对比梭罗《论公民的不服从》与马丁路德金的非暴力不合作运动

甘霖

【摘要】梭羅的《论公民的不服从》是梭罗的关于号召人民不能默许政府左右他们的意志，让不公平的法律存在的著作，它对后来的马丁·路德·金所领导的民权运动产生了很大的影响。但他们在目的、方法、结果上有很大的不同。本文通过对两者相同与不同点的对比，显现出《论公民的不服从》对马丁·路德·金的非暴力不合作运动的巨大影响。

【关键词】梭罗 公民不服从论 马丁·路德·金 非暴力不合作

【Abstract】Civil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau which argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences， and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. It has profound influence on Kings Civil Movement. Through the comparison of their goals， methods as well as results， it is quite clear that the influence is remarkable.

【Key words】Thoreau； Civil Disobedience； Martin Luther King； Nonviolence movement

Civil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau which argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences， and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. It has profound influence on Kings Civil Movement. However， they are differed in goals， methods as well as results.

First of all， Both Thoreau and King are aiming to struggle against the injustice of government and win the rights of people. Both of them oppose the War， Both of them are against the slavery.

For difference， However， Thoreau considered government as an ethnic institution and politics as a moral proposition. He appeals to individuals as moral agents but not political citizen. He calls upon the people of Massachusetts to withdraw their loyalty from the national government. He use the way of refusing to pay the poll taxes to show his opposition towards American Mexican War. He disapproved the way of expanding slavery.

Martin Luther King aims to wage campaigns to win more rights for Black people， for example： he organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott to eliminate the segregation of black people in transport. He organized the famous March on Washington for jobs and freedom to persuade congress to pass Kennedys proposed legislation. More importantly， He waged civil rights movement to win more rights for black people to gain equal employment opportunities， education opportunities. He also concentrated on helping those people who suffered from poverty. King argued that African Americans and poor Whites were natural allies and if they worked together they could help change society. He also made speech in which he outlines the reasons why he was opposed to Vietnam-war. In addition， their goals towards government are quite different. Thoreau called upon Americans to disassociate themselves from the “machine” of government； Thoreau begins his essay by advocating the famous motto， “That government is best which governs least.” This carried to its natural conclusion is the complete absence of government， Yet Thoreau recognizes that the urgent need is not for a complete absence of government but for a more efficiently run government that does not attempt to dominate individual morality. He writes， “Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect， and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” King called upon them to become more involved in politics in order to secure the voting rights that had been denied to black citizens. King realized that civil disobedient should be take recognizing political authority and its processes as premise. Thus he specified the steps to be taken systematically. That is to collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist： negotiation； self-purification and direct action.

And also， King possessed a keener sense of power politics than Thoreau had so he counted more on politics in setting goals. he believed that civil disobedience would stimulate the Birmingham， Alabama， administration into a dialogue that would lead to solution. He thinks that “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor； it must be demanded by the oppressed”. What King had demanded was the fulfillment of racial integration in public institutions as promised by the Supreme Count in 1954 in the now-famous Brown and Board of education decision. In fulfill that demand， king and his followers had violated a count order， a local injunction against demonstrations， he believed them deprived him and his black and white supporters of their constitutional right of free assembly. He offered several other reasons why a given law could be considered unjust and unmoral.

In terms of Method， both Martin Luther King and Thoreau use the Peaceful way of resistance. Thoreau： refuse to pay taxes and showed his dissatisfaction with the government. Finally， he would rather be sent to the jail. According to him ： “under a government which imprisons any injustice， the true place a just man is also a prison”. he thought that although his body is confined， his mind was as free. He also avoids colluding with the government by refusing to play an active role in it. It does not involve taking up arms or using any other methods of violence to achieve its ends. In this sense， Martin Luther King advocates the kind of peaceful but assertive resistance defined by Thoreau as civil disobedience. His strategy for political change was to plan， facilitate， and implement as many acts of resistance as possible while avoiding violence at all costs. He wage several non-resistant campaigns to win more rights for black people， he also deliver the speech to inspire black people to unit together.

The difference， however， is the people which involved of King and Thoreau in practicing the Civil disobedience. king likes mass unification while Thoreau prefers individuals. King wanted the actions of civil rights activists to provoke thought， critical evaluation of the government and of society at large and a radical change in governments and societys treatment of excluding minorities. King has the power of civil disobedience by creating a critical mass of individuals to band together as a show of solidarity. In his letter “from Birmingham jail”， He addresses those individuals who criticize him for such a strategy， and what makes this letter so effective and powerful is that his audience， the people he is trying to convince are such large in number. King travelled the county making speeches to encourage people to become involved in the civil rights movement. For example， The famous speech “I have a dream” in Washington inspired the crowd a lot. Comparatively， Thoreau seems to have been more of an individualist in his method of practicing civil disobedience， he calls upon each citizen who felt so compelled to determine and implement his own act of resistance， which need not be coordinated with someone else. This can be seen from his refuse to pay his taxes he believed would support the Mexico war. He had spent only one night in jail and then returned to his cabin on Walden Pond to continue his hermit life， justify the moral right to oppose an immoral government. To some extant， Thoreaus civil disobedience is on the psychological degree while King takes it into practice.

In addition， king was willing to use the legal and political institutions of the state while Thoreau expressed a strong distaste for the role of the government in interrupting peoples lives. Thus， he isolated himself from society and lived in privacy， seeking for the free mind of human-beings.

As a result， Thoreaus solitary act of defiance failed to end the Mexican War， Kings collective movement succeeded in securing black voting rights and integrating schools and other public facilities.

To conclude， though there are some similarities and differences in terms of goals， methods as well as results between Thoreaus Civil disobedience and Kings nonviolence movement， King learnt a lot from Thoreaus revolutionary work. Its influence is profound.

References：

[1]Rosenwald，Lawrence The Theory，Practice & Influence of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience quoting Gandhi，M.K.Non-Violent Resistance pp.3-4 and 14.

[2]King，M.L.Morehouse College （Chapter 2 of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King，Jr.）.

[3]Thomas E.Patterson.The American Democracy.New York： McGraw-Hill Companies.

[4]常耀信.美國文学简史[M].天津：南开大学出版社，2002.