Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience

Thoreau’s views were pretty clear and straightforward in his essay. I agreed with some of the things he discussed. Thoreau stated “That government is best which governs least”. I fully agree with him. A government shouldn’t control every aspect of an individual’s life and have total control over a society. An individual is still a human being and is entitled to their privacy. The quote had me thinking about the subject of U.S. government, propaganda  and politics. It actually reminded me of two novels I had to read for two other past English classes that I took. One was in Jr High and the other in  high school. When I was in Jr High, I had to read a novel named Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Mainly, the novel took place in a futuristic society where the government had total control over a society. In that society, books were prohibited. No one was allowed to read books or even mention the word. If they did, they would be arrested and the books that they owned would be burned, even if it was a religious text like the Bible or the Torah or the Quran. The government deliberately and intentionally wanted the public to be ignorant to sustain control over the people. They wanted the people to be like puppets. In high school, I had to read a novel named 1984 by George Orwell. The plot for that novel was similar to Fahrenheit 451 where a futuristic society was ruled by a totalitarian government. The government was always referred to as “Big Brother”. The phrase, “Big Brother watching” was brought up throughout the novel. Basically, the novels, like Civil Disobedience, had me thinking about the American government and how much control it really has over society. I think both novels demonstrate the reasons why Thoreau feels that a government governs best when it governs the least. The more control that a government has over a society, the more the citizens become less like actual people and more like puppets or action figures. They’ll just move when they’re told to move, say what ever the government wants them to say and think what ever the government wants them to think.