Civil Disobedience Refiection

"Civil Disobedience" is the emerges of the Transcendentalism which followed the Romanticism period of writing. This piece of Transcendentalism was written by Henry David Thoreau and was a part of a new wave of writing that was influencing other people and spreading new views throughout America. The Transcendentalism period of time was influenced greatly by the rebellion of religion and government (Barney). "Reacting against both the Puritanism and the rationalism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Transcendentalists adopted neither religious faith or radical skepticism but instead explored the spiritual and imagination and contact with nature" (Barney). Another characteristic of the Transcendentalism period is the disbelief in the government and the rebellion against them thinking that the do not know what is best for the people. In the novel Civil Disobedience they talk about the government and how the best government is one that governs least ( Thoreau). Today people believe that the government is to involved and that they need to leave things alone like the recent bills going in to effect about allow the government to regulate what is published or copyrighted on the internet. These bills were going to block site that contained copyrighted information and that would have the government putting their noses into stuff that they do not need to be involved in. Transcendentalist today would have been outraged at the idea of the government trying to control yet another thing that they do not understand completely.

"Transcendentalism espouses a belief in a kind of god or a divine principle inherent in humans that binds them to the natural world" (Barney). The thought of Transcendentalist is that they are connected to nature and not wrapped up in all the religion and politics of the time. They want to rebellion against the normal status quo and that is also kind of the same as the Romanticism period with the belief in the nature and not the so caught up in blaming others and government problems."After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest" (Thoreau). The people want the power and they are not getting it so they are writing about their frustrations with the government and the opinions that they have about the nation and what they want to see in the world. They are also in search of equality and fair treatment in the eyes of the people compared to the high life of such officials in politics and higher paying positions. " Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God" (Thoreau). This statement from Civil Disobedience describes their feeling of how they believe they are being treating and it is true they deserved to be treated like just like everybody else. The United States was built on the idea of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and even in the Constitution it states that all men are created equal and this idea is what has sparked wars and revolts against the same people who are suppose to be living according these rules.

"Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. "Transcendentalism." Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.