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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 intolerable's 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 his ideas a little closer to the average reader. 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 what everyone other person is doing, thus making self rule impossible.
The need to conform would more than likely spark up another of human emotions having the evil nomenclature of envy. This thus tends to persuade one individual trying to be better than the other, ultimately leading to feuds, hatred, and ultimately the collapse of self governing the land that they live on in peace. So, in short, if the people do not reform their conforming and envious ways, there is no chance for self government. Thoreau however believed he was beyond this, and could only wish that society would conceive the same. Another key point Thoreau brings across is that The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. , and uses the example of the Mexican War as the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool to exercise his notionistic point.
He strongly believed that though government officials are elected by the people of the nation the elected officials will be representing, these governmental employees, though sweet and sugar-coated on the outside happen to be just like any other person of society; they are able to be corrupt, corrupted, and may not always do the moral thing. He also felt that the government could easily become abused before the citizens are able to stop it s progress, thus the government becoming corrupt beyond their fixing. As Thoreau, this writer does feel the same issue of being backed into the corner in the present governmental situation, not really being able to control the officials that run this country with any effect as an individual, and if they do happen to make wrong or corrupt decisions, their mistakes end up hurting themselves, as well as the people they have been chosen to represent. He used the Mexican War as an example this, only a few officials being able to make huge decisions like this, being able to send men into battle to die by only their command, and without any intervention from others. A present day variation of this is President Clinton pardoning a list of inmates, just because they happened to donate money to his campaign, or do him favors. Now a whole group of corrupt people are on the streets again, possibly putting peoples lives, family, and finances in jeopardy.
A president is only supposed to use those powers to pardon immensely deserving, or innocent people, but instead Clinton chose to pardon a bunch of rich tax evaders, and rich, contributing to his party, drunks for his personal gain, and not one person could stop him. Once again, because of governmental corruption, the people have to pay, and this is exactly what Thoreau was trying to get across to a nation with the wool over their eyes. Last, and most importantly, Thoreau expands upon a key idea about government, and states, It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the west. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
He very much believed that it was not the governments right to credit the accomplishments of the nation, like they so much like to do, but it was the peoples right, for it is the people who do the deeds, do the work, and create the accomplishments that the nation can be proud, or ashamed of. Only a small percent of the time can government take credit for, and even then it is the people of the government who create an accomplishment, not the system of government. It is a real shame, as this writer believes, very much as Thoreau would have thought, that the nations system of government can take credit for what people have done, for government is a system, not a person, and only the people in it can truly do things, and only those people should be accredited, not an entire system. 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.
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