Like many utopian theorists of the 19th century, Thoreau saw this as the inevitable future: “when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government they will have.” Thoreau laments all restrictions on trade and regulations on commerce. “I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least,’” wrote Thoreau, and ultimately “’That government is best which governs not at all.’” It lies instead at the watering hole where right libertarianism and left anarchism meet to have a drink.

Thoreau’s political philosophy is not passive, as in the phrase “passive resistance.” It is not middle-of-the-road centrism disguised as radicalism. This is an essay we have become all-too familiar with by reputation rather than by reading. Neither, of course, did Henry David Thoreau, author of the 1849 essay “ Civil Disobedience,” a document that every student of Political Philosophy 101 knows as an ur-text of modern democratic protest movements. But I see no moral reason to condemn people for fighting injustice, provided their cause itself is just. The question that presents itself to any opposition is what is to be done? Go underground? Sabotage? Take up arms? The likelihood of success in such cases-depending on the belligerence of the opposition and the capabilities of the government-varies widely. The present is rife with examples of oppressive governments. History is rife with examples of oppressive governments.

Civil disobedience by hd thoreau