Thoreaus Conscience about Economic Progress - Essay Example

? Introduction The term “words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words” would de that there is a relationship between the self-expression of an individual, and the personal conscience of the individual. There is a relationship between the inner and outer lives, as it were. This is what is meant when one “talks the talk and walks the walk,” which means that the individual’s actions are consistent with the person’s words. The self-expression of the individual could be said to be the words of the individual, and the words of the individual do not always correspond with the person’s conscience or heart. In that case, the person would be “talking the talk” but not “walking the walk.” The personal conscience of the individual would be in the person’s actions, because, to use yet another cliche, “actions speak louder than words.” It is when one’s words and one’s actions are in congruence does the truth of the statement that Emerson made – “words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words,” come into fruition. This means that the self-expression of the individual and the personal conscience of the individual are in harmony. To illustrate this point in modern terms, one must consider the people who live by their ethical principles that they espouse with words, so that their actions are their words and their words are their actions. They speak about what they believe in, but that in which they believe is obvious to anybody who witnesses their actions. For instance, consider the animal lover who is a vegan and never wears leather, and passionately gives to animal causes. This is an individual whose actions are words in that they tell the world what this person believes in, and their words are consistent with their actions, so their words are actions, too. Words and action have a symbiotic relationship. On other hand, consider somebody who states that they, too, are an animal lover, yet they eat meat produced in factory farms and do not have any qualms about wearing fur or leather. In this case, the actions are also words, and the words are different from what is being spoken – the actions state to the world that this person does not have real concern for animals, so the words are, essentially, meaningless. The incongruence of the actions and the words belie the thesis that Emerson tries to put out. Discussion Henry David Thoreau spent some time thinking about the relationship between conscience and self-expression, as evidenced by his masterpiece Walden. His views on self-expression and conscience are further illuminated in his letter to H.G.O Blake in March of 1848. In this letter, he states that “The outward is only the outside of that which is within,” because men are revealed by their habits (Lane, 1966, p. 13). He points out that habits are rigid, circumstances are not, and, as such, the habits are the true reveal of what is within the man. To this end, Thoreau was critical of the man whose habits reveal him to be materialistic, for these are the men, according to Thoreau, who do not know anything. They cannot grasp the meaning of life, because their outer habits, of working desk jobs, do not avail them of developing their inner life. Simplicity, in Thoreau’s eyes, was the only way that a man can throw off the yoke that blinds him, and grasp the truth about life itself (Lane, 1966, p. 14). This simplicity led him to live a fairly isolated life on Walden pond, living alone, off of his own labour, and a mile from any neighbor (Thoreau, 1937, p. 3). Thoreau belief that materialism is a clouded filter through one might view life led him to simplify his life in this way, for he really believed that the meaning of life may only be revealed when a man strips his outer habits down. In this way, his personal conscience and self-expression were in harmony. This would not be true if Thoreau did not attempt this endeavor, if he merely wrote about the dangers of materialism and living an ordinary life surrounded by only the familiar, yet lived the ordinary, materialistic life himself. Thoreau was really able to understand his own words, his own thesis, by moving to this pond and surrounding himself with nature and eschewing all materialism. Walden allowed him to see what the market place and economic progress does to a person’s soul, for it was only by giving it up does the truth reveal itself. His conscience states that getting back to nature is the only way to live, and that profit pursuit is a way for one’s soul to die. This is evident in his passage about huckleberries - “the fruits do not yield their true flavor to the purchaser of them, nor to him who raises them for the market. There is but one way to obtain it, yet few take that away.” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 157). As Metzler (1963) states, this is a part of Thoreau’s thesis that happiness may only come when one has simplified one’s life, and this is a clear cry against economic progress and the pursuit of profit (Metzler, 1963, p. 15). Thoreau’s conscience about economic progress, and what it does to nature, is also evident in his passages about the ponds, and the life that has been taken from these ponds because of people stripping them for financial gain. For instance, Thoreau talked about how the ponds used to look 60 years before Thoreau arrived, contrasting the ponds with how they looked at the present time – “An old man who used to frequent this pond nearly sixty years ago, when it was dark with surrounding forests, tells me that in those days, he sometimes saw it all alive with ducks and other water fowl, and that there were many eagles about it” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 172). Although he doesn’t explicitly state it, it is clear that the water fowl are no longer present in the pond. Thoreau is more explicit with his disdain for economic progress at the expense of nature in his passages about Flint’s pond. Flint’s pond can only be described as a sad pond. It is ironically named, as well, as Thoreau points out - “such is the poverty of our nomenclature.” