Thoreau, Henry David (Concord, Massachusetts 1817-1862) Saggista e filosofo. Tra le sue opere:The Maine Woods, Walden or the Life in the Woods, Civil Disobedience.

 

Estratto da Civil Disobedience

 

Secondo Thoreau, tutte le forme di governo sono inevitabilmente ingiuste. Infatti, una maggioranza politica assume il potere non perché sia più giusta ma semplicemente perché rappresenta il partito più forte. Ogni individuo dovrebbe sviluppare una coscienza che lo guidi verso ciò che è giusto, senza che debba essere guidato o controllato da un governo che, per sua stessa natura, rappresenta solo gli interessi di una parte ristretta della popolazione.

 

I heartily 1 accept the motto, — ‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to 2 more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, — ‘That government is best which governs not at all’; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. 3 The objections which have been brought against a standing 4 army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. […]

After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? — in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency 5 is applicable? Must the citizen even for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. […]

 

 

1. heartily : strongly.

2. acted up to : applied.

3. inexpedient : useless.

4. standing : permanent.

5. expediency : self-interest.

 

 

 

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