21st Century Transcendentalism Importance?

In today's society, I believe that Transcendentalist thought still offers some important values. It is important to countenance individuality, especially due to the forced conformity in today's culture. In the 21st century, there is a lack of compromise that makes individuality meaningless. If we don't utilize individual thoughts, society will become very conformed. Although it is important to have order in society, it is not necessary to be conformed. This is where it is essential to differ in Transcendentalist beliefs and applying Transcendentalist thought to modern day. Although Transcendentalism offers some good values, such as the importance of valuing nature, it also calls for anarchy. I do not believe anarchy is beneficial in today's society. But if we are able to separate the good beliefs of Transcendentalism from the bad, I believe it could help our world greatly.

Transcendentalism Today

I think that Transcendentalism is still very relevant today. Some of the qualities such as the advocacy of anarchy are impractical but I think that they "self-reliance" component is very important. With all of the information available to us, via television, and the Internet, it is of the utmost importance that we all step back and evaluate this information for ourselves. It is so easy to accept what we have been told, and adopts it as our own. But through this construction, we may have beliefs that are not true, and we may not even really believe in them negating their strength. I have this fear that someday our world will be filled with people who never learned to think for themselves and only allowed themselves to be swayed by ostentatious presentation, and in this world, change will be made by a few people instead of many, leading to a corrupt world. I think that utilizing transcendentalism could help us avoid this dangerous path.

Round D Cloggers

What aspect of Transcendentalist thought do you think we most need to pay attention to in the 21st century? Why? Feel free to revise/edit the journal you wrote in class about Transcendentalism for this clog. (And remember to post your response as a new entry, not as a comment.)

The Scarlet Letter to me did not move me in any extraordinary way. Although I recognized and admired the strength of Hester as a character, I think that at times her redemption in Puritan society is unrealistic. In the beginning of the novel the extreme Puritan punishment of Hester seems to contradict the sympathetic view of her later in the novel. Furthermore, I do not believe that this novel is a good representation of American ideals because of the emphasis on symbolic reasoning. Throughout this novel Hawthorne portrayed Puritan society as somewhat selfish and self centered. Their interpretation of external phenomena repeatedly focus’s on the individual, rather than the community or simply the realistic nature of the world. This theme of selfishness through their view of external phenomenon I believe is a poor portrayal of our society today.