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More handpicked essays just for you.
Social norms within cultures
Social norms within cultures
Social norms within cultures
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Even modern ideas can relate to ideas from the past. Pink Floyd and Thoreau have many things in common even though they are hundreds of years apart think about it. They both agree with the ideas that the government is controlling and overtaking. In the Pink Floyd video it talks about how they don't need no education but the government is making them and Thoreau writes that the government is controlling.
Thoreau writes about how the government makes decisions based on the majority and they don't make conscious decisions. Thoreau writes “it is truly enough said, that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience”(277).Thoreau is saying that if people would use their heads and make a conscious decision then the government would function correctly but instead they decide to base the decision on what the majority thinks it's a majority rule and whatever they decide sticks no changing it. Pink Floyd describes how the government is making kids go to school they have no say in the matter and the government
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is controlling and powerful and you can't disobey them or there are consequences.The idea of a controlling government is expressed heavily in Thoreau’s civil disobedience and in Pink Floyd’s “Another brick in the wall”. One of the ideas of civil disobedience is that the government cannot make people do things they do not have the power to control society. In civil disobedience Thoreau writes “yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
it does not keep the country free. it does not settle the west. it does not educate”(276). In pink floyd's video they say “we don't need no thought control”. This is saying that Pink Floyd and Thoreau agree that the government is trying to control society and make them do things. The government is powerful and they try to control society and they have to obey the rules that they provide for people and if they don't they are punished for it even if such laws are unfair people have to go along with them people have to obey them or suffer the consequences. Thoreau also says that the government is like a machine. The machine will soon get old and rusty therefore it will have to be replace and thoreau thinks the government is the same way it will soon need to be replaced with something else an alternate
form. It's hard to believe that someone from the 20th century could agree with the same ideas and concepts from someone from the 1800s. Thoreau and Pink Floyd both agree with the concepts that the government is both controlling and powerful. Such as when Pink Floyd says “we don't need no education” but the government makes kids go to school they have to obey and listen to what the government tells them to do. The government makes the decisions and society has to follow them if they don't want to. Thoreau thinks that the government is like a machine and machines have to be well oiled and properly maintained if not it won't work anymore. Thoreau compares the government to like being a machine and soon that the machine being the government will stop working and will need to be replaced with something new. Both Pink Floyd and Thoreau share the same ideas about life and the government they both think the government is powerful and overruling and that they are trying to control society and change people. Even though they are from completely different eras of time they both think the same.
People in modern day society should learn from past transcendentalists and engage in the concept of solitude. Henry David Thoreau and Chris McCandless were both transcendentalists that believed in the key fundamental idea of solitude. Henry Thoreau was a transcendentalist that practiced the form of solitude throughout his life. Later in his life, he left society and moved into woods to be alone. Henry David Thoreau wrote a book called, Walden where he recalled important lessons and ideas that his master Ralph Waldo Emerson taught him about transcendentalism. Along with Thoreau, a more modern-day transcendentalist was known as Chris McCandless. McCandless journeyed to the wilderness in Alaska to be able to experience a minimal amount of human
on ways to be civil but disobedient, they have opposite ways of convicing you. Dr.
“Majority rule only works if you’re also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.” Larry Flynt. Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a dystopian future, in which to maintain “happiness” individuality has been removed. Books are burned, schools remove thought and create button-pushers. The citizens remain oblivious to the outside world’s suffering even as enemy bombs descend upon them. Fahrenheit 451 foretells a possible future in which the majority, like wolves, have consumed the intellectual and independent thought.
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
In the first paragraph Thoreau states “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had no lived.” Here he is saying that he wanted to live simply, and to go through life knowing that one day, when he does die, he lived his life to the fullest extent possible. “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” Thoreau wishes to take all that life has to offer him and make the best out of it. He does not wish to die knowing that he didn’t live as much as he could’ve. By ‘suck the marrow out of life’ he means taking all that he can out of life. He feels that by going off on his own into the woods he can have new experiences that will help him figure out his purpose.
While the government will attempt to control you, and generate all the decisions they think are right, the people need to stand against them, for the reason that they need to think for themselves and speak up in order for them to have their freedom. Each speaker challenges the listeners to think for themselves instead of letting the government think for them. However, each speaker uses different concepts on how to convince the people to genuinely think for themselves. Furthermore, they show the audience on how to resist the government. Thoreau and Gandhi had similar ways on why and how to resist the government.
