Individualism and civil disobedience

"When many millions of men, without heat, without ill-will, without personal feeling of any kind, demand of you a few shillings only, without the possibility, such is their constitution, of retracting or altering their present demand, and without the possibility, on your side, of appeal to any other millions, why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force?" - Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience" (page 15)

 Above all else, Henry David Thoreau calls for the empowerment of citizens and the rise of individualism in his essay "Civil Disobedience".  With this idea, he defines a "good" citizen as someone who goes beyond the act of voting.  To become a truly engaged citizen, Thoreau advises people to "cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence." (9).  

Henry David Thoreau's opinion on individualism was certainly not a popular idea at the time.  If Alexis de Tocqueville was introduced to Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" he would further express his fear over dangers of equality and individualism.  Tocqueville and others like him would pronounce Thoreau's ideas as radical and dangerous.

While Thoreau wrote his essay on disobedience, he does not break all laws.  Rather, he only submits to laws for good reasons and to those he describes as "who know and can do better than I" (18).  Thoreau suggests a conversation about the room for improvement in the American system of Democracy.  However, he also warns that Democracy must move more towards individualism  above all else.