The Adaptation of Transcendentalism Essay Example for Free

The Adaptation of Transcendentalism EssayNone of the transcendentalist thinkers were very popular during their lives. Their ideas were all thought to be fruity and barbaric when really they were except ahead of their age. Today, those same ideas that were thought to be too free and wild are actually seen as fairly yielding and mild. Writers such as Walt Whitman, Ralph Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were all misunderstood by society during their lives.The typical lifestyle during the time of the early transcendentalists was very slow and the thinking was conventional therefore, when Whitman, Thoreau, and Emerson started sharing their ideas that went against the traditional itinerary of life, they were seen as uncivilized and outspoken. Now, we can look back on the history of the States and see how the concourse who fought the popular way of thinking or questioned why things were the way they were have caused seminal movements and changes in the way of life.Now that we re cognize change as a good thing, we uphold others to be different and question society. We encourage people to stand up and fight popular thinking because those kinds of people are what have made the States the way it is. But before they were seen as great minds, the early transcendentalists were considered wild and their ideas unthinkable. Ralph Emerson, for example, wrote, A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do (Self-Reliance 47-49, Emerson). By this Emerson is saying that people who want to keep things the same just because thats the way they have always been are wrong and ridiculous. Without questioning your way of life, great minds cannot rise and be great. At the time that he wrote this people did not feel the same way. Society pushed to keep everything unchanged because thats the way it had always been done and it worked that way. Henry David Thorea u also wrote something along the same lines just now about government.He wrote, This American government- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some legality (Resistance to Civil organisation 25-27, Thoreau). Thoreau, like Emerson, talks about how enforcing tradition is a ridiculous notion. Thoreau points out that even the young government is trying to firebrand sure that through future generations the system would still be unimpaired and consistent. Again, the ideas provided by the two were not popular with the majority of society at the time but became very popular with future draws.All of the leaders in the past who have made a difference have given something new. As Whitman says in one of his many poems, I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else (I Hear America Singing 1and 9, Whitman). Every leader who stood up agains t society, against the crowd, was singing their own song. Popular leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi sang the songs of true nicety and equality. Their songs or ideas, though their own, were heavily influenced by those of the people who came before them.They used the ideas expressed in Thoreaus famous essay Resistance to Civil Government. When Martin Luther King Jr. spent the night in Birmingham jail he wrote about what made laws just and unjust and questioned if the laws made by the majority were sincerely yours fair. That notion was inspired by the line in Thoreaus essay, After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are the most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest (Thoreau 57-61).By this he is saying that just because things may be voted for by the majo rity, doesnt necessarily mean its fair to everyone and when Martin Luther King Jr. saw this it stuck and he hence wrote similar ideas expanding on the thought. Gandhi then did the same thing when talking about nonviolence. He used Thoreaus example of his one night in jail to say that instead of fighting with our fists, use quiet actions to gain people on your side. These are just two examples of the impact the transcendentalists made on history. one time thought to be wild and outspoken, the early transcendentalists are now considered the start of what we are encouraged to do every day. They were different and spoke their minds just as we are encouraged to do now. They were the start of a domino effect in America where one great leader got their ideas from a great leader before them, who somewhere down the line got their ideas from one of the early transcendentalists. Now considered mild and tame, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Emerson will forever go down in history a s the men who lived on through the ideas of great leaders.