Thoreau for the 21st Century
April 4, 2008
Many of us complain that we live too fast, that our priorities must be re-evaluated, that our sense of morality and purpose has been lost. Henry David Thoreau predicted these dilemmas over 150 years ago in Walden. He accurately foresaw the spiritual crisis that now plagues American society, and his example offers hope today.
Thoreau believed that industrialization and the dogged pursuit of capital were leaving less time for personal reflection. Materialistic values were distracting Americans from developing their spirituality. He saw us becoming less aware of nature, and less aware of ourselves, because we were so busy working to get ahead.
Most of us have our schedules booked every day. We rush from the minute we awaken to the minute we go to bed. If we meditate or reflect in nature, we are considered idle or lazy. Everything we do is supposed to advance us toward some material goal. We cannot sit down to think without feeling guilty that we are not doing something “productive.” As Thoreau puts it, “most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them…man has no time to be anything more than a machine.”
Thoreau challenges us to see that this hectic lifestyle is not only harmful, but also unnecessary. He asks, “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow.” Thoreau was “convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely.” According to him, “in proportion as man simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex.”
For Thoreau, success did not mean the vast accumulation of wealth and material possessions, but rather peace of mind and a meaningful connection with God and nature. He believed that “man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.” Those who are constantly striving for material gain will never achieve true wealth, because we will not have time to reflect upon our lives and feel whole as individuals. Thoreau reminds us: “Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.”
Thoreau implies that we distract ourselves with work on purpose, so that we don’t have to confront the difficult questions of life. But why should we live, if we do not understand what it means to be alive? What fulfillment is to be found in toiling our lives away? We are not machines, but human beings, and we must all figure out what it means to be human. We must ask ourselves, why are we here? What is our purpose in life? What is our relation to nature, to God, and to those around us? If we cannot answer these questions, then we will never feel complete.
Thoreau beckons us to take an honest look at ourselves. We must ask ourselves whether, if we were to die tomorrow, we had ever really lived. Did we affect the world in some way? Did we discover any profound truths about ourselves and our relation to the universe? Or, did we merely accumulate a few material possessions here on earth, and leave the world exactly the same as we found it, or perhaps worse?
We can all draw important lessons from Thoreau’s “experiment in simplicity.” Set aside time each day for thought and reflection. As Thoreau said, “The millions are awake enough for physical labor, but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred million to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake.”
Thoreau found meaning through his experience in nature. Living in the woods allowed him to escape the distractions of work and society, and to look inward. He said, “We need the tonic of wilderness. We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features…we must see our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander…Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
In the spirit of Thoreau, I think we must all take the time to break away from our frantic lives and hectic schedules. We cannot achieve personal fulfillment merely by getting good grades and excelling in extracurricular activities. We must take the time to reflect upon our lives, and to discover our purpose in life.
Perhaps most importantly, Thoreau’s experiment enabled him to take a stand for social justice. Under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Northerners were legally obligated to turn in escaped slaves, or else they would be fined. The law outraged Thoreau. He believed that slavery was a moral issue and was firmly opposed to the institution. During his time in the woods, he was jailed for a night for refusing to pay his tax to a government that supported slavery. He later said, “If [governmental injustice] is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.” He famously added, “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
After this act of resistance, Thoreau wrote the pamphlet titled Civil Disobedience, in which he encouraged citizens to express their disapproval of the government through nonviolent, passive resistance. His example later inspired activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi to use civil disobedience as a form of protest. For Thoreau, individuals acting upon their own moral beliefs constituted a movement for social change. He urged those who considered themselves abolitionists to “at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait until they constitute a majority.”
He argued, “If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose…when the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished.”
In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau asked, “unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” For me, this call to nonconformity echoes the message in Walden. If we are unhappy with society, we should not continue to adhere to its norms while we wait for the majority to agree with us, or until those norms change. Instead, we should live in accordance with what we believe is right. Take the time to reflect upon your values, and to consider whether those values are in harmony with the materialistic values of modern society. If they are not, do not be afraid to follow your conscience. Bear in mind Thoreau’s words: “I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my property and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the state, than it would to obey. I should feel as if I were worth less in that case.”
I am not suggesting that we should not think about money at all. Most of us have to be concerned about money, either presently or for the future. We are all working hard at Tufts so that we can one day provide comfortable, secure lives for ourselves and for our families. This is an honorable and important goal, which I am working toward myself. However, I believe that I should have a higher goal in life than accumulating extravagant possessions. Helping others and benefiting the world in some way is important to me, as I’m sure it is to many of you. But I cannot allow my goal of material success to override my goal of achieving social change. It is true that money is important and necessary to life, but it is also true that personal fulfillment cannot be gained through wealth alone.
Written long ago, Thoreau’s Walden still asks us to take the time to reflect upon our lives and our values, and to live according to our consciences. It says we can collectively create a society in which justice is valued and natural beauty is prserved.
Melissa Jones is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major.
Editor’s Notes: The Observer is aware that a similar article about the meteorological and otherwise temporal appropriateness of Thoreau’s Walden appeared in The Daily. However, The Observer feels that, with finals approaching, all over-stressed Jumbos could only benefit from further advice on why to “experiment in simplicity.”