Similarities Between Civil Disobedience And Another Brick In The Wall

Throughout history, there have be many examples of literary and musical pieces that have changed the course of the history, for example, Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Pink Floyd and Henry David Thoreau both express individualism and the idea that one should not participate in the injustice of the government.
Thoreau and Pink Floyd both illustrate how the government is trying to create “machines” in society. An idea that is presented in Thoreau’s and Pink Floyd’s work is the idea of individualism. As Thoreau writes, “The government's best that governs the least” (275). He believes that the government should be made up of the majority rather than a few individuals. Pink Floyd has some similar ideas. They believe that the minority should not control the majority. They agree with Thoreau when it come to the way the government should be ran. They both believe that everyone has a conscience to make individual decisions rather than allowing a group of people making decisions for everyone. Thoreau writes, “ It is truly enough said, that a corporation
has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience” (277). Thoreau believe that a business has no concept of what is right or wrong, but a corporation of men/women with a conscience will know what is morally right or wrong because of the individuals that make up that corporation. Both Pink Floyd and Henry David Thoreau believe that each individual is better than a group making decisions. Another idea presented in both “Civil Disobedience” and “Another Brick in the Wall” is that one should not participate in the injustice of the government.
Pink Floyd sings, “We don’t need no thought control.” This idea is what both Thoreau and Pink Floyd believe. They believe that the government try to control every aspect of the people’s lives and form the people into “machines”. But, Pink Floyd and Thoreau believe that the people should be individuals rather than letting the government control them and create robots into society. The government’s goal is to make people think that they must fit into the perfect society or they are an outcast, but the “outcast” is the only one who is truly free because everyone else is not thinking. As John Locke once said, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and property,” and no one can take that away from an
individual. History has been changed be many literary and musical pieces like Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Both Pink Floyd and Henry David Thoreau believe that an individual making decisions is always greater than a group of people making decisions for the majority. The believe that each person should make conscious decisions for themselves and make the decision to not be completely controlled by the government. The also think that a person should be an “outcast” and be a free thinker rather than being thought for. They think that a person should not become a “machine” of society and to seek their own path of success because if one lets others tell them how to live their life, then that person is not really living. Otherwise, they are never truly free, but a prisoner of the other person/people’s thoughts, therefore never reach true happiness.