A Study in American Cynicism
Thoreau made the bold statement that “government is best which governs not at all." In his Civil Disobedience , he firmly proclaims his position that government is at best merely an expedient; it is not a choice means of people putting ideas into action but rather the next best thing. It quickly deteriorates, beginning to fall from the original goodness that it might have had. His point is simply that man is good by nature, but government obstructs the goodness of the whole of man, his collective will, when unhindered. Likewise, in a similar vein, Emerson writes, “whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” (876). He claims that to be a true man, a true individual, a person must stand up and live for himself, without regard to the culture surrounding him or the pressures of people who think a certain way, or others. An individual’s own perspective is what matt...