On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience Rhetorical Analysis

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“All machines have their friction―and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil… But when the friction comes to have its machine… I say, let us not have such a machine any longer” (Thoreau 8). In Henry David Thoreau’s essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” the author compares government to a machine, and its friction to inequity. He believes that when injustice overcomes a nation, it is time for that nation’s government to end. Thoreau is ashamed of his government, and says that civil disobedience can fight the system that is bringing his country down. Alas, his philosophy is defective: he does not identify the benefits of organized government, and fails to recognize the danger of a country without it. When looked into, Thoreau’s contempt for the government does not justify his argument against organized democracy. Henry David Thoreau supports laissez-faire capitalism, as shown in his opening remark “That government is best which governs least” (Thoreau 1). This is a policy where the government has little or no interference in its people’s economic and political affairs. He believes that this way, he will not have to pay property taxes which fund the Mexican-American War, which Thoreau thinks is pointless. Even so, America without government intervention would be very …show more content…

Without any government intervention, the state would be in shambles with no regulations on food, drugs, or the workforce. As for government based on conscience, Thoreau’s argument falls flat when he fails to recognize that majority rule is the only fair rule. Thoreau needed to learn that when friction takes over a machine, the machine is to be fixed, not thrown away. Evidently, Henry David Thoreau’s argument against organized government in America is much too flawed to be

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