Ideal Society Through Thoreau’s and Emerson’s Eyes

Ideal Society Through Thoreau’s and Emerson’s Eyes
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are considered two of the most influential and inspiring writers of their time. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was an essayist, and poet, was born on May 25, 1803, and is generally considered the father of American philosophy that rejects the idea that knowledge can be fully derived from experience and observation rather, truth exists in the spiritual world. Henry David Thoreau is his student, who was also a great essayist and critics. Both men extensively studied and embraced nature, and both men encouraged and practiced individualism, nonconformity and freedom. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience”, both composure thinkers speak about being individual and what changes need to be made in society. Ralph Waldo Emerson and his follower, Henry David Thoreau, both individualists, attacked the religious, political, and cultural values of American society in order to make people aware that they are more important than everything, including government and society. According to Emerson, society is an obstruction against the individuality of its members, “Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most requests is conformity”.
The solution, for Emerson, is self-reliance, meaning that man is only responsible for his own life and he should not be too enveloped in society. The other principles are individualism and freedom, which was expressed in Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”; “I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation, which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.”
Too many people in society conform to what the government says is right and moral, when the true meaning of right or moral comes from what each individual holds to be what is right. To become a true individual is to make every decision based upon your own personal belief and freedom, no matter what society says, and to act upon your belief accordingly. The common idea in Emerson’s Self reliance and Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience is the fact that in order to be an individual one must be a non-conformist “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist”.
Thoreau was an unbelievable determinate man that knew what he wanted. The artist was not afraid to fight for his freedom. He fought for freedom using non-violent protest, which is the freedom of speech that will never be taken away from any human being. Thoreau fought for the rights of the individual.
In "Civil Disobedience" Thoreau tells how he refused to pay a Poll Tax, because he did not wish to support the Mexican-American War. It was not a matter of having the money for him, he just felt that he should be the one to stand up for the society. Thoreau ended up in jail, however he never regretted it. Freedom of speech, as Thoreau pointed it, is the most valued right.
Many people such as famous political leaders appreciated Emerson and Thoreau. There were several criticisms on their doctrine of individualism and nonconformity. It is very surprising to find a passage, which claims that Emerson and Thoreau were not individualists on the Internet site of individualists. Emerson and Thoreau also urged individuals to mindlessly obey the will of a supposed
Nonconformity is hard to accomplish in today’s world. According to Library of Liberty, if you suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions, it is boldly said that “You are a dangerous innovator, a utopian, a theorist, a subversive; you would shatter the foundation upon which society rests.” The society is controlled by a group of individuals that only follow their thoughts. They state the rules, set the boundaries of the freedom as well as make the society conform. It means that in contemporary world Emerson’s and Thoreau’s points of view would be easily disregarded. Sooner or later such a no conformer would end up in jail or even worst that person would be killed. This brings us to the conclusion that there is no real freedom in society. People are manipulating by other individualists and nonconformity is taken as a crime.
Emerson’s essay Self Reliance and Henry David Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience talk about freedom, nonconformity and individualism. It makes those documents very distinctive, different from other works. These essays perceive society to how it should look like, to its perfection among other circumstances.