Resistance to Civil Government by Henry David Thoreau

Although it was a bit long-winded, I liked Resistance to Civil Government much more than the other works I read for this unit. Maybe because it appealed to the idealist in me. I admire Thoreau for going to jail for something he believed in, even if it was only for a night. Thoreau says "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 is applicable?" I pretty much totally agree with this. Why do we need to bicker and vote about things that should just be a matter of conscience? I understand that right and wrong are not always so easily defined, but there are instances where what is right and what is wrong can be clearly seen. The arrogant tone that bothered me in the other reading examples showed up in Resistance to Civil Government as well, but it wasn't an overriding theme. I thought it was interesting that Thoreau posed the question "Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government?" so many years ago, and no one has yet to come up with an acceptable answer. It seems like we should have been able to progress to a better form of government by now, doesn't it? There are obvious problems with our government, so why hasn't a solution been found yet?! I guess I can't be too upset about it though, I obviously don't have the answers either...
Resistance to Civil Government is a good example of transcendental thought because Thoreau expresses a need to fight against organized government. If you thought, like the transcendentalists did, that everyone had the ability to connect directly with God, would you think that there needed to be government? If we were so close to God and godliness, we would be able to govern ourselves quite nicely I think. Thoreau says we should be men first, and that you should never have to "resign his conscience to the legislator..." If we were meant to be blind followers of rule and government "Why has every man a conscience, then?" Another example of transcendental though that I picked up on was when Thoreau wrote about his chance encounter with his one night cellmate. Thoreau wanted to talk to this man and gain as much knowledge about his views on life before he had to leave. He was worried about the fact that his time to converse with him was limited. So, why would an upstanding, intelligent citizen care so much about the inner workings of a convict? Well, being a transcendentalists, Thoreau would have believed that God could work through this convict just as well as anyone else (maybe even better). I felt that Thoreau was trying to learn what God might have been saying to his cellmate. Thoreau mentions earlier in the text the hypocrisy of his neighbors and friends who pay taxes that support a war they disagree with. Maybe he thought someone of a different class would have a better perspective, or at least a different one, which he could learn from.