Civil disobedience is a form of protest in which individuals or groups refuse to comply with laws, demands, and commands of a government or occupying power. An example of civil disobedience is the ESSAY written by Henry David Thoreau in 1849 entitled 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience'. This ESSAY argued that people should not allow 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. Activism is a form of civil disobedience in which individuals or groups take direct action to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can include protests, boycotts, marches, strikes, sit-ins, and other forms of civil disobedience.