the entire modern world order. I don't see a common ground onto which the two writers can agree on with respect to politics, culture and social issues due to their vastly different natures. The two writers, Thoreau and Fitzhugh, have the extreme different views as their respective areas, the North and South.
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