Transcendentalism Case

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a group of ideas developed in the 1830’s and the 1840’s. These ideas were belief in self-reliance, individualism, non-conformity, intuition and nature. These ideas are mostly used together, and these ideas together are what we call transcendentalism. Transcendentalism was meant to be something new for people, a new and better way of living, by being an individual instead of following the crowd and do whatever everyone else is doing, just because they are doing it. Emerson and Thoreau wanted people to rely on themselves and act on their own will. I do not believe it is possible to be a true transcendentalist; some of the ideas are too difficult or even impossible to follow, but people who try to follow these ideas and this type of living might still call themselves a transcendentalist.

I find it hard to determine whether I am a Transcendentalist or not, because I strongly disagree with a lot of Emerson and Thoreau’s writings, but still I like some of the ideas of transcendentalism, like non-conformity. I like the idea of not letting anyone affect my thoughts and just care about myself, and that is mostly what I do. Since I was 13 years old, I have done everything that I’ve wanted to. I have never wore expensive clothing just because all the cool kids wear those clothes, I have never listened to specific music because everyone else listens to that music, I had the slick back, rockabilly hairstyle for over two years even though people didn’t like it, but I thought it looked cool and I wanted to show everyone that I really don’t care what they think. “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think…You will always

find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is

easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live

after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with

perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”-Thoreau Self Reliance. Although, if no one were to follow the crowd, what would then happen to the world? Would the world be a better place? I don’t believe so, I believe that it has to be a thing in between. If no one were to follow the crowd, what would then happen to the clothing industry? They rely on the conformist, every clothing brand corresponds to a group of people, and if those people decided that they didn’t want to wear what everyone else is wearing the clothing industry would have a problem. Sometimes I think some schools are against non-conformity, or against letting people have their own style, many schools have rules that says you cannot have long hair, no piercings, you have to wear a specific clothes that responds to a dress code. I do not like those rules, I believe people should be able to wear