Henry David Thoreau, "Walden and Civil Disobedience"

"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind."


"Walden," first published in 1854, is a work that is at once an autobiography, a text on self sufficient living, a cataloging of observations of the natural world, and a critique on the excess and furious pace of modern society. Written over a year long period spent near Walden Pond, on piece of land that was owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau chose to separate himself from the people and trappings of the modern world in a life experiment with simplicity, subsisting on a meager vegetarian diet, in a meager self-made home, working only to sustain his life, providing ample time to read and contemplate in solitude and to observe and commune with nature in its yearly cycle. Thoreau moves beyond mere ideological opining by using his own life to experiment in living simply, and in effect getting to a kernel of existence that avoids meaningless and destructive externalities. "Civil Disobedience," an essay that was deeply inspiring to leaders of nonviolent movements to follow in the 20th century, is one that makes the case that when confronted with state mandated laws in opposition to one's conscience, one is morally obligated to resist the law.To continue in one's participation in and allegiance to governments, states, or other temporal authorities that enforce morally repugnant laws, such as was the case with slavery, is to perpetuate these laws through acquiescence.

Links:
The Thoreau Reader

Citation Information:
Thoreau, H. D. (1983). Walden and civil disobedience. New York: Penguin Books.