ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Thoreau writes of government as “an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone.” It exists by consent of the governed to ensure the individual freedom that allows the pursuit of deep living and high thinking.

Detailed explanation-2: -Thoreau argued that the government must end its unjust actions to earn the right to collect taxes from its citizens. As long as the government commits unjust actions, he continued, conscientious individuals must choose whether to pay their taxes or to refuse to pay them and defy the government.

Detailed explanation-3: -First, he maintains that the individual is the source of all moral authority. “The only obligation which I have a right to assume, ” he says, “is to do at any time what I think right.” Second, he contends that it is not enough simply to perceive the right.

Detailed explanation-4: -MAIN POINT 1: Thoreau prefers a laissez-faire government, but he does not call for abolishing government. Rather he wants a better government. “… I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.”