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 177). The name “Flint” has typically harsh connotations, as in the word “skin flint” or “flinty,” so the pond was aptly named. Thoreau complains that the pond was seen as only providing financial gain for the individuals who plundered it. He marvels that the wild fowl on the pond were regarded as mere trespassers, instead of being seen as residents. He states that the person who named the pond must be “some skin-flint, who loved better the reflecting surface of a dollar, or a bright cent, in which he could see his own brazen face” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 177). The name has the connotations of all that Thoreau considered barbaric and wrong, as it was apparently named for the person who “never saw it, who never bathed in it, who never loved it, who never protected it, who never spoke a good word for it, nor thanked God that He had made it” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 177). Thoreau goes on to say that the pond should be renamed for the fowl who still live there, or the flowers that still grow there (Thoreau, 1937, p. 177). These passages clearly state what Thoreau thought about economic progress and the pursuit of profit at the expense of nature, and this was his conscience, what he truly thought. These thoughts were put into progress by Thoreau’s actions in choosing to live in nature and get back to his own core, the core that is not corrupted by materialism or wealth - “Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 178). These were the actions, and these actions were words, words that stated to the world that Thoreau was fed up with society as it was too tuned into the almighty dollar, and this was obvious for anyone to see who knew Thoreau during this period of time. Yet he also put these ideas into words, very eloquent words that underscored and were consistent with his actions. His actions and his words were in harmony, so his actions were his words and his words were his actions on this point. Economic progress and its actions in destroying nature was not the only point upon which Thoreau pondered. The very act of Walden was an expression of how he viewed the self and its relationship to nature. McIntosh (1974) states that Thoreau was a romantic, in that he is aware of his separation from nature, even though he wants to be at home in it. His major effort, according to McIntosh, is to come terms that he is separate from nature. He struggled against Emerson's view that nature has an identical structure to the mind, and that nature “is a grand collection of metaphors for human actions and relations” (McIntosh, 1974, p. 51). McIntosh claims that Thoreau's actions were an effort to main that he was at one with nature, yet, moment to moment, he does not always achieve this unity with nature. McIntosh also states that Thoreau was adamant that nature could not be transformed or distorted by imagination, nor can it be controlled in this way. Rather, Thoreau was that imagination must be reconciled to nature, not transform or control it (McIntosh, 1974, p. 53). In other words, Thoreau realized that man and nature are separate, but that this was not necessarily something that he desired. He wanted to become more one with nature, and this was his personal conscience. His other personal conscience was that nature was not be transformed or distorted by the imagination. This is clear by the way that he feels about how nature is transformed, and not for good, by the profit motive. Since he desired to become less separated from nature, his actions in moving to Walden became these words– that man should become more one with nature by getting back to it. E.B. White states that this is the poetry and the magic behind Walden – that Thoreau was attempting to bridge the inherent separation between man and nature, rather than simply trying to chronicle nature or go off into the woods to complain about society - “As things turned out, Thoreau, very likely without knowing quite what he was up to, took man's relation to nature and man's dilemma in society and man's capacity for elevating his spirit and he beat all these matters together, in a wild free interval of self-justification and delight, and produced an original omelette from which people can draw nourishment in a hungry day” (White, 1968, p. 28). For White, Thoreau's actions enabled his words, and his words enabled his personal convictions to become a kind of solace to the world, a kind of way of telling man that he does not need to live a life separated from nature, and that is possible to live a life combined with nature. This is what White means by “man's dilemma in society” - man is separated from nature by his actions and his habits, and Thoreau lets them know that this is not the way that it should be, nor is it the way that it has to be. While this was his personal conscience – that man and nature are separate, and that he wanted to become more one with nature – he put these conscious thoughts into words. For instance, Walden bemoaned the fact that man is enslaved by material objects and to his job. He likens people with ordinary jobs, such as being a highway teamster as the equivalent to slavery “I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both North and South...but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 7). He states that these men are not objects of divinity, and cannot achieve immortality, because their only interests is in their dead-end jobs. They also are imprisoned by society's opinion of them – society values only those who produce in these jobs, Thoreau seems to say, and public opinion is a “weak tyrant” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 7). Because these men live their lives only for the public opinion and accolades, and reject the call of and allure of nature, Thoreau seems to claim, this causes them to live lives of “quiet desperation” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 6), consoling themselves for their empty lives with the “bravery of minks and muskrats” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 6). Moreover, their games and amusements serve to only cover up their despair. Thus, it is obvious what the words are that Thoreau is trying to put through – that men who are merely cogs in the wheel are living lives of quiet desperation, not a full and truthful life that they might lead if they were to put aside the wishes and desires of society and find what makes them truly happy. Thoreau clearly believed that most men were only working jobs for the money and materials – to keep their lives stocked with “minks and muskrats,” as opposed to trying to find true happiness in a life that eschews