Thoreau Taught Us How to Create a Better World, but Few Listened

Thoreau Taught Us How to Create a Better World, but Few Listened

Imagine what the look on 19th century writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau’s face would be if he were transported to present day America. Now, if Thoreau thought that “export[ing] ice, talk[ing] through a telegraph, and rid[ing] thirty miles an hour” was superfluous, envision what he would think of our modern society (Thoreau excerpt). He would gasp at air conditioning and refrigeration, feel faint when he saw a computer or learned of the internet, then fall over from a heart attack when he went for a ride in an airplane. Because our society has become obsessed with perfection and improvement, very few of us today follow Thoreau’s teachings. We are not satisfied when something is good; it must be perfect. We have contests searching for the perfect singing voice or the perfect body. We create technologies to improve our lives and make things easier. However, in our search for perfection, have we lost sight of what was perfect? Thoreau wanted us to see that we already have perfection. He wanted us to see the beauty of ourselves and of nature. All of the details and luxuries that we have become so obsessed with distract us from the true magnificence of life. We have become so caught up in the struggle to reach perfection that we never stop to question what the purpose is. That was Thoreau’s biggest objection. He did not understand why we waste our time with pointless jobs and rituals just to fit in with what society has deemed as suitable. Instead of improving things around us, he believed we should think about how to improve ourselves. Thoreau wanted us to think about the consequences of working, and how it affects our happiness or our family. We work hard to make a better life for ourselves, but in the process we forget our own needs.

The reason Thoreau was so opposed to detail was that he experienced life without it. He separated himself from all modern society and civilization, “a move that was considered ‘nutty,’… and disappear[ed] into the woods for two years” (MacDonald Newspaper Article). His life at Walden was an experiment to “live deliberately [and] to front only in the essential facts of life” (excerpt). Moreover, the purpose of his voyage was to “learn what [nature] had to teach,” not society (excerpt). Thoreau wanted to learn what we as humans actually needed, not what we think is necessary. He left behind all material things and “reduced [life] to its lowest terms” so he could experience life without the details, hindrances, and distractions he believed cause us to “live what is not life” (excerpt). During the two years he lived at Walden, Thoreau was able to find spiritual joy with nature and find contentment in himself. The reason he wrote Walden was that he wanted us to live like he did. He wanted us to have the same unity with nature that he did. He believed that “our lives are frittered away by detail,” so he relayed his experiences to us in an attempt to convince us that we should live more simply (excerpt).

One thing that Thoreau concluded from his venture at Walden is that all the time we spend trying to improve and to be perfect is what holds us back. He thought “most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meager life than the poor” (economy). In short we do not need to create luxuries because we already have every comfort that we could need. We should see beauty in the nature that we are so quick to destroy, by polluting rivers, cutting down trees, and leveling mountains. All of these things that we justify with the name of progress only destroy what Thoreau believed to be perfection. Instead of trying to “conquer nature, [or] to conquer the mountain” we should instead ask ‘How can I live with that river’ ” (article). Thoreau wanted people to think about “what they [are] doing or… about what they need, [so then] they might… realize they could shed a lot of things that are a burden to their day-to-day life (article). Thoreau is correct about our conflict with nature. We should ask if it is really necessary to clear forests for farming, kill animals for fashion or experiments, or to blow holes out of rocks to make tunnels. Society has blinded us to think that these things are important, but all they do is cause harm