Civil Disobedience Revisited- The Essay of Thoreau Brought to the Relevance of Today

Henry David Thoreau, an incredible essayist who lived his life during many of the struggles of the early nineteenth century, lives forever through the immortal state of one of his most tremendous essays, Civil Disobedience, which was first published in 1849. Most who know of this diatribe are fully aware of Thoreau’s opinion of government and overreaching authority, while keeping in mind his denunciation of said government was fueled by what occurred during the Mexican War and the U.S. treatment of Mexico, and also fueled by the very existence of slavery. One particular line most famous from the essay came early within it- The government is best which governs least. If you have not read this recently or at all, I suggest you do so at your earliest convenience.

It would seem difficult for any American who appreciates the Constitution and the spirit it contains to see his assertion as anything but quite worthy, even in the present day. But in this present day, could we develop any assumption as to where Thoreau might be regarding the state of the country today? Slavery based on racial divides is, of course, long gone, but slavery as an industry is more prevalent today than it has ever been. Further, the function of government (particularly a Republic of elected representatives) has drifted dramatically from where it once was. So, if Thoreau suggests we disobey laws considered hypocritical (deemed so by what we know this country is supposed to be, which is a free and self-governing nation), one would wonder where, these days, we would even start. And could we start this disobeying? Thanks to those such as Thoreau, the government has taken every step and precaution to ensure civil disobedience would be most complicated and intimidating to so much as contemplate. And this is quite the case since there is almost no way anyone could resist through tax evasion, as he suggested, but the technology of today does allow us to communicate our perception of the facts unlike ever before.

Thoreau mentioned how weak our government truly is when it can be bent under the will of but one man, and take a look at how this shines bright here, about five years into the Obama Administration. I am not a historian or a Constitutional expert, but I am amazed by how correct Glenn Beck is when he said it wouldn’t be long and we would no longer recognize this country. What I see today reminds me of what I was told of the USSR back in the seventies, and I thought it was so much scare talk at the time. Our government was always supposed to be a representing government of us taking care of our own business through elected officials who do their jobs and leave us to ours. But that is clearly not the case when government feels the pluck to interfere in all aspects of our lives, with almost no exception (and the people largely seem okay with that) to how deep they interfere. Elected officials speak like demagogues and act just like benevolent dictators (but the benevolence is increasingly rare) and it is perfectly fair to say that the United States of America of today is EXACTLY what it was never supposed to be, despite the fact that thousands and thousands of Americans fought and died, and virtually every family of this great nation saw loved ones offer the ultimate sacrifices to ensure this place did not end up like this.

My fellow Americans, I say right here and now that we cannot let their actions and sacrifices be for naught, and it is not too late. Sure, we have lost our place in this endeavor and have faltered, apparently since before the time of Thoreau, but if our Founding Fathers had the ability to right this wrong, then we surely do, as well. But we must learn to recognize that anything deviating from the original intent and spirit of the Constitution is a deviant and potentially criminal act. And there must be enough of us Americans caring that this is the case. Because this government is so weak as to bend under the will of clear and present dangers wielded by those who haughtily admit they are here to fundamentally transform this country, there must be enough of us to see that the Constitution still stands strong in viability and potential, and shines bright like a lighthouse in the darkness.

Today, we see numerous servicemen hiding behind handwritten signs indicating they did not sign up to fight in defense of those who fight to hasten our destruction. There are plenty of people out there arguing they are so wrong because they signed up to serve their country regardless of their opinions and views. While this is so true to a point, they signed up to follow the lawful orders of their chain of command, but swore an oath to protect their Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And as Americans, we should always retain the position of speaking our minds and conscience rather than submitting to the cowardice of just doing the job and following orders. Those just doing their job all too often strap bombs to children and operate bulldozers pushing piles of emaciated bodies into vast pits dug as mass graves. They also arrest concerned parents speaking out in defense of their children against evils such as Common Core.

