About the duty to disobey the state

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Henry David Thoreau , 1856

“ On the duty to disobey the state ” is an essay by Henry David Thoreau that was first printed in 1849 . The original title was initially The Resistance to Civil Government , in the first edition it became Civil Disobedience and later On the Duty of Civil Disobedience .

prehistory

Since 1834 Thoreau lectured at the community college of his hometown Concord . He read the manuscript of this essay there on January 26, 1848. The lecture was published the following year in the first and only issue of a magazine called "Aesthetic Papers". The specific reason for this text was Thoreau's arrest, which came about because he refused to pay his election tax, which was due four years ago. He could have paid, but refused and was imprisoned. The next day, a member of the relatives paid his debt to the prison guard for him and Thoreau was released.

content

First page of the first edition from 1849

Written in the times of American conquest and slave politics , Thoreau's essay calls on us to bow to the positive law of the state only if it is in accordance with personal moral judgment. He propagates a moral right of conscience against injustices in democracy with statements such as: “But if the law is such that it necessarily turns you into an injustice against another, then, I say, break the law. Counterbalance your life to stop the machine. In any case, I have to see to it that I do not commit myself to the injustice that I condemn. ”He also accuses the civil servants who are loyal to the state without listening to their own hearts.

Another criticism of Thoreau is the majority principle in democracies, "[d] a an unqualified majority can decide on unjust rights and a majority decision in no way means that the best decision has been made". He calls for an individual right of conscience instead of following uncritical majority decisions.

These calls for civil disobedience to the state for reasons of conscience inspired the ideas for nonviolent resistance of Gandhi and Martin Luther King . The French resistance movement in World War II was also inspired by this reading.

filming

In 2012 the award-winning Portuguese western Estrada de Palha was released (English festival title: Hay Road ). The script, written by director Rodrigo Areias , is based on Thoreau's essay.

See also

literature

  • Henry David Thoreau: On the Duty to Disobey the State. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2004 ISBN 3-257-06460-8 .

Web links

Wikisource: "Civil Disobedience" in the complete, English-language original version  - sources and full texts (English)
Wikiquote: Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ WE Richartz: About Henry David Thoreau. Epilogue in: Henry David Thoreau: On the Duty to Disobey the State - and other essays. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1973, pp. 71–83.
  2. ↑ in: On the duty to disobey the state, 1849
  3. ^ MK Gandhi: For Passive Resisters . In: Indian Opinion . October 26, 1907.
  4. ↑ Martin Luther King, Clayborne Carson (ed.): The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr . Warner Books, New York 2001, ISBN 978-0-446-67650-2 (reprint).
  5. ↑ www.kino-zeit.de , accessed on November 2, 2013