materiality. These are the words that he spoke, and the actions that he took, in eschewing materiality in moving to Walden, became his words. These actions told the world that he, Henry David Thoreau, was not about to become another man who lived a life of quiet desperation, that he, Henry David Thoreau, did not care that society values possessions and profit above all else. In this way, his actions served as his words, while his words described why he took the actions that he did. Interestingly, considering that Henry David Thoreau was a first-class writer, he was also curiously critical of the reading culture. This is because, according to Thoreau, it was more important to be a “seer” as opposed to a “looker.” In other words, people who immerse themselves in books do not really see the world outside, but, rather, are mere students of it. He felt that what was important to be learned could not be found in a book, but, rather, by doing. To this end, Thoreau states that he did not read books that summer – he “hoed beans” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 101). He also would sit in his doorway from sunrise until noon, simply listening for the birds and admiring the pines, hickories and sumachs. Here again, Thoreau is demonstrating the truth of his statement – that books are not the best way to learn about the world, but, rather, experience and doing. His actions are his words in this case as well – he did not read books, but, rather, he did. He hoed beans, he sat on his porch and amazed himself with the grandeur of nature. He didn't read about these things – he didn't read about birds, he observed them. He didn't read about hoeing beans, he did hoe the beans. Thus, once, again, his actions were his words, and his words were his actions. Thoreau also firmly believed that the cure for melancholia is to commune with nature. As he states - “There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of nature and has his senses still” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 119). Thus, his belief was that society was ill, and this relates to the quiet desperation of men again. Society was ill, and the best way to cure society would be to realize that nature is a part of them, and that they are a part of nature. These are the words that he is putting into the paper, and his actions back up these words. The words about society come later, as well, as Thoreau makes explicit what he feels is ailing society. This is that it is “cheap.” By this he means that our daily interactions with one another are cheap, and not meaningful. Because society is such that the frequent meetings are intolerable, Thoreau states that this necessitates society's rules about etiquette and politeness. Without these, according to him, we would “come to open war” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 123). He feels that men live too close to one another, and are too forced to interact - “we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 123). It is better to live isolated, as he did, he seems to say, for this would make society better and would enable all of us to have more respect for one another. Which is not to say that Thoreau didn't like people, for he claims that he did “I think that I love society as much as most, and am ready enough to fasten myself like a bloodsucker for the time to any full-blooded man that comes my way. I am naturally no hermit, but might possibly sit out the sturdiest frequenter of the bar-room, if my business called me thither” (Thoreau, 1937, p. 127). Once again, his personal conscience dictates that man would get along better if they were not so on top of one another, and his actions showed the truth of his words – he lived alone, and only saw visitors for short periods of time. He did not live with anybody and he was not near anybody. These are the actions that became his words on this matter. Conclusion Thoreau was a firm believer in many things – the virtue of becoming one with nature; the evils of profit, or, rather, sacrificing nature to profit; the belief that most men live lives of quiet desperation because they are separated from nature and are too interested in materialism; the belief that society is too compact, and that we live too close to one another and are too forced to interact with one another; even that we are too reliant upon books for our information, and not enough on experience and doing. Perhaps, in the end, Thoreau had a personal conscience that was a bit misanthropic and critical of society. Society does value hard work, and hard work is what builds nations and cities. The men of whom he is so critical, the men who build our bridges and sweep our streets, these are the men who make society run and who create meaning within society. Not every man has the chance to go and live like a wild person in nature, nor should they. Thoreau, however, intimates that his way is the correct way of living and everybody else in society is “desperate.” He also comes off a bit misanthropic in his disdain for the niceties of society, the politeness of interacting with one's neighbor. Therefore, his personal conscience was such that it was not entirely positive, and he had his own kind of snobbery about men and the way that they live their lives. Nevertheless, although his thinking might be, in some view, flawed, it was, nonetheless, his thinking and his beliefs. As such, these thoughts are deeply personal to him. And, he lived his life according to these deeply personal thoughts. In this way, his actions are his words – his actions in going to live in the woods states to the world how he thinks about society and the world, and his words are a reflection of his actions. In this way, Thoreau truly embodies the meaning of Emerson's quote that actions are words and words are actions. Bibliography Lane, Lauriat. Approaches to Walden. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1966. McIntosh, James. Thoreau as Romantic Naturalist. London: Cornell University Press, 1974. Metzler, Milton. Thoreau: People, Principles and Politics. New York: Hill and Wang, 1963. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. In Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Other Writings of Henry David Thoreau. New York: The Modern Library, 1937. White, E.B. “A Slight Sound At Evening,” in Twentieth Century Interpretations of Walden. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Read More