Final Exam - Free Thought quote

Listener - I Don't Want to Live Forever

Transcendentalists believed that you should practice free thought; you should set aside any personal beliefs you carry in order to see every aspect of a subject. In Whitman's "O Me! O Life!" he describes the main question of life "What good amid these, O me, O life?" (Whitman, handout. 10) This is a rather dismal topic; he is basically saying what is the point? At the end of the poem he wraps it all up by saying "That you are here -- that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse." (Whitman, handout. 11-12) He is saying that you, your life, and your deeds will be remembered. In "I Don't Want to Live Forever" Listener says "I don' t want to live forever, I just want to live for me." (Listener, youtube.) In his eyes, living forever isn't necessary, and as long as he lives with the intent to leave the world with his 'verse' he will have lived it to the fullest. He also says later in the song "If I go looking for it, I'll probably find it, but not in the pages of a book." (Listener, youtube.) He shows another key characteristic of transcendentalists by saying this because they believe going out to find the answer in nature is more effective than finding it through a book. 

“Listener – I don’t want to live forever” Youtube. Tangled Talk Records/Sincere Records/Broken Circles, 2010,            October 22, 2010.

Final Exam - Self Reliance

Little Mermaid - Part of Your World

Transcendentalists believed one should work to be reliant on themselves instead of those around them or the government. Arial demonstrated free thought and self reliance through the entire film, because not only did she collect items that came from the human world, but she also desired to come in contact with humans, both of which were frowned upon. When Triton tells her no, she continues to think and live the way she wanted, she decided no to follow her fathers wishes and be self reliant. In Emerson's "Self Reliance", he says "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." (Emerson, Self Reliance. 8) Arial believes this to be true, because normally a person would trust that their father knows what is good for them, but she continues to think the way she feels. Self reliance, free thought, and confidence go hand in hand, because you need to trust that just because other people do not agree with what you think, doesn't mean you're wrong. As Emerson said, "To be great is to be misunderstood." (Emerson, Self Reliance. 61) Transcendentalist believed you should live with the intent to live, not with the intent to please the people around you.

"The Little Mermaid-Part Of Your World" Youtube. Disney. 1989. June 29, 2007.

Final Exam - Confidence quote

Lupe Fiasco - The Show Goes On

Transcendentalists believed that one must have a huge amount of confidence in their choices, ideas, and beliefs to go out and truly live the life they believe is right. In a excerpt from Walden, Thoreau says "Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights." (Thoreau, Conclusion. 275-278) Thoreau is saying that even in the darkest times you need to be confident in the fact that you can still make something of yourself and not simply give up, the contrast between your high times and your low times only makes the bright times seem brighter. Lupe Fiasco urged his listeners to become individuals and to always believe you can make it out no matter what your circumstance is. "No matter what you see when you look out your window, brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire, never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher." (Fiasco, youtube.) Fiasco is saying that no matter what your financial or political status is, you can go out and be what you want. Thoreau also believes this; "However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names" (Thoreau, Conclusion. 250-251) Both of them emphasized on the fact that the cards you have been dealt mean nothing when it comes to who you want to be, that in itself shows that you need to have an amazing amount of confidence.

"Lupe Fiasco - The Show Goes On" Youtube, n.p, n.d., December 23, 2010

Final Exam - Nonconformity quote

The Matrix - The Pill Scene

Transcendentalists do not follow the crowd for the sake of following the crowd, they believed that they should follow the path that their intuition leads them to. In Whitman's "O Me! O Life!"  he describes society as "...the endless trains of the faithless -- of cities fill'd with the foolish." (Whitman, handout. 2) Whitman is referencing the people who don't know the truth, or in other words are faithless. The Matrix is set in the future, similar to a post-apocalyptic world the 'real world' is overrun by machines and the human population is nothing more than an energy source for the computers. The majority of the human race in this movie live contently in what is known as the Matrix; a computer generated world very similar to a video game. Neo is contacted by Morpheus who offers to show Neo the truth. Neo is offered two pills "Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is; you have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance, after this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, and the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I  show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." (Matrix.youtube) Morpheus gives Neo the decision to either go back to life as he knew it, or to find out the truth. Neo takes the red pill and follows Morpheus. The Matrix is very similar to Plato's Allegory of the Cave because when Neo 'steps outside of the cave and sees the real world' all of the agents set out to kill him. The agents are the government that controls the "cities fill'd with the foolish" (Whitman, handout, 2) To leave the Matrix Neo showed nonconformity and free thought, both are characteristics of traditional transcendentalists.

"The Matrix (1999) - The Pill Scene" Youtube. Warner Bros, 1999. May 18, 2011.

Blog six: Transcendentalism

1.)

        Alex’s views on possessions, money, and society do not match my personal views. I agree with his view on society to an extent because I don’t necessarily like how society works or how it views people, but I would never go as far as completely shutting myself out from it. When Alex leaves he donates all of his money and ditches his car, both of which most people would never be able to do because we live in a greed driven society; we always want more than we have. He refused his parents offer to buy him a new car because his ‘old beater’ still ran fine. I would never pass up a new car, who would? Alex donates all of his money, every last dollar. He didn’t save anything, I would never be able to go through with that, and while it’s a wonderful thing to do I don’t think it was smart. Alex believed that that material possessions meant nothing and you don’t need them to live a happy live, but I would never be able to survive a week, let alone, a lifetime without my iphone. I don’t agree with his views on these topics but I can understand where he is coming from.

2.)

       Alex was not living life to the fullest by submerging himself into the wilderness because he never took himself as far as he could have gone into school, a career, or even a family. Every person has some sort of goal or image in their head about what they want to have done or accomplished in their lifetime, and most people aspire to marry, have children, make a living, and other long term things like that, but his vision of a life well spent was gutsier; he wanted to abandon the cliché American dream and go find himself by taking a journey to Alaska. Even though Alex's ideal life is very different from the typical, he did live the way he wanted to, so to say he wasn't living life to its full potential would not be fair. He lived his life and followed transcendental views to live in a very free state. I don’t think he took himself as far as he could have, because he had so many options and connections but he didn’t use them. His father worked for NASA, he could have gone anywhere and done anything he wanted to but he ditched that life and went and got by on absolutely nothing. He died at a young age from the decisions he made and his lifestyle seemed miserable. If I am supposed to judge his life by the standards that I hold myself to, I would not say he lived it to its fullest; he could have gone and gotten an amazing education and made a something of himself. But if the definition of a life well spent is to approve of your own choices and to accept you for who you are, it wouldn’t be a judgment anyone other than Alex could make.