Modern Transcendentalism By Steven Aguero

Nonconformist

“Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self Reliance"

Richard Dawkins is a well respected professor of Oxford University who has been a nonconformist by showing the world how we all conform to the same prison that is religion. In his own words “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further .” Just as he mentions time and time again in his book The God Delusion published in 2008 where he talks about how nonconformist should in a sense “come out” and show what they truly believe in.

For anyone to go against something or someone that is regarded which such high prestige is insane to many and considered heinous for simply implying reason to the subject in question. Richard Dawkins goes against the norm and looks at the different side of things such as Atheism. In The God Delusion Dawkins main goal is for the reader to know that they can leave a religion if they wanted to, in order to not be these robot slaves that preach the Bible yet don't understand a single word they say which in the cases of children indoctrinated into the cult do show lack of or no understanding completely to what they just read . The unlikelihood of Emerson agreeing with Dawkins further proves how he doesn't conform to certain groups due to numbers over reason.

Self- Reliance

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string” -Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self Reliance"

Edward Snowden was a former whistleblower for the NSA until he breached the confidentiality of the organization which than led to him being deemed a villain in the eyes of America and till this day is seeking asylum in Russia. In a video uploaded to youtube in 2013 titled "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things" gained over 3 million views he explained that what the NSA is doing is unconstitutional and should be shown to the public.

Snowden knew that this wasn't right and wanted the public to know how the government was exploiting us. "...but me sitting my desk certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone from you, to your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the president if I had a personal email." Emerson would've like the modesty of Snowden that he had trust in himself to know what he was doing and the effects to come.

Importance of Nature

“In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life - no disgrace, no calamity…” “Nature” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leonardo DiCaprio has been an environmentalist all his life. In 2016 he received the Nations Messenger of Peace award for his contributions to the study on Global Warming and for spreading awareness in the documentary "Before the Flood" in 2016 published by the National Geographic.

Leonardo traveled all around the world in his latest documentary "Before the Flood" where he went to see the effects of heavy fossil fuels have on places like Hong Kong and seeing the ice caps melting before him. He addressed Paris Conference stating that "That is our charge now - you are the last best hope of Earth. We ask you to protect it. Or we - and all living things we cherish - are history. Emerson would have agreed completely with DiCaprio knowing how important nature plays a role in all our lives and how we should protect this planet.

Favoring Intuition over Reason

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away” - Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”

The main problem with following your gut over logic is that the world has a lot of dumb, gullible, and just down right insane. This becomes an even bigger problem when you get them in a room together once a week and pray to a "God" who discriminates against homosexuals, women, and even has you kill others for not believing in "God". These events happen all around the world and when these religions of peace start killing innocent civilians others decide to leave the country and hope to seek refuge in others parts of the world. A recent event that has come with much controversy is our Presidents order to currently put a holt to Syrian refugees seeking refuge in America that was passed in 2017.

The normal politically correct conformist would argue that it is necessary for the US to let in Syrian refugees enter. However, some can also argue saying that knowing muslums extremist points of views it might be dangerous to let them enter the states at the current moment. With fears of another Boston Bombing that happened back in 2013 and the recent San Bernardino massacre in 2015 that left 14 people dead was a former jihadist. The question isn't how long society will take to learn how counter these acts of terrorism yet learn that religion in general is killing this nation slowly with people from all sorts of religions from priest being accused of child molestation year after year reported on LA TIMES yet for Thoreau this was the obvious choice and religion is always right.

Simplified Life

“Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity,simplicity!” -Walden, Henry David Thoreau

Amish people live the simple life in doing so they don't require electricity nor cars they just live normal lives in the countryside and mind themselves. With events like the arts and crafts festival they hold annually they also get people who aren't amish to just come along and see how they live for a change.

Thoreau would have probably liked the idea of the simplicity there is to being amish. For everyone it's different so many wouldn't mind actually giving it a shot.

Created By
Steven Aguero
Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by pcdazero - "field clouds sky"

Made with Adobe Slate

Make your words and images move.

Get Slate

Report Abuse

If you feel that this video content violates the Adobe Terms of Use, you may report this content by filling out this quick form.

To report a Copyright Violation, please follow Section 17 in the Terms of Use.