The Adaptation of Transcendentalism Essay Example for Free

The Adaptation of Transcendentalism EssayN genius(a) of the transcendentalist thinkers were actually popular during their lives. Their ideas were all thought to be wild and barbaric when really they were conscionable ahead of their eon. Today, those aforesaid(prenominal) ideas that were thought to be too free and wild atomic number 18 actually seen as jollyly master and mild. Writers such as Walt Whitman, Ralph Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were all misunderstood by society during their lives.The typical lifestyle during the time of the early transcendentalists was very slow and the thinking was traditional therefore, when Whitman, Thoreau, and Emerson started sharing their ideas that went against the traditional government agency of life, they were seen as ferocious and outspoken. Now, we can look back on the write up of the States and see how the commonwealth who fought the popular way of thinking or questioned why intimacys were the way they were have caused se minal movements and changes in the way of life.Now that we acknowledge change as a good thing, we encourage others to be different and question society. We encourage people to stand up and fight popular thinking because those kinds of people are what have made America the way it is. But before they were seen as great minds, the early transcendentalists were considered wild and their ideas unthinkable. Ralph Emerson, for example, wrote, A foolish consonance is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.With consistency a great soul has good nonhing to do (Self-