“The American government,-what is it but a tradition, though a recent one,<\/p>\n
endeavoring to transmit itself to posterity, but each instant losing some of it’s<\/p>\n
integrity? It has not the vitality of a living man; for a single man can bend it to<\/p>\n
his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the<\/p>\n
less necessary for this; for the people must have some sort of complicated<\/p>\n
machinery or other, and hear it’s din, to satisfy that idea of government<\/p>\n
which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed<\/p>\n
on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.<\/p>\n
It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never\u00a0of itself furthered<\/p>\n
any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of it’s way. It <\/em>does not<\/p>\n keep the country free. It\u00a0 <\/em>does not settle the West. It <\/em>does not educate.<\/p>\n The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been<\/p>\n accomplished; it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not<\/p>\n sometimes got in\u00a0its\u00a0\u00a0way. For government is an expedient by which men<\/p>\n would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when<\/p>\n it is most expedient, the governed are most\u00a0let alone by it. Trade and commerce,<\/p>\n if they were not made of India-rubber, would never manage to bounce over<\/p>\n the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and,<\/p>\n if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not<\/p>\n partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished<\/p>\n with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.”<\/p>\n Henry David Thoreau.<\/p>\n The above was excerpted from Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience”,<\/p>\n and in my opinion should be required reading by everyone in this country,<\/p>\n and for that matter everyone in the world.<\/p>\n Islander.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “The American government,-what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself to posterity, but each instant losing some of it’s integrity? It has not the vitality of a living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people … Continue reading “Thoreau”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1467","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1468,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1467\/revisions\/1468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}