Thoreau’s Political Claims

Henry David Thoreau is very skeptical about the government and its performance. In his works, he often criticizes the government. He disagrees with the injustice of the policy of the government, including the slavery and the Mexican-American War against which he protests in his works. At the same, on developing his political views he compares the government to the machine. In such a way, he metaphorically compares the government, which takes decisions influencing the life of the entire nation and each American, to a heartless machine, a mechanism created by human hands and mind, which eventually turns against the man. In such a way, the government rebels against its creator ”“ the people.

H.D. Thoreau finds a lot of similarities between the machine and the government and he underlines that in order t o functions smoothly the government needs to implement laws which ensure the normal functioning of the government but not people who actually elect the government. So does the machine, since the machine needs a man to control its normal work and repair if necessary. However, at this point it should be said that H.D. Thoreau develops quite original political views concerning the improvement of the functioning of the governmental machine.

To put it more precisely, he suggests disobeying to the government-machine when it starts to malfunction.

Moreover, he even suggests disobedience to laws and revolution to “repair” the government-machine.

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that H.D. Thoreau extrapolates negative features and characteristics of machine on the government, which turns to be a rigid and heartless machine ignoring interests of citizens and their rights.



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