Few political theorists ever note the political side of Henry Thoreau's writing, and, true to form, Thoreau often disavowed any explicitly political slant to his writing. However, that's difficult to accept of one of American history's most ardent abolitionists and a man who wrote a pivotal piece of American political philosophy that has come to be known as Civil Disobedience.
Scholar and Vermont history professor Bob Pepperman Taylor has written two books specifically focused on the political angle of Thoreau's work, and in a classic punk rock connection, Pepperman notes that "Thoreau exhibits a young person's rebelliousness." A classic criticism of Thoreau has been that his writings, especially early pieces, were "so youthful as to appear immature." Was Thoreau too young and inexperienced to be a true political philosopher? Or was the spirit of his passion, young and inexperienced, not old and jaded.
Pepperman also observes how Thoreau's reflections on economy in the opening section of Walden enable us to "think of Thoreau as the first and perhaps greatest American writer to attack the complacency of the emerging American middle class." And that characterization is an apt connection to the early 80s post-punk, early hardcore of Greg Graffin's band Bad Religion and Henry Rollins work with Black Flag.
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