The government are not listening. On “A Civil Disobedience describes on how the civilization was being corrupted by the fact that the community was being affected by the laws that the government did in order to see how the civilians will do. According to “A Civil Disobedience thoreau states that “government has made the mode which the people have no choice”. Thoreau mentions that the government made some changes that the people did not know about by following the laws. This appeals to the people credibility ethos because the government needed the credibility to the government for allowing the civilians to follow the rules. One example is in “A Civil Disobedience” describes “ government shows thus how sucessfully men can be opose for their own advantage like being the person that got used”. This connects to analogy because there is a comparisons between the government making the laws and the people doing so much to not obey the laws. On A Civil Disobedience”Thoreau mentions “the charactered inherited in american if someone would have done something if the government had not got in the way. Thoreau said that the government got in the way from someone who was about to try to change and only one man refused to pay the taxes and he has inspired everyone to do it. The author appeals to the person emotions because it has hurt the man feelings when the
Thoreau espouses that the democratic party listens to and answers the majority, which are the desires of the most powerful group. The problem with this is that the most virtuous or thoughtful group is left aside because the government only pays attention to what the strongest group says. A government functioning on this principle cannot be based on justice, because the ideas of what is right and wrong is decided by the majority, not by conscience. Thoreau writes, "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think we should be men first, and subjects afterward. (p.178 para. 4)" He claims that it is more important for people to develop a respect for the right, instead of having a respect for the law, for it is people’s duty to do what is right.
...ble (Thoreau, 2013). This went too far because he wanted to hold the power in a decision in which he couldn’t change. He wanted to tell the government that he had rights as a citizen even if it came to a war that he didn’t support. His statement on the government making the wrong decisions, it’s probably true that they do, but as citizens we must have trust in what our government does for this nation, even if it’s not the right decision.
In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau expressed his own views on the government and how he feels about it when he says, “That government is best which governs least.” This quote expresses how some people today feel about government due to new presidential elections. Both republicans and democrats have had mixed feelings about Donald Trump for both the good and bad. Like Thoreau believed that government places too many restrictions on society, and that government isn't suitable for the power that they are given, so are some anti Donald trump activists. Recently, there have been many riots or civil rights movements, such as the women's march, that have been protesting against Trump and the way that he treats and talks about women. Many women spoke out and expressed their individual opinions just as Thoreau did about government and the restrictions he feels government has on society. They are showing non conformity because each woman is standing out from the rest of society who doesn't have the same views as them. These women aren't ashamed of themselves or what they are doing because they're so proud of what they believe in and what they stand for. Women also believe that because of certain laws that are part of government, that they can't accomplish everything they set their minds to because they feel like they are limited in certain areas of life. Thoreau expressed similar views by saying, "People has done all that has been accomplished and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes gone in its way." This quote expresses similar views from both Thoreau and his perspective on government, as well as the women from present day who are using Thoreau's writings and relating to them. Other than Civil Disobedience, Thoreau also wrote, Walden which is an essay that describes the connection that he made
“Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” – Henry David Thoreau, Essay on Civil Disobedience
The Industrial revolution took place from 1760 to 1840 and was controversial in America because it pushed human kind away from nature but created more jobs. The 21st century is like this period of history, for society has become so invested in technology that nature and simple things become less appealing. People’s lives have changed; everywhere someone goes he/she may have some form of technology with them and transcendentalists would argue that this is not an advancement that has helped our society. Transcendentalism is a movement created by philosophers in the 1820’s that has many aspects, but one main idea is that nature is important and allows one to connect with their inner spirit. Henry David Thoreau took part in this movement, and in his book Walden, he shows that getting rid of material items and becoming closer to nature can allow one to live their most fulfilled life.
Thoreau anticipated and believed that the government would not always be just and fair to the whole people. He believed in the human conscience and that the only way for government to be fully just, was to give the people a chance to correct it. Civil disobedience is practiced in almost every country. It is almost impossible for any country to survive without the help and support of its people. Thoreau wrote in an article called “Civil Disobedience,” “Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? - In which majorities
Thoreau does not support the structure of the current system and suggests people should be self-governed. Thoreau writes “government is best which governs least” (Thoreau 1). Thoreau does not trust involvement of a government in an individual’s life and claims that the government should have minimal involvement in its citizen 's life. Thoreau points out “Government is at best but an expedient” (Thoreau 1). Thoreau knows that a government is needed to do certain things, however, Thoreau argues the government is not needed to control an individual’s life. Thoreau argues “There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power” (Thoreau 18). IN Thoreau’s defense one can never accomplish freedom unless he/she is given the power to govern themselves. To be the master of their own ruling. Meanwhile, Martin Luther King’s idea of the government is different to that of Thoreau. King claims that a government is needed although it has to Changed. King describes our nation as a nation that does not care about its people but rather about the power it has. He explains “...A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death”. He points out that if the current government does not stop focusing on war rather than things as education it will soon collapse. Both individuals disagree with how the government functions and imply there needs to be an alternative. While Thoreau mentions that an individual should be the one to govern themselves, King suggests the government is needed for healthy development of
...nturies. Mill presents a clear and insightful argument, claiming that the government should not be concerned with the free will of the people unless explicit harm has been done to an individual. However, such ideals do not build a strong and lasting community. It is the role of the government to act in the best interests at all times through the prevention of harm and the encouragement of free thought.