A good American could never be a good subject, I contend along with Thoreau, and should never submit to the will of government corruption, but this is easier assumed than pursued, what with even politely questioning the overreach of government is met with being wrestled to the ground. Now, Thoreau contended that all machines have their friction, saying government is going to experience the efficiency it possesses and the lack of it, but the friction must not pursue the machine, with friction being intentional corruption and manipulation of our law. The government of today thrives on creating egregious bureaucracy and excessive regulation, knowing with confidence that it is exactly that and looks at the American people with an attitude saying, “What are you going to do about it, bitch?”

It is not American to stand there with a doubtful expression and remain silent, lost in thought as to how to respond. But according to Civil Disobedience, this silent doubt is an American tradition dating further back than baseball. But we must recognize that slavery was viewed in such a way then, and this was abolished by the strength of our Constitution. However, keeping the people at bay with bullying has long, long been the way of the government, mainly for the sake of it. What’s more is that a significant percentage of the people so overwhelmingly welcome it. The Liberals and Progressives of the day shun free thinking and Constitutional law for the vestigial attitudes of political leaders are demigods who own our existence and wield them according to their momentary amusement. While that sounds horrific, what fuels the horror is that, in a democratic society, it can become all too real.

Just take a look around you.

Thoreau was smart enough to recognize our election system and the act of voting is but a manipulative arm of this corruption, with what you get to vote on is limited and your choices of candidates is but thus. Moreover, most are content to allow their vote, cast once in a great while, to speak their mind for them, stating confidently they took part in the process while the chips fall as they may. But yet, Americans are more than happy and willing to stand nose-to-nose against virtually everything they find disagreeable BUT government overreach! This, I contend, is the lending of human superiority to a sociopathic liar who easily suspends any moral behavior in order to manipulate their way to an elected position through deception, and if they should succeed (Pelosi, Feinstein, and Obama) they are, therefore, superior human beings. I, to be honest, doubt their humanity down to a genetic level. People will screech at anything but government corruption (including a limited and controllable government), and it fair to state this is because the said dictatorship wields all the power and the weaponry and the goon squads to back it up. It might be fair to state we instinctively feel compelled to acquiesce to this power.

Thoreau contended that if a corrupt government imprisons citizens unjustly, then maybe a place for a just individual is in prison, because that is where free thinkers can feel so honored, and that to think one no longer has a voice against the real enemy must experience the injustice firsthand. But, dear Henry, prison these days is not what it was then. But he goes on to say that one must not just cast their vote on a ballot but also through their entire influence. I, your author of this writing, cannot do everything and I cannot don cape and cowl and save the world, but I can do this treatise here and leave it where the world can see it. And Thoreau was correct in stating they can’t throw all the just people in prison and function as a nation, so we can all do our part to influence the majority. We do not have to rise to arms or commit heinous drama to bring rise to the country of our Founding Fathers; I have laid out a potential model of what we can do to ensure positive influence and a peaceful revolution in a prior blog post called, How to Take This Country Back. You could find it with a minimum of difficulty.

But the people of today tremble to the thought of disobedience of any degree, particularly if it places their future, even the most short-term future (such as this week’s paycheck) at risk. To be arrested for the most shallow of reasons (and the goons of this government, whom often refer to themselves as law enforcement officers, which disgusts me to no end, can arrest anyone for anything) places many of one’s rights in jeopardy. Your second amendment rights dangle from a thread in a hail storm as it is, so just one tiny incident can break it. The tenth amendment is practically suspended and gone, as is the fourth. You have the first, but what is it worth when it falls on an entity that states that it will use everything you say against you. Oh, bravo to the manipulation of that.

The corrupt government that has denied the will of the Founding Fathers has been in place and well secured since well before the onset of Lincoln. It has been so confident in its place that those such as Lincoln serve well their scheme while wholeheartedly believing they do quite the opposite. Presently, we saw this with the administration of Reagan. These wonderful men led the best of us to believe that the government over us was the one placed there by the colleagues of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, mainly because they likely believed it. Thus, we willingly fed the monster that held its scaly thumb on the neck of the government we thought we had, and we made it stronger. We looked the other way to the action of this beast because we thought it was the contender vanquished when the Berlin Wall came down. The bear dressed as the eagle did so well and fooled us completely.

