Resistance to Civil Government

Answers

• Q21HABIT

  Can repeated obedience train a person to obey without judgment?

  Yes. Soldiers and officials serve the state as machines, with no free exercise of judgment or moral sense.

  The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, _posse comitatus_, &c. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw, or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without _intending_ it, as God.

  Downloaded Gutenberg #71; confirmed the passage.

• Q36STATE

  Should public officials carry out rules without exercising personal moral judgment?

  No. Most men serve the state 'not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies', as soldiers, jailers and constables, and so give up moral judgment; conscience must come first.

  The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, _posse comitatus_, &c. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw, or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without _intending_ it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and _men_, serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated by it as enemies.

  Opened Wikisource text from Aesthetic Papers (1849) and confirmed the 'as machines' passage.