Utopian? Transcendentalism?
After engaging in the Modern Utopian Society project creation and class gallery walk, what are
you thinking about Transcendentalism? What is one quality within
Transcendentalism that pique's your interest? Please complete this blog
response by 3:40p.m. on Fri., Sep. 7th.
posted by Greg T at Thursday, September 06, 2018
28 Comments:
I think that Transcendentalism seems to be about inner peace and how you can live without certain needs. I somewhat agree with the idea but at the same time I think people are taking it a little extreme. But overall its the idea that brings peace to others.
The idea that peeked my interest is that living in a society and being able to provide for other and yourself. And at the same time living in a community and still being self reliant at the same time. And also having everything around you to be assailable. The idea is interesting contrasting the idea of living with people and also living by yourself.
I think it is very interesting how most people made a transcendentalist society based on finding yourself and who you are. Everyone picked a beautiful forest, or somewhere that is amazing, but that was not the main point. The main point for all of these projects was finding yourself through nature and being by your lonesome.
Everyone has different perspectives on Transcendentalism, I believe the main point of Transcendentalism is to be truly one with yourself and nature and to just be freed from the anxiety and stress of our economy. Many other projects show and represent the same idea of Transcendentalism.
I think after looking at all of the different projects, I liked to see what other people thought. Transcendentalism is very much of a personal perspective of what ones ideal world is. It is hard to reach the absolute best world because there is always something we want to or need to improve to make sure we are all cared for. I think it is very cool that people try to achieve this although, i'm sure it is very hard to meet everyone's needs and wants.
After really studying the true meaning of transcendentalism, I have determined that it can mean anything that you want it to mean. Transcendentalism is not one set idea, it is just a word masking creativity. As is the same for the world Utopia, the two ideas tie greatly into each other. If one finds their passion or true destiny in life then they most likely are in their perfect ideal world of happiness.
An idea that I am looking at is the idea that people are self reliant and they have every ability to look at the world around them and know that they can be their best selves when they are doing everything for themselves. The idea of transcendentalism is that people and the greatest people they can be when they are self reliant and are able to live off the things that they give themselves rather than the things that are given to them. Transcendentalism is the idea that you can only control what you can do and that should be enough. You should be able to live you life to the best of your abilities without having the help of anyone else.
The one thing about transcendentalism that piqued my interest is the simplicity of life. The way they live with no distractions is incredible. Not worrying about technology and social media, but living life and enjoying the ride.
After doing the utopian society and walking around and seeing others, I have a good idea of what transcendentalism is to me. It seems to me that all the people that identify with transcendentalism have removed themselves from society and normal day to day living. It seems that they are getting away from modern day living in order to connect spiritually with themselves. Some transcendentalist are loners of some sort, that intrigues me that they get away from other people to connect with themselves.
After walking around and thoroughly sitting through all the projects, my views on transcendentalism being wack ideology are reinforced. Transcendentalism isn't very substantive, there's not really anything being said. The only stand out thing in this philosophy would be its emphasis on self-reliance and independence, and even this isn't something I can totally get behind. One of Transcendentalism's fundamental beliefs is that the individual should be celebrated in independence. In modern civilizations, it just isn't practical for a transcendental way of life.
People who are transcendentalist towards nature are really trying to make a difference. Nature is a beautiful thing that shows what the world actually is. In today's world, nature is thought sort of as a trash can. The amount of trash everywhere like in the ocean or in the woods, comes to show how we actually feel about nature. Some people just don't care about other lives in nature. I believe that nature is a place where life happens. Nature can show what the world is really capable of.
I think it’s a neat way of going about things. Taking time to step back from everything and think about life sounds like a nice experience every once in a while. I might even put some thought into it during my next vacation or something. But ultimately, I don’t think the ideal is quite my style. I can empathise with some of the concepts in it, but I quite like being a part of society and I thrive in cities.
Overall I’m very fascinated in this way of life. I think it’s so inspiring how these people can follow their values and passions and be able to live in such a secluded world. It’s so amazing to see how they are making the changes they want in there life. This way of life also makes me think about my life and how many different people and things I depend on. These people have taken away a lot of modern day distractions away from their lives yet still are so happy and upbeat. It’s crazy to see how much as a society we depend on our phones and electronics to satisfy us. It’s almost unreal to picture this world because it’s so hard to imagine a place where life is so simple with few distractions. I have learned a lot from this lifestyle and want to try and live my life following my values and making change in a positive way.
I like the idea of peace, but there are thing in life that we do need that they don't think we need. Which is a little bit crazy but I like the idea of spreading peace to others and yourself. I think its something many people are missing and it would help them out drastically. More people need to connect to themselves and take perspective.
I think certain aspects of transcendentalism are very interesting. Being one with the universe and one with nature can be very beautiful and interesting. I believe that is is important to value and appreciate nature. One aspect I do not understand is being isolated from society. I think that happiness is created by relationships and interacting with other people, so personally I think I would have hard time being isolated. Most utopian societies had a population of one hundred or less people. Many people find happiness from different things so everyone has a different idea of their own utopia. A person who likes to have something to do ll the time, interact with people, and be entertained might see utopia as being a big city such as New York. On the other hand another person might see a utopia as a isolated quiet cve found in nature.
