Is Thoreau Afraid of People?

I don't know...
Maybe the reason he didn't get more involved in activism is because afraid of communication with people. After all, he isolated himself from the rest of the world for two years when he wrote Walden (though he did eat dinner frequently with his Emerson).
Henry David Thoreau barely left Concord. He went to college at Harvard, but then returned to Concord for most of the rest of his life.
He turned down the only marriage proposal that ever came his way.

Maybe he's an isolationist because he's really bad at communication with people.