Henry David Thoreau

Why do I like this Gentleman!?

9/5/2020,

(rough draft)

Because he was an ethical philosopher of a movement known during the 1700s as transcendentalism. The ideology of this philosophy is commonly acknowledge of this group as having a core belief that there is goodness in people and nature, and that the individual is at his best when he is fully self-reliant because society as a whole is flawed and corrupted. Transcendental Self-Reliance emphasizes the importance of individualism and its effect on an individual's satisfaction in life. He stresses that anyone is capable of achieving happiness, simply if they change their mindset. To be self-sufficient should be sustainable, but but the real question for me is, "Can I do this?"

Living off-the-grid is like what I think of when I find that I have become unwittingly engaged in a lively discussion about the mountain men of old. For the most part, the indigenous natives of this vast country were fully self-reliant, but it was as a tribal community effort not as individuals. However, in today's day and age, I don't feel that I can honestly say that I have ever been part of a truly sustainable tribe. I have wanted to belong, but I continue to think that I will never gain the happiness I desire attempting to fit in as my philosophy makes me very different than most men. I want to be self-reliant. However, I am not anti-social because I know being isolated and solitary will eat away at my brain until I have become demented and delusional, ending in my death. Which is my reasoning for this web site, to remain in social contact.

As with many admired philosophers, he faced harshly criticism for many of his unorthodox views towards the government's misappropriation of taxes for the purpose of supporting slave owners and often viewed as an anarchist. As with the importance of imagination, I believe that philosophy encompassed all bodies of knowledge. (See my page on Albert Einstein.)