Philosophy and Politics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Philosophy and Politics - Assignment Example David Thoreau asserts that the best government is one that does not govern at all. His political ideals are somehow different because he believes he should not pay tax equally and detests slavery. He sees this as being unjust to the community who in turn respects the governing rules. Having not enough land makes him feel like he should not pay similar tax on property as that paid by the others. It is in this respect that David Thoreau declined to pay tax and was arrested and imprisoned in July 1846. Although he was supposed to remain in prison until he pays a fine, he still declined the payment of the fine. David Thoreau’s relatives ended up settling the fine without his consent and were released. This had long enduring impacts on the "Civil Disobedience" making his political ideal quite different from those read in the Analects and that of the community who respected and obeyed the unjust laws. The circumstances of David Thoreau’s arrest and his attitude as a civil man exerted a great powerful force on the civil disobedience over time. David Thoreau, a man who only wandered in the woods to record the migration of birds and the growth of plants in his journal in Massachusetts, a small village of Concord, profoundly influenced most political giants such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. His political realm in "Civil Disobedience" established his whole reputation in the world of politics among the Americans. David Thoreau asserts that he went to the woods due to his wish to have a deliberate life in order to front the essential life facts only and find out if he could not learn what the facts could teach so that he would not discover that he never live when he dies. In his book, he says he never wished to live a life that was not life itself. That drove him to publish his book and his acts of civil disobedience. On the contrary, the chapters in Analects are categorized by individual themes. They are not however arranged to detail in any sort of manner the continuous stream of ideas and/ or thought.