Being a Good Citizen

Does good citizenship necessitate following the laws despite some kind of injustice within them? Are good citizens obliged to blindly follow the government policies? It follows then, what is good citizenship? Henry David Thoreau provides an adequate definition of good citizenship within his essay, Civil Disobedience; Thoreau discusses certain characteristics of a good citizen. Examples of Thoreau's definition exist in both the ancient and contemporary culture. Sophocles describes Antigone as a good citizen by Thoreau's definition. Within the play, Antigone, Sophocles utilizes the character of Antigone to epitomize the proper role of citizens within a society. Currently in India, economic growth has given rise to the need for good citizens to help morally develop the growing country due to the government's mistreatment of its citizens. Good citizenship calls for members of society to act upon injustices; fine citizens perceive injustices within society and act in order to right unjust laws.

Good citizens transcend human institutions in order to achieve the greater good. These citizens will accomplish all that they possibly can to correct erroneous establishments in order to attain morality. Henry David Thoreau defines bad citizens as those who remain politically apathetic when they witness injustices within the legal system; said citizens may disagree with the policies of the government, but follow these laws regardless of proper morality or ethics. An individual who disagrees with certain taxes, but pays the taxes regardless of their own views exemplifies Thoreau's description of a bad citizen. These citizens do not act against the government and, as a result, the injustice remains evaded and unresolved. Thoreau describes government as a machine that continues in one path and calls for citizens to "let [their lives] be a counter-friction to stop the machine" (par. 18). Good citizenship denotes acting within one's abilities to rectify injustice in a legal system.

Thoreau uses imagery to depict the concept of good citizenship. He illustrates good citizens as those who not only drink from the lake or poolÐ'--symbolic of the Bible and the ConstitutionÐ'--but trace where the trickling begins and journey towards the fountainhead (par. 44). Good citizens transcend the knowledge attained from the Bible and the Constitution and seek the nature of the values found within both texts. These citizens will then assimilate these teachings into his lifestyle, so as to uphold the raw, uncensored ideals of the Bible and the Constitution, and contest those who violate these principles.

The character of Antigone exemplifies good citizenship within the play Antigone, by Sophocles. Antigone struggles against the government in order to achieve what she believes to be justice and fully accepts all the responsibilities in fulfilling said justice. Antigones states that Kreon's "decree had strength enough Ð'... to violate the lawful traditions the gods have not written merely, but made infallible" (Sophocles lines 555-58). Antigone accuses Kreon of placing his own laws above the natural, infallible laws of the gods. She openly demonstrates against Kreon's unjust law by burying her brother, Polyneices, despite the punishments due to that crime. Similar to the characteristics found within Thoreau's essay, Antigone accepts the consequences of breaking a law in an attempt to resolve an injustice. Although death is the due punishment for burying the Kreon-dubbed "traitor," Polyneices, Antigone proceeds not intimidated because she acknowledges the inevitability of death and views her situation as more profitable by "benefitting" from her death (lines 562-70). It is clear that Antigone rectifies an injustice by committing a crime, recognizes that she broke the law, and