Civil Disobedience Transcendentalism

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Recommended: Modern day transcendentalists

Luke Steed
Ms. DeSantis
English period 3
3 October 2016

Transcendentalism shows no boundaries In the poems "Civil Disobedience" and "On Civil Disobedience" transcendentalist's views and opinions are found throughout both. The main topic of these is how poorly the governments of society treats it's people; and both Thoreau and Gandhi are describing how they and their fellow citizens will not stand around and be bullied by the men that are supposed to protect them. In "On Civil Disobedience," Gandhi says, "...
Similarly,
no State is possible without two entities, the rulers and the ruled. You are our sovereign, our Government, only so long as we consider ourselves your subjects. When we are not subjects, you are not the sovereign either.
So …show more content…

They may make laws to try and control them, but if the governed do not follow these rules then the ruler(s) may seem to be equal to them. It is a good characteristic of a transcendentalist, individualism and social reform. These characteristics are probably two of the biggest and most common traits found when speaking of transcendentalists, other than nature. The emphasis of individualism found in "Civil Disobedience" is very strong. Thoreau states on page 586, "If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth, certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." This is meaning that if the injustice of your government makes you follow another man's lifestyle, then it would be …show more content…

The transcendentalists could teach the people of the United States some lessons of self-value and reliance. The lessons the people of the United States could learn today from the transcendentalists are simple once they are put into action and if a large enough people get behind these ideas and follow through. Such ideas and lessons include the ones Gandhi talked about in "On Civil Disobedience." If the people would learn to just stop complaining about the problems they face and try to get the citizens who relate to them to go do something then maybe they could be out making a difference. If they show the government that they will not be wrongly persecuted, then changes can be made. Dealing with the recent murders and crimes being committed toward black men by the police, the people who are being directly affected by these need to come together and speak out, not just black athletes, or people on social media, everybody should come together as one and peacefully protest these crimes. The transcendentalists would not permit their people to rebel

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