Civil Disobedience: Second Great Awakening

The Transcendentalism movement raised self-confidence; it made you believe in what you thought was right, and to not conform with the things around you. It is the spiritual unit of all forms of being, with God, Man, and Nature all sharing a universal soul. The movement developed in New England around 1836, Henry David Thoreau was a leading figure. He wrote “Civil Disobedience” in 1848, it embraces the need to emphasize one's conscience over the command of laws. From the government, the men, a man’s duty, the wrongs of majority, to the unjust system. He strictly states that a nonviolent rebellion is the best way to revolt. The Transcendentalists ideal in Civil Disobedience in nonviolence, three ways Thoreau clearly demonstrates these ideals are through Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

Transcendentalism was what Emerson and Thoreau touched most with their writings. They took their words, and created something new that many people would later follow. Transcendentalism is the nature of being one with yourself, and learning to better yourself through nature, and self knowledge. The quote from above is an example of what the two figures preached. Emerson believed that consistency of thought was foolished, and he highlighted the fact that having a consistent mind was mindless. He believed people should have an open mind, and be able to look at things in different perspectives.

During the period of Transcendentalism, the point was to stand up and to think for yourselves. The Transcendentalist valued the importance of awareness, and had an interest in social reform and injustices. They often spoke out against authority and held an extreme disdain for past authorities. One of the most important parts of Transcendentalism is the concept of extreme individualism. To a Transcendentalist, an individual must be aware of the goodness they possess within and they must be able to use that to encourage others. People need to find their way in life and learn to trust their inner-self. They believed that a person does not need society to tell them how they act or what to believe in. Henry David Thoreau believed in the greatness of people. In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau urges people to practice activism, by this he means that when the government is unfair, people must distance themselves from the corrupt government and fight for what they believe to be right.

A summary of “Civil Disobedience” Tarik RABHANI Stream: Literature. “Civil disobedience” is an essay written by the American writer, and transcendentalist, David Henry Thoreau. The essay came as a reaction against the American-Mexican war and slavery, two of the most prominent issues of that time.

Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist who wrote “Civil Disobedience.” Thoreau being a transcendentalist, saw the innate goodness in humans , he believed in a higher reality than that achieved by human reasoning. Thoreau’s essay urges nonviolent resistance towards the government policies to which an individual is morally opposed. He demonstrated how he protested without being violent by not paying his taxes. Thoreau influenced many, like Dr. Martin Luther King jr. For example, Martin Luther King jr. also stood up for what he believed in and protested nonviolently like the Montgomery bus boycott that was against racial segregation. Thoreau and King ended in jail, where Thoreau was inspired to write “Civil Disobedience” and where king wrote “Letter from a Birmingham jail.”

While doing the internet research I found that Henry David Thoreau was a true transcendentalist. Transcendentalists criticized the society of that era for not being conscious and acting relatively to what majority do (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2011). In young ages he was influenced by his professor Edward Channing in Harvard University to become a writer (Walden, 2014). Channing taught many secular thinkers and assigned essays for class on duty and inconvenience. Later on Thoreau met Ralph Waldo Emerson who became his friend and confederate. Emerson and his companions influenced Thoreau by showing the importance of releasing the mind from prejudices and following the consciousness (Walden, 2014). Martin Luther King in his turn was influenced by many great thinkers whom were mentioned in his letter. These people are saints as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, the great philosopher Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi and so on. Clayton (1968) says that Henry David Thoreau also made contribution to forming of his ideas. King thought why not incorporate the idea of Jesus Christ’s such as to love your enemy, Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance to fight injustice in India and Thoreau’s disobedience of unjust laws (Clayton, 1968). In one of his articles George Carter (1960) mentions that it is possible that transcendentalist as Emerson and his companions influenced King significantly rather than Thoreau. Carter explains this unusual idea by the fact that King and Thoreau had different opinions on acceptance of violence. However we can’t deny the fact that they had similar position against abolishing unjust laws. In general both Thoreau and King were influenced by great people and the fact that King followed the idea of civil disobedience proposed by Thoreau explains why they had similar ideas towards unjust

Transcendentalism was a very influential and important movement of its time. It allowed for free thinking and a simpler life. Authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were the main voices of the movement, and they wrote about pressing problems of the time. The literary pieces, " from Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson and "from Civil Disobedience" as well as "Slavery in Massachusetts" by Henry David Thoreau, exemplify the society that they lived in, its government's questionable decisions and why you should resist them, and the need to be alone in the modern day. Ralph Waldo Emerson teaches us that to be alone, and experience nature to its true potential is incredibly important in becoming a better and more independent person overall.