The government of today, which is nothing like what our Founding Fathers wanted and has not been since long before anyone who could read this was born, has been exquisite in creating a country it desires, which is a country of lobotomized fools who freely accept the ruse they are free and active when the fact is they are fitted with collar and chain well before puberty sets in. We quietly do what we are told even when we rally and cry out next to those who speak for freedom and a limited government with enumerated powers. Alex Jones thrives under a government he claims is out to destroy him and his world, with his bestselling books and gobs of websites, mainly because that government is so well established that it sees Jones, Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Wilkow, and so many others as mere yappy dogs who appease the people while the true arm of power leads the way. This bizarre dictatorship is so good at what it does that it verily greases the wheels of its slave ships with the hopes and dreams of those who rattle their battery-operated light sabers and claim they are getting off if this next line is crossed, just you wait and see. But to step off this grand and pretty ship is to step into a dark abyss and disappear into something quite unknown, and everyone knows it.

But underdogs have come back from some rather daunting odds, so there is no reason to assume this fight is lost. Sure, the dictatorship that owns us today is doing quite well and has all the pretty and cool people on its side, but there is still not one single reason to assume humanity is lost to pursuing the future as a slave race. The day can still come when the burly guards at the gate of government stand there to ensure the government does not pull taut the chains that bind it. Today, nearly all law enforcement officers are nothing more than goons licking the pubic hairs from their chins placed there by those who believe They are the Law, but there are still good people who want better. Truly intelligent people recognize a proper government is the one operating only under the will and consent of the people and that government only does what it is told. They recognize a free nation of laws protects the future of all citizens better than a hierarchy that believes itself genetically superior.

That we can so much as know of Thoreau and other like-minded men gives us grand hope through recognizing that there are brave men and women who find their way into this dictatorship (Rand Paul) and help keep it at bay, because the truth of the matter is that those who wield the dictatorship are rarely purely evil. Instead, they have been convinced that the people must be held down for their own good and their futures must be queued along single-file corridors so they do not get lost. Many of these people think they are doing the right thing. I cannot rightly call Barack Obama a Luciferian monster (although I am often tempted to) when it is fair to assume he believes he is doing what is best. Now, does he believe his personal interests deserve the best and everyone else is allowed the table scraps? I do truly believe that is the case. But I cannot say with confidence he desires the crushing of humanity and to force God to His knees before him. It’s just that he believes humanity is similar to dumb sheep that must be shepherded or else it will stumble off the cliffs. So, the fight is not one of pure good and evil, but a matter of what we believe humanity truly is. Is humanity a dumb beast that must be ruled by those proven superior because those who attain superior positions are thereby superior, or is humanity a superior species that found its way there through the will of a Superior power who recognized the potential of humanity as a custodian of freedom and intelligence?

I believe we are smarter than what the reigning psychopaths suppose. But I am smart enough to recognize that, for right now, the psychopaths reign superior over all of us. But if good Americans become bad serfs, the self-proclaimed lords who believe they own those serfs will eventually become exhausted, particularly if the serfs outnumber them by millions to one. We know that those who disobey alone will feel the fall of the axe and swiftly, but we have to recognize that if we disobey together because we know the laws and rules we disobey are themselves illegal and false, then these axes will dull to the point of becoming useless, and eventually those wielding the axes will turn to face the trembling lords. So, because my crystal ball reflects only my own hopeful gaze, I have to turn to others in my hope that humanity eventually recognizes it does not have to succumb to the dictators.

But, for those few who have read this far, let us not just wait and see. Please join me in the continual quest to demonstrate that good Americans are bad serfs.

With me, be a bad serf.