Civil Disobedience is an American virtue
Our natural rights are constantly threatened by government overreach, and it is up to us to stand up and protect them.
In his essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Thoreau wrote, "government is best which governs not at all."
Those who refuse to comply with unjust laws are often shunned, persecuted, and hated in their own time. Yet, they are often later revered for their courage, sacrifice, and commitment to truth.
The phrase 'civil disobedience has a rich history in America. The practice has strong ties to the anti-slavery abolitionist movement. Non-compliance with federal laws that mandated the return of escaped enslaved people was rampant throughout northern states before the Civil War. In 1850, the Vermont legislature passed a law effectively requiring state judicial and law enforcement officers to oppose the federal Fugitive Slave Law directly.
One of the driving forces behind the Civil Rights Movement was non-compliance. Hundreds refused to comply with state laws by engaging in acts of civil disobedience like sit-ins. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. had several stints in jail for his repeated refusal to comply with court orders. Rosa Parks' refusal to comply with a city ordinance mandating segregated buses would force her to the back of the bus. This act elevated her to the status of a historical icon because of her civil disobedience. Her act of non-compliance is something schoolchildren are taught every Black History Month.
Let's not forget when the American colonies were still under British rule, the colonialists' responses to tyranny led to the independent nation we are today. Practicing freedom of speech and assembly was just one of the tamer methods that our founding fathers used to achieve liberty from an authoritarian government.
Non-compliance is American at its core.
It's a shame that so many citizens were so passive for so long for the past two years. Still, there are plenty of fed-up ordinary citizens who have spoken up and resorted to acts of civil disobedience in the battle for less government control over our day-to-day lives. We would have seen much more if leaders all over the country didn’t start relaxing some of these nonsensical virus mitigation restrictions.
Clayton is the founder and publisher of the social and political commentary newsletter Think Things Through and host of the Think Things Through Podcast.
Twitter: @claytoncraddock
The way to take down a mad dog is to be meaner than the dog. One may assume one is smarter than the dog coming in, or that poor creature would not have instigated the assault in the first place. Being smarter, we get to decide, not government, what tactics we might use to dismantle its harmful and lawless capabilities. Hint: none of these people trust each other, not between offices nor within the same ones. It isn't all that hard to get 'shit-storms' started among them, and let them do the job of disabling each other.