"Civil Disobedience"
Henry David Thoreau · 1849
The essay that gave Gandhi and Martin Luther King their political philosophy. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right." Changed the world.
The case against
Thoreau's imprisonment lasted one night; a relative paid the tax, and by his own account he went off to a huckleberry party. As political philosophy the essay is thin: it offers conscience as a supreme court of one, with no answer for what happens when consciences collide. Gandhi and King supplied the discipline and the strategy. Thoreau supplied the slogan and the pose.
Essays · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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