Romanticism & Civil Disobedience
And of two man's search for peace
A letter to Henry David Thoreau, and more
Dear Mister Thoreau,
I must say that your views on the government and life, is quite unique and I must say a little bit crazy, but I digress we all are a bit crazy when you think about it.
Anyway your look on nature is one I respect Mister Thoreau because when the Europeans can in they had started to destroy the wilderness trying to “tame” it, but nature cannot be tamed but must be lived in harmony is what I think you are saying in your remarkable writing. Also when you have touched the problem with the government in your memoir “Civil Disobedience,” you had called out the government on their mistreatment of their power over the people of early America, which I find honorable and stupid at the same time, because when questioning the government it tends to go south real quick, and also so how you defied said government which was not paying the taxes for the new priest was right to do in my standards because why should we pay for the priest if the priest will not pay for us in general.
And lastly I do not think I will integrate your ideas into modern times, because it seems to be a little obsolete for this times, but they are great ideas to actually add on to and maybe improve and modify them to fit in with modern problems or ideas. Alas Mister Thoreau I must be off I got some other classes to attend to, so this is farewell.Sincerely, Isaiah
Quote
"That government is best which governs least"
-Henry David Thoreau
Response to quote
I would say I agree with Thoreau on this, because the government tries to take control of everything, which at some points they would become strict and only grant limited freedom to the people. But this is only my opinion, and Thoreau might be saying is when the government is not so demanding on the laws they distribute, and that the governed are following said laws, I think that is when they are at their best.
Important Ideas
- Individualism
- Idealism
- Role of nature
Mahatma Gandhi
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
-Mahatma Gandhi
Response to quote
This quote is merely one sentence, but this one sentence carries so much strength to it that it surpasses some speeches that are five times its size. And to me it means that you must live your life to the fullest, but also down the road of life you must learn to accept your surrounding and how the world is how it is, because you cannot change the future if you yourself can't change yourself.
Important ideas
- Non-violence is the way of life
- An eye for an eye makes the world go blind
- Self-rule
- We are all Gods children
Response to ideas
To me Gandhi's way of life is very inspirational and a breath of fresh air, because now of days to world is focused on violence and attacking each other, and than the attacked, will most likely retaliate against the attacker. So in the end its just an endless cycle of war and hate that is destroying the world. So I am happy for people like Gandhi for holding non-violence as their weapon in protests, this are the people that the world needs today to bring in a safe haven from all the violence and hate in the world.
Leader Conclusion
Ok while Gandhi and Thoreau has some things in common such as they look on unjust laws are similar, and that they are both pacifistic people from the start. But when looking at the differences you can see that both had some very different ideas in their lifetime, which are the things I want to exploit.
Religion
Gandhi was at most a very open and religious man, and also he had studied up on most religions in his life-style. And by doing so he concluded that we are all of Gods Children, and that we should respect each other in life. While Thoreau had shown some signs of a religious factor in his life, he was not really open and he also sometimes criticized it someways, but i think he had a respect for the religion in his community, he just had disapproved on how they the people had to pay a tax to support the new priest in their area, while the priest did not pay for anyone else in the community as they have for the priest.
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Protests
Thoreau was a man who did not want to be involved with any problems that was occurring for him at his time, taking to sit and watch while the problem can fix its self, while Gandhi would go days with out eating, because of a conflict or war is occurring and he would finally eat something when said conflict is over, He also rallied a group of people to protest against the unfair tax laws for salt in India, and even in the same protest they had gotten attacked by the authorities, they the protesters did not do anything against them, because Gandhi and the protesters had fought the authorities with non-violence.
Optimism
The hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.
Quote
"Comedy is acting out optimism."
-Robin Williams
Response to Quote
I would agree with Robin on this subject, because when you are making jokes, and other things of the subject, you are hopeful for a successful reaction from the outcome of the joke, which for comedy you always want to audience laughing at your jokes at the end of your skit.
And yes I consider myself as an optimistic person, because I always wish for the best outcome in most situations.
American Culture Today
I would think in todays society it is widely used to speak freely about some subjects, and that most if not half the people are an optimist in some sort of manner.
And also it is actually accepted to be optimistic nowadays in american culture.
What I think of the idea
I think of optimism as one of my favorite ideas, because you can only hope for the best outcomes in life, but I do know that you are not always going to get the happy or best outcome so you must suspect the bad outcomes as well. So to optimism is like a small outlet for me to hope for the best in life. And I do think it is a good idea at times to be hopeful for such things, but you must always know there are bad things that can happen to anyone at anytime in the world, so you must expect the worst and also the best outcomes in life.
Individualism
The action of being independent, and self-reliant
Quote
"Its weird not to be weird."
-John Lennon
Response to quote
Well, I would agree with Lennon on this, because being different from other people makes you who you are in life. And with this uniqueness you are mostly to meet people who also share your views and your interests in life, which to me is quite true.
But than you cannot always going to be independent, because sometime in your life you are going to need help from people to cross some bridges in life.
American Culture Today
Well, in todays culture most if not some people now own their own business, which if you did not know is that they are working individually to gain a profitable gain at their own rate.
And also most teens nowadays act as an individual because they want to be independent in their life.
What I think of the idea
Well, when I think of individualism, I usually think of people who want to be alone when they want work on something, but I do know it is a concept of sorts, because when individualism is doing something you think is right, even when someone forces you to do something that they think is right. soo really its just really a matter of perspective of the viewer of what they think is right.
Intuition
"I believe in intuitions and inspirations... I sometimes FEEL that I am right, I do not KNOW that I am."
Response to quote
I would say I agree with Einstein on this subject, because believing in your inspirations gives you a fighting chance to actually get things done in the future or present. And lastly I think using both intuition and inspirations is the best choice for anyone including myself, because I must have some logic backing up my claims to feel confident to finish my work, but in the end I think intuition is the best choice of action to finish your work in some subjects in school or just life in general.
American Culture Today and what I think of the idea
In todays standards I think that intuition is still used, but is not used in some cases, because nowadays people are only using logic to solve their problems, but they do not use intuition to solve said problems. (Intuition is the ability to understand something without even thinking about it in depth)
So logically we will not get some creative people in society, but that does not mean it is not used in every corner of the world, because they are some really creative and innovative people who use intuition to solve some of there problems or cultures problems in some situations in their community. ( I think one example was the app concept we created when we had to make and app about how to survive winter emergency conditions.)
Idealism
"Reality is what people who lack vision see."
-Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Response to Quote
I think what he means is that reality is only a veil, in which only people who is not open to an opinions other than themselves, and that there is a bigger meaning to reality than we think.
And also I think it is connected to Idealism, because the quote part in saying, 'only people who lack vision see' means that only people seeing reality as black and white only, is missing out on the other things that is going on around them.
American Culture Today and My thoughts of the idea
Firstly Idealism means 'The belief of forming or even going after Ideals/ideas that most likely unobtainable or unreachable in your lifetime' And well, in American culture the dream of space exploration is really an Ideal dream for most Americans, because they want to see if there is life in outer space, and I must say this is highly unobtainable just because of the amount of fuel and resources to actually make it out in to space and to live there for a period of time is quite costly to say the least.
But people still believe they can achieve this great endeavor because of the simple fact they can hopefully achieve this idealistic dream.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, 20 November, 2015. Web. 10 December 2015
- Dr. Ravindran Kumar. Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal & Gandhi Research Foundation. University of Meerut, Web. 8 December 2015.