Born in Concord, Massachusetts, the popular Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau lived a very simple life which led him to his popular essay "On Civil Disobedience." Thoreau lived a very unique life and he based his writings on many of his fufullling principles. One of his principles, on the authority of government, I strongly agree with. .
Thoreau's concept of "Government is best which governs the least"(CD 35). I strongly agree with this principle and his statement which followed it, "That a Government is best which governs not at all"(CD 35). Those statements made by Thoreau in 1894 still holds true in 2003. With the United States government over looking foreign affairs, one must ask if it is our duty or our right to decide how citizens of other countries live their lives. We (the United States Government) often interfere with many other country's political affairs, which is what truly harbors those nations from being functional and setting up a true democratic nation. I believe that some government is needed to legislate laws protection wildlife and laws for the prevention of homicides, but who has the duty to say how right things such as gay marriages, drug use, the age at which one can drink and purchase alcohol is? Should the government assume these responsibilities, or should the conscious individual citizens decide if things are right for them? "It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right"(CD 36). After all, it was the United States government that allowed slavery to exist for more than fifty years. And this same government ( our American Government ) fought wars with nations, killing their citizens, purely to gain land for its "just" purposes. "There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly"(CD 40).
