Walt Whitman's Democratic Society - Dream or Reality - Coursework Example

Walt Whitman’s “Democratic Society A Dream or Reality? Walt Whitman (2007) famously declared in his opus, Democratic Vistas, that the period has produced a new spirit in the American democratic experiment because of three important factors: the set of political structures vested power upon the people; the advancement of trade, finance, machinery and intercommunications; and, the emergence of democratic culture. (33) This paper will examine whether Whitman’s democratic society has, indeed, been realized in the three previously cited contexts during the period that covered the post Civil War years – from 1865 to 1905, the so-called Gilded Age. Power to the People Ideally, the consequence of the Civil War affected the realization of a truly American democratic society in the sense that it upheld the rights of the people as human beings and it reinforced their roles in ensuring that the state is headed by a government that is chosen by the people and accountable to it. The reforms that were undertaken after the war include those about electoral issues, equality, the bill of rights, among other factors that defined the relationship of the people and the state in America. Particularly, civil rights legislations especially those outlawing racial discrimination were passed. In over 30 years, more than a dozen states in the North and West passed civil rights statutes establishing their own antidiscrimination policies. (Perry and Smith 71) This fitted Whitman’s vision, transforming his vision into reality. These civil rights initiatives confirmed Whitman’s position in regard to the divinity of the individual. In the Democratic Vistas, for example, he maintained that: It remains to bring forward and modify everything else with the idea of that Something a man is, (last precious consolation of the drudging poor), standing apart from all else, divine in his own right, and a woman in hers, sole and untouchable by any canons of authority, or any rule derived from precedent, state safety, the acts of legislatures. (16) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Whitman’s contemporary and friend, declared: Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close… We will walk on our feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. (Lepenies 71) The Gilded Age in reality, however, differed markedly from the democratic rhetoric of the Civil Rights and the developments that was supposedly achieved after the Civil War and the Restoration. At this point, for instance, there was the redefinition of liberty and property as those rights within this area were increasingly used by the wealthy and big corporations to control and exploit ordinary people. Then, there was still the state’s conservative approach to certain rights and concepts such as equality and discrimination. Freedom of speech was a case in point. According to Moore (2005), the freedom of speech is valuable for democracy as well as Whitman’s arguments because it preserves and promotes democracy and self-government. (319) Unfortunately, this right has not been even certain during the Gilded Age. In 1873, for instance, the American Congress passed an act to suppress the circulation of Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use. (Perry and Smith 72) It was called as the Comstock Law and it classified art and literature and is one of the several legislations that promoted the curtailment of citizen’s rights in the name of morality. Discrimination and social and racial injustices were still rampant to the point that some of these were sanctioned by the state. Blacks and women were barred to vote. Developments The Gilded Age saw the discovery and invention of several innovations and technologies that are pivotal in social development and in the achievement of the aims of democratic society. Particularly, this has spurred emergence of capitalism, a core value of the American democracy. By the end of the nineteenth century, industrial societies have given birth to intense utopian dreams, those of Whitman included. He was dazzled, as like many others, with the new technologies and their potentials: steam engines in trains and boats, telegraphs, typewriters, pneumatic tube communications, flying balloons, electricity, and so forth. It certainly brought forth both direct and indirect benefits. In a way, as Whitman predicted, it has brought about sweeping social changes such as the official demise of the slavery in the United States, the emergence of feminism, as well as the socialist ideas of equality. According to Bailey (2005), the atmosphere created by the developments during the Gilded Age, paved the way for a formulaic utopian journey into the future as new technologies promised and proved how it was able to improve society. (110) All in all, in this context, technology and all advancements indeed transformed America. In a thirty-year period between 1870 and 1900, the annual production climbed from just under $2 billion to $13 billion, and the number of industrial workers increased from 1,300,000 to 5,300,000. (Schiff 162) The country achieved its greatest economic growth, rapidly catching up to the rest of the world and was well on its way to