Transcendentalism to me is to be among nature without the laws of society and to find peace within your own soul. Most of the utopias had something to do with living mostly secluded in nature which shows that the transcendentalists would rather be left to live and survive off the gifts in nature than live in a society where having the newest technology is almost a necessity. While I would never become a transcendentalist but I can see the gain you can get when you just live off of nature and try to find out who you really are in the world we live in today.
I think that living in a Utopian life is a very unique way of living. In Twin Oak's community, they all get paid the same no matter what they do or how hard they work. In some ways, I find this unfair because some professions deserve more money than other professions. They still have leaders, so technically they are not living the equal life of transcendentals because they believe in no government, but yet in every world there is naturally going to be a leader. I love how unique and secluded they are from the world and how connected they are with the great features the earth gives us. They respect life in different ways then we do. They try to appreciate the earth and what they have without all the other aspects of life that are not needed but wanted. I do not think that I could live in a world like this. I have mixed feelings about this type of society.
After walking around and viewing the utopia projects, Transcendentalism is an idea that most every society dreams of, to me it means equality and freedom and allowance to use your full potential. It is a Utopia, a world without consequences and problems to deal with. Before I thought that this idea could easily be achievable, I mean it’s just like living off nature and not conforming to society's pressures. Now, to me it seems impossible, there is to many problems that would arrive when trying to create this perfect society, there will always be someone not willing to conform to individual ideas, and because it is natural for human beings to clump together based on interest and ideas, this idea could truly never work. The one thing that interest me about Transcendentalism is the fact that it represents this blissful life, when most people think about the future we think of new technology and advancing in society, Transcendentalism back tracks all of the advancements and prefers to live simply.
After we have explored transcendentalism, I find it to be very interesting, especially how it captures the essence of American writing and poetry. Most transcendentalists seem to be very poetic in nature, like what a poem would look like as a person. I am also interested about how connected with nature most transcendentalists are or strive to be, and I have realized I am a bit transcendentalist in that way as well.
I am not a huge fan of transcendentalism. It goes against what I was raised on, or that could just be a few of the cases we have viewed. I was raised on the idea that you need to contribute to society and that running away from the problems of the outside world is not how you deal with things. Humans are not made to be alone, biologically we are pack animals. We stay with those around us for as long as we can. Transcendentalism seems like a lot of solitude; being someone that enjoys being alone, I thought that I would enjoy the idea of it. However, it just seems too extreme. There is one thing that I do enjoy. The story of Andrew Forsthoefel, his idea of walking to listen did impact me. In the way that shows that the world is not black and white and everyone else is not just a secondary character in your life.
Transcendentalism to me is more so trying to find yourself, and kind of find that inner peace. However after looking at all of the projects it seems to be more of a personal definition, and how you view it, and this is just something that caught my interest, because this is an ideal that you are able to interpret almost however you want, however like all ideals there are boundaries. These boundaries are why I say you are able to interpret Transcendentalism almost however you want.
I think transcendentalism is an insert way of life. I think it is not sustainable. It has interesting ideals however. I especially like the service aspect since i feel it is our duty as humans to help others when we can.
One idea from the gallery walk that struck a chord with me is the idea of an underwater city or a city on the water. When trying to figure out what my Transcendentalist town would be like , I didn’t know what could set mine apart, so I chose a very secluded, peaceful place, that had close to nobody living there. So when I saw those ideas, I thought they were very interesting because of how different they are. I thought it was cool to have a completely new society, away from pre established places and people, and not have to carry any of that with you. The water is a new, untouched and untouched place to have a transcendental life.
I think Transcendentalism can take an impact on life. However, everyone has their own values. I believe it is important to be truthful and honest towards others. This will create a better community and build friendship. Even though this might not be a whole new world, it is still important to be honest. It will have a positive impact on people and the environment. People can have different ideas of what Transcendentalism really is, it's just how they interpret it.
I think that transcendentalism can really change someone's life. If you are so used to living one way and all of the sudden you decide you want to completely change it, that makes a huge impact. One thing that really stood out to me while going over transcendentalism is that everyone has their own unique values. For example, I don't really agree with the idea of transcendentalism because I was raised on the idea that in order to provide for yourself you need to have a job and make money all while still contributing to society. Yes I agree there are some parts of transcendentalism which is better for the planet but sometime people are just so used to doing and thing one way and you can't change their mind, no matter what you do.
After engaging in the modern utopian society project, my idea of transcendentalism is living in solitude somewhere peaceful. It is interesting to me that many of these people provide for themselves while living a transcendentalist lifestyle. Many people find themselves by living this way. This transition would be very hard yet doable, it could also create a happier and more positive lifestyle for many people. (I was not in class this day, so I wrote about my projects. Thank you!)
The one thing about transcendentalism that helped me get more interest is the value of life. The way they live with no distractions is incredible and also motivating for my own self to do. Not worrying about technology and social media, but living life and enjoying the ride is way better then worrying about social media, instead go value nature or something more meaningful
Transcendentalism is the idealism that you can be one with yourself and one with nature. In basic terms, it is the perfect world. I love the idea of transcendentalism and believe that it’s important to understand yourself (by being self-reliant) more than anyone or anything else could. After looking through people’s projects of what people consider to be a Modern Utopia, I can clearly see how it ties into Transcendentalism (perfect world, being one with yourself and one with nature, etc.).
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