What does Thoreau mean by expedient?
• Thoreau’s use of expedient and inexpedient suggests that he is skeptical and critical of government. He says government is “at best but an expedient” (part 1, par. 1), which means that government can solve a problem or achieve a goal in certain cases, but it cannot do anything more.
What does Thoreau mean when he says government is at best an expedient?
What does Thoreau mean when he states: “Government is at best but expedient, but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes inexpedient”? At its best government is an enabler but usually governments are inefficient.
What is the rule of expediency?
What Is The Rule Of Expediency? It should be as appropriate as possible for the purpose. Contéency to self-serving means: someone who puts expediency first.
What does expedient mean in law?
An expedient is an action that achieves a particular purpose, but may not be morally right.
What does expedient mean in government?
expedient usually implies what is immediately advantageous without regard for ethics or consistent principles. a politically expedient decision politic stresses judiciousness and tactical value but usually implies some lack of candor or sincerity.
What does Thoreau mean when he says government is at best but an expedient but most governments are usually and all governments are sometimes inexpedient?
” -the government is too intrusive. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. -the government isn’t a mean of getting things accomplished, if anything it prevents things from getting done.
What is political expedient?
Politically expedient means something you do to advance yourself politically. Use expedient when you want to hint that a particular solution or strategy has certain benefits and advantages but is not completely fair. However, expedient can also be used as a noun to describe something practical for a particular purpose.
What are the three methods of Civil Disobedience?
Scholars commonly consider all or some of the five features below to define civil disobedience.
- 1 Communication. Typically, a person who commits an offense has no wish to communicate with her government or society.
- 2 Publicity.
- 3 Non-violence.
- 4 Non-evasion.
- 5 Decorum.
What are Thoreau’s beliefs?
He was a well-known advocate of transcendentalism, or the belief in the inherent goodness of people and nature, making a virtue of self-reliance. In his essay … On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Thoreau once wrote “That government is best which governs not at all”.
What is expedient example?
The definition of expedient is something that is appropriate and convenient, even if it isn’t the best option. An example of an expedient solution to forgetting your homework is to copy someone else’s work.
What is an expedient means?
Definition of expedient (Entry 1 of 2) 1 : suitable for achieving a particular end in a given circumstance. 2 : characterized by concern with what is opportune especially : governed by self-interest. expedient. noun.
What does Thoreau believe is his only obligation?
4. What is man’s only obligation? The only obligation a man has is the right to assume is to do at any time what I think is right. This is that Thoreau says the only obligation he has the right to assume is the obligation to follow his own conscience.
How is Thoreau free in jail?
He felt as if he was seeing his town through the light of the middle ages–as if he had never heard the sounds of his town before. After the first night, however, somebody interfered and paid his tax, and so he was released from prison the next day.
What is the point of Thoreau’s image of a lone woman with silver spoons?
The government compelled its citizens into support of immoral and unjust policies by power tactics. To what does Thoreau compare government? Thoreau personifies the State “as a lone woman with her silver spoons.” He casts government not as a mechanical agent of injustice but as a feminized object of pity.
What does the word satyagraha means?
holding onto truth
satyagraha, (Sanskrit and Hindi: “holding onto truth”) concept introduced in the early 20th century by Mahatma Gandhi to designate a determined but nonviolent resistance to evil.
What are the elements of civil disobedience?
Breaking a law that one is not opposed to in order to protest another law is called indirect civil disobedience. Sociologists have identified some common characteristics of civil disobedience. These include communication, publicity, non–violence, and non–evasion.
What is civil disobedience?
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government or occupying international power. Civil disobedience is sometimes defined as having to be nonviolent to be called civil disobedience.
What is the meaning of expedient action?
Definition of expedient (Entry 2 of 2) : something done or used to achieve a particular end usually quickly or temporarily : an expedient action or solution.
Who said government is an expedient?
— Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 1988 For government is an expedient, by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it.
Why was an expedient therefore offered?
An expedient was therefore offered, that since words are only names for things, it would be more convenient for all men to carry about them such things as were necessary to express the particular business they are to discourse on.