Civil Disobedience
"I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best when it governs least.", is a classic line brought into the readers thoughts by Henry David Thoreau, contained within his classic literary work entitled "Civil Disobedience". In the confines of this relatively short work, he compacts his ideas, philosophies, and thoughts on the matter of government, and its intolerables into an organized and concise package which sums the whole of his ideas quite well. Though easy to understand from a writers standpoint, his words are not always as easy to for the common individual, but if the time is allotted to break his phrases into easily understood segments, his words carry much more information than is what is transcribed onto the written page. Often, only a few words, when thought about, can open up a whole new horizon of information, and provoke thoughts within the transcriber's mind, causing the reader to readily think about Thoreau's thoughts, as well as being a stepping stone towards building upon some of their own. Thoreau's words, especially for this reader, hold immense meaning, and to simply decode what he was saying would not nearly do it justice, but to include the thoughts brought about by his words can help to bring forth
When David Thoreau went ahead to write "Civil Disobedience", he was probably more than angry at the whole notion that a system set up to help and protect the people could become so out of alignment, and crooked. He was angry that such a few number of individuals could make decisions for an entire nation, and was angry that they made bad decisions that did affect him as well as his fellow Americans. And though his self proclaimed motto, as he felt, would probably solve the problem, he did feel as if the people were not ready for it, so he as a person of established government was stuck in a ditch without a tractor to pull him out. But by writing this piece of literature, it may have given him some alleviation from the pains of twisted democracy, but it could not make him completely happy. Though Thoreau never did receive his wishes, at least his ideas are not in vane, for people in the last century have readily realized some of governments evils and are trying to smite them down with a quick hand. In "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau expresses his feelings towards the United States government and how he feels within himself that it is quite wrong not only for his needs, but as well as for the whole of this country. He includes that, "That government is best which governs least," but uses, "and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government that they will have." When he states to the reader his idea of this type of government, and that the people are not ready for it in the slightest of ways, for they still follow their society conforming ways, thus they would not be able to handle this type of government; much like younger children can not be trusted to be by themselves for extended periods of time. Another point that can be made to why this idea of government may have no foothold, relates back to the need of many people to adhere to wh
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Approximate Word count = 1257
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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