Blog #5

After Reading Emerson's idea's and views about the way people live in the 1800's, it is safe to say that people have conducted themselves with the same indignity for centuries. Emerson is quoted saying, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse". This quote is disturbing to me, it shows that the idea of plentitude and people not being satisfied with themselves is not concentrated to the 21st century. Why is it that we envy people who are "better" than us or more successful? Is it possible that it is just human nature to act in such a way? If you ask me it is a direct result of people always being told they need to do better, or they need to make more money, because money and success equal happiness. This of course is not true, my family is not wealthy but we get by as middle class citizens, yet, I personally do not need material possessions or money to be happy, nor do i want them for some sort of rank in class. The problem is that many Americans do not have this mindset, most American think an H3 and a multimillion dollar mansion are the key to happiness.

Henry Thoreau had the same kind of mindset as myself. He took a year of his life to live "deliberately" in the woods in Massachusetts, and see what he could learn from the way life should be experienced. I found this very interesting because i sometimes wish I could experience this myself. I think i could survive in the woods for a year considering i grew up in the boondocks of New Jersey withs farms surrounding me. I could easily deal with the lack of technology, but not having certain possessions would be a tough pill to swallow. From an experience like this, one can learn much about who one truly is, and how they have the ability to survive and pass time all alone. There are plenty of things in nature to experience, not to mention you would have to do EVERYTHING yourself i.e: washing clothes, making utensils, hunting and fishing for food, and bearing the elements.

As the course moves along, it is becoming easier to make direct connections between the texts we have been reading. In a way Thoreau and Emerson are historic versions of Lasn and Anderson, in the sense that there message is the same. I take "Culture Jam" and "Feed" as a way for the authors to cleverly warn readers about the fast-paced dangerous direction our nation is moving in. If trends continue Lasn and Anderson's warnings will be looked straight through, much like Thoreau and Emerson, because we have progressively gotten worse since the works of E&T.