The Philosophy of Nonviolent Protest

Henry David Thoreau believed that if one could not justify or agree with the rules of the government , one should not follow the law . However this is not as easy as it sounds because in breaking the law , the individual must be willing to pay the consequences of breaking the law In this particular instance Thoreau did not pay his poll tax and was jailed . He was in protest against slavery and imperialism in the Mexican American War . He saw the war as a way to expand slave territory . Thoreau was not a

believer in manifest destiny . As he said "I cannot for an instant recognize . as my government [that] which is the slave 's government also (Thoreau ) He was released after someone paid his poll tax for him , but this event prompted him to write his famous treatise called Civil Disobedience . Thoreau presented a way to change they system if one does not like what is going on . Therefore Thoreau 's concept of nonviolent resistance is one that influenced people around the globe , such as Cesar Chavez , Martin Luther King jr . and Gandhi

Thoreau 's Civil Disobedience contains many ideas that will be echoed later in history by important activists . As he later wrote in "Civil Disobedience " he believed "it is not a man 's duty , as a matter of course , to devote himself to the eradication of any , even the most enormous wrong he may still properly have other concerns to engage him but it is his duty , at least , to wash his hands of it , and . not to give it practically his support (Thoreau . It was man 's duty to break the law . This is a line that was heard and taken to heart by many , a line that cut to the souls of activists

The modern-day principles of nonviolence are

Active nonviolence is rooted in the fact that human beings are gifts from God

Active nonviolence is a way to be neither a victim nor an oppressor

Active nonviolence is a way to wage conflicts in a human way

Active nonviolence seeks to break the cycle of escalating violence

Active nonviolence is a simultaneous journey inside us and outside us

Active nonviolence is not weak

Active nonviolence mobilizes "people power

Active nonviolence seeks the truth of the situation and firmly holds onto it

Active nonviolence creates a situation powerful enough to challenge injustice and to continue as long as it takes to create change

Active nonviolence does not seek to conquer the opponent but to overcome the injustice of the situation by creating a solution that takes into account the humanness of all (pacebene

Martin Luther King Jr , a civil rights activist , used many of Thoreau 's ideas of the protest . He believed that standing up for what he believed in was necessary and was more important than any law . King also began to search out other leaders to emulate , and he heard a speech by Gandhi King was also drawn to Hindi 's ideas and...