Grant T. Smith, Ph. D.
Discussion Questions:
"Resistance to Civil Government"
1.
What role does the "state" play in your life?
Do you have a contract or an "implied contract with the state? Consider "state"
in its broadest sense: country, religion, business, school.
2.
Select any passage from "Resistance to Civil
Government" that especially provokes, stuns,
annoys, amuses, or confuses you. Discuss why you choose the passage.
3.
What do you owe the state? When you do have the right
or even the obligation to rebel against the state? What does Thoreau say about
this?
4.
What is more important? The state or the individual?
What happens when we rephrase the question: "What is more important?
Autonomy or interdependency? Community or society? Is any person above the law?
Socrates asked, "Ought a man to do what he admits to be right, or ought he
to betray the right? Is the concept of civil disobedience above the law?
5.
What is the difference between disobedience and dissent
and civil disobedience?
6.
Does the United States
have a tradition of civil disobedience? Indeed, does "rebellion"
define our character?
7.
How is civil disobedience an assault on the democratic
society, an affront to our legal order, and even an attack on our
Constitutional government? How do you respond to Antigone's
criticism of Creon: "I did not think your orders
were so strong that you, a mortal man, could overrun the gods' unwritten and
unfailing laws."
8.
Cite some contemporary issues that illustrate this
apparent conflict between the state and the individual. Be prepared to discuss
you position on each issue.
·
Should smoking be banned from public
restaurants?
·
Should school funds be used to finance
"fringe" student groups (a University
of Wisconsin issue currently before
the Supreme Court).
·
Should federal funds be used to finance art
foundations or even National Public Radio?
·
Abortion
9.
Read Martin Luther King's essay, "Letter from a
Birmingham Jail." Comment on any passage you find especially powerful.