Here is an excerpt from the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's piece on "Transcendentalism":
"The transcendentalists operated from the start with the sense that the society around them was seriously deficient: a “mass” of “bugs or spawn” as Emerson put it in “The American Scholar”; slavedrivers of themselves, as Thoreau says in Walden. Thus the attraction of alternative life-styles: Alcott's ill-fated Fruitlands; Brook Farm, planned and organized by the Transcendental Club; Thoreau's cabin at Walden. As the nineteenth century came to its mid-point, the transcendentalists' dissatisfaction with their society became focused on policies and actions of the United States government: the treatment of the Native Americans, the war with Mexico, and, above all, the continuing and expanding practice of slavery."
I think this can speak for even today's society: we do what we do because we want to fix things. Whether a certain aspect of our government is "seriously deficient", or because we are dissatisfied with the policies and actions of our government, Americans have learned to take action in democracy. This allows society to function as a type of friction against the government; in order to realize their true power within a democracy, it takes speaking out or acting out against something. Taking action, even if it is passive action, such as Thoreau's not paying his taxes, it makes a statement. And it is statements like these that help the government know what the citizens think of their decisions.
"The transcendentalists operated from the start with the sense that the society around them was seriously deficient: a “mass” of “bugs or spawn” as Emerson put it in “The American Scholar”; slavedrivers of themselves, as Thoreau says in Walden. Thus the attraction of alternative life-styles: Alcott's ill-fated Fruitlands; Brook Farm, planned and organized by the Transcendental Club; Thoreau's cabin at Walden. As the nineteenth century came to its mid-point, the transcendentalists' dissatisfaction with their society became focused on policies and actions of the United States government: the treatment of the Native Americans, the war with Mexico, and, above all, the continuing and expanding practice of slavery."
I think this can speak for even today's society: we do what we do because we want to fix things. Whether a certain aspect of our government is "seriously deficient", or because we are dissatisfied with the policies and actions of our government, Americans have learned to take action in democracy. This allows society to function as a type of friction against the government; in order to realize their true power within a democracy, it takes speaking out or acting out against something. Taking action, even if it is passive action, such as Thoreau's not paying his taxes, it makes a statement. And it is statements like these that help the government know what the citizens think of their decisions.
Steph,
ReplyDeleteGood work adding a bit more knowledge about the context and making a connection to the present.
LDL