The United States of America was founded by rebellious English men, who would not stand for inequality. As time progressed, the rebellions shifted from wars full of bloodshed to peaceful protest and civil disobedient. Many people feel that civil disobedience is wrong ways to act on issues. A greater amount of Americans feel that civil disobedience is the strongest and most effective way to get change to the issues. I agree that civil disobedience shakes America into making a deliberate change.

An influential literary movement in the nineteenth century, transcendentalism placed an emphasis on the wonder of nature and its deep connection to the divine. As the two most prominent figures in the transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau whole-heartedly embraced these principles. In their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience”, Emerson and Thoreau, respectively, argue for individuality and personal expression in different manners. In “Self-Reliance”, Emerson calls for individuals to speak their minds and resist societal conformity, while in “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau urged Americans to publicly state their opinions in order to improve their own government.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are said to be some of the greatest influencers on the Transcendental movement. Many people today still use their works as inspirations. Emerson and Thoreau preached the importance of their nonconformity beliefs as well as how to do them as a way of making a person's life memorable as well as accepting the outcomes of this lifestyle. Thoreau and Emerson's strong beliefs created a lasting impression on society. Thoreau was very against the government and the laws and actions it used.

Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson were some of the most visionary authors. Transcendentalism was a hopeful philosophical and social movement that grew in New England around 1836 in response to logic. Affected by sentimentalism, Platonism, and Kantian reasoning, it taught that heavenly nature plagues all nature and humankind, and its individuals held dynamic perspectives like women's rights and collective living. Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson had insightful thoughts that people enjoyed. These individuals revered Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson as a result of their methods for disclosing imperative proclamations to the individuals.

The philosophy of Transcendentalism, according to the article “Transcendentalism, An American Philosophy” is believed to have been created and led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is why he is considered by many literary scholars and historians to be the father of Transcendentalism. Throughout the years, this philosophy attracted other artists and thinkers such as the American Romantic novelist Henry David Thoreau. These prominent and poetic individuals created an insight for this movement, believing in the true and significant values of individualism, minimalism, and spirituality in their lives. These specific aspects can be found in Thoreau’s most famous work, and Transcendentalist staple, Walden. This novel was a reminiscence of his life

Transcendentalism is an American movement in the mid-1800s that emphasizes finding one’s inner self as well as the following characteristics; nonconformity, self-reliance, free thought, confidence, and the importance of nature. This movement created new philosophical beliefs and influenced future great leaders. An important Transcendentalism author, Henry Thoreau, was arrested for refusing to pay his taxes. While in jail, he wrote “Civil Disobedience”, an essay that explains why it is sometimes necessary to disobey the government. Thoreau and his writing directly impacted several civil rights leaders, including Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nelson Mandela.

Henry David Thoreau along with a select group of people propelled the short movement of transcendentalism during the 1830s to the 1850s and was later brought up during the Vietnam War. Many of the transcendentalist ideas came from student who attended Harvard University during this time period. Henry David Thoreau’s individualistic anarchist views on society were developed throughout his early life and later refined in his years of solitude; these views on society and government are directly expressed in much of his work.

I believe that peaceful resistance to laws both positively and negatively impacts a free society. Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey certain laws and government demands one considers unjust, and accepting the consequences. The first amendment prohibits Congress to enact any law that would intervene with any person's civil rights. Though everybody knows this, why are there discussions about what people can and cannot refuse to do. Some people refuse to do things because it goes against their faith, which as stated earlier is allowed according to the first amendment. While others refuse to see what is right in front of them, in the very center of the Declaration of Independence.