Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_-_Henry_David_Thoreau

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All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution Of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.

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I say, let us not have such a machine (BushCo), which has seized power illegitimately through election fraud, looted our treasury driving our nation to near bankruptcy, deceived us into an illegal war for which there appears to be no possible good outcome, illegally detained and tortured so called enemy combatants, prevented free and fair elections via GOP controlled private corporations that collect and count our votes in secret, and taken extreme measures to intimidate and punish critics and dissenters. Like it or not, to rid ourselves of this machine will require nothing short of a revolution. To think otherwise is to engage in self delusion. Neocons control all three branches of government plus the ballot box---that's not something that can be overcome working within the system. I favor revolution in the form of civil disobedience, not unlike that of Rosa Parks. We need to organize different kinds of massive and sustained non-compliance with this crooked regime. Kinds of non-compliance that cannot be ignored and will force them to react. I submit that we start kicking around ideas for various kinds of civil disobedience that we can refine, build on, and hopefully carry out. With BushCo likely to be rocked back on it's heels under the weight of coming indictments, We likely won't see a better time to strike. What say ye?

MJ24