becoming a superpower. Democratic Culture Whitman proposed a public, dynamic, and unfinished “open road” rather than the private, staid, and refined sentimental home, as the idealized model of American democratic culture. (DePastino 31) However, this disagreement on the way the American society during the Gilded Age did not constitute much of Whitman’s attitude in regard to how democratic culture has emerged during the Gilded Age. The real culmination of American democratic society during the Gilded Age for Whitman was the establishment of millions of comfortable city homesteads and moderate-sized farms, healthy and independent, single separate ownership, fee simple, life in them complete but cheap, within reach of all. (DePastino 31) This, among other developments that reinforced the material reality of equality in American life, equality that avoided pretense and embraced directness, pleased and satisfied Whitman. He recognized this tradition in the American society he lived in and this particular aspect was what he tried to sustain, extol and extend. Cullen (2005) commented that, for Whitman, if the reality of substantial equality receded in the excesses of the Gilded Age, their value survived nonetheless. (32) For Whitman, “it has been carried on by all the moral forces… and, in fact, by all the developments of history, and can no more be stopped than the tides, or the earth in its orbit.” (33) Indeed, democratic values has been passed on by generations to generations, in school, as family values, as a national pride, as an American tradition, to the point that it has become a fundamental character of American identity. Conclusion It is important to underscore (and as has been emphasized by the arguments raised by this paper) that Whitman’s ideal American democratic society was all about simplicity. It is his view that this concept is the core of democracy and should also the core of American life. He has devoted a large part of his work in explaining this idea. And so, it is only appropriate to use this as a benchmark to determine whether his democratic society is just a dream or a reality. The Gilded Age stood for many things – opulence, corruption, conspicuous consumption – except simple, honest and fair way of life. So it makes sense to say that much of Whitman’s visions remain that as dreams, never realized as America descended into a materialist culture that has been fostered by capitalism and the values that reinforce it. Whitman, himself, denounced the hypocrisy and money-grubbing of the capitalist spectators. (Saul 175) Whitman, however, was also right in some respects. The power, during the Gilded Age, was gradually relinquished to the people. Addressing issues and racial discrimination started to gather steam during this period and liberty and emancipation dominated the discourse on public spaces. These, among other related developments, enshrined in American culture the institutionalization of democratic culture. At some point one cannot help to be perplexed by the contradictions in Whitman’s conception of ideal democratic society: he abhorred, for instance, excessive capitalism and materialism and he suggested, instead simple living. It is difficult to reconcile this with the entire American democratic tradition of free enterprise, which was pivotal in the development and emergence of innovation, trade, machinery and finance – variables that he extolled. Fortunately, one of his important arguments that temper this contradiction is that he believes that the democratic society is a work in progress. He made the point directly in Democratic Vistas by stressing: “I say democracy is only of use… that it may pass on and come to its flower and fruits in manners, in the highest forms of interaction between men, and their beliefs – in religion, literature, colleges, and schools – democracy in all public and private life.” (33) One could not help but agree with this thought since today American democracy can still be considered as half-formed. Today, we have the framework of the democratic institutions but that the will, the conscience and maturity of the society are still in process of formation. All in all, Whitman’s democratic society is far too ambitious and far too demanding but that this is complemented by the emphasis on the fact that it is continuously evolving. Works Cited Bailley, Lee. The enchantments of Technology. University of Illinois Press, 2005. Cullen, Jim. Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition. Wesleyan University Press, 2005. DePastino, Todd. Citizen hobo: how a century of homelessness shaped America. University of Chicago Press, 2003. Lepenies, Wolf. The seduction of culture in German history. Princeton University Press, 2006. Moore, Adam. Information ethics: privacy, property and power. University of Washington Press, 2005. Perry, Elizabeth and Smith, Karen. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: A student Companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Saul, Norman. Russian-American Dialogue on Cultural Relations, 1776-1914. University of Missouri Press, 1997. Schiff, Andrew. The Father of Baseball: A Biography of Henry Chadwick. McFarland, 2008. Whitman, Walt. Democratic Vistas. READ Books, 207. Read More