Power & Control

Although Machiavelli's excerpt and Civil Disobedience are similar, the essential concepts of the two are different. Machiavelli's excerpt speaks to the prince and the ruler of a society, while Thoreau speaks to the subordinate and to the citizen.

The overall concept in Machiavelli's excerpt is that in order to gain power you have to instill fear into the people. In order to do so you can not be civil or rational, like Thoreau believes in his writing of Civil Disobedience. Machiavelli thinks you have to make people be afraid so they can do what you want, as "...to be feared is much safer than to be loved." Fear, playing a part in power and control, is a re-occurring concept in both of these works, even though it is indirectly mentioned in Civil Disobedience.

Thoreau speaks for the subordinate and the common "man". Thoreau writes that a man should act upon his own morals and not follow the government because what they want is not always morally correct. Thoreau also writes that the common "man" should go against what the government and laws says and do what they feel is morally correct for himself.

Machiavelli makes it clear that fear is needed in order to have power and control of a person or government. Making people fear you is not showing them that you are trying to make them fear you, but appearing to them in a very assertive, powerful, and demanding way gives them a reason to fear and listen to you. Thoreau correspondingly believes that a government is unjustified in their actions. Thoreau believes that the government does whatever it needs to do to gain power and control its citizens.

These two different authors took two different approaches on how one should act when placed under a situation involving power. Thoreau believes a man should act upon his morals and Machiavelli believes a man should not act upon your morals but what your interests are as a person under power and control.