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Thoreau Makes A Distasteful Aspects Of Government

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Thoreau distinguishes that there will always be certain characteristics about a government that are distasteful to individuals within that government—Taxes placed on certain merchandises, for example. These little frustrations he terms the “friction” that always supplements a machine as large as a national government. But there is a key difference between a machine that produces a small amount of friction in its efforts to be productive and a machine that becomes passive to the friction it produces. When the negative and harmful aspects of a government become more predominant than the useful aspects of a government, Thoreau says, “It is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and

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