One of my sons is reading Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience for school. It had been a long time since I had looked at it. Reading it again, I see how it captures many of the themes of this weblog. While Thoreau has often been criticized for lacking a concept of social solidarity (and other failings), there is no doubt his essay is worth reading (or re-reading):
“That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have…we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right…Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents on injustice.”
You can find more resources on Thoreau here.
