Why Does It Not Cherish Its Wise Minority

Civil Disobedience “That government is best which governs least”, (Jacobus 305) is the opening line of Henry David Thoreau famous writing called Civil Obedience. Thoreau wrote about how a good government should not have control or power over its people. But what he really believed in was that there shouldn’t be a government because people have the ability to self-regulate and be independent on their own. Letting the government have too much power turns it into a machine, as Thoreau called it, and it comes up with its own goals and desires and will act upon those no matter how unjust they may seem to the people, which is not right. Thoreau mentions the Mexican- American war in his writings. He used this as an example to prove his point on an unjust act the government used on its people. He believed that the Army is made up of people who did not agree with the war but had to fight in it because their government had told them to. People obeying the laws and doing something the people were against is not what a good citizen should do. Thoreau believed that people should defend their justice and their right because then the government would have nobody to control and make them do the governments unjust desires. …show more content…
He states, “Why does it not cherish its wise minority” (Jacobus 312). I think Thoreau is considering the people who are not the ones with the power and are the ones who are against the government’s beliefs as the wise minority. As they have the same beliefs as Thoreau, but they show no action against their government. People vote but according to Thoreau Wise, to me, would be more ethical than moral in this writing because even though the people do not agree with some of the things government does they still go along with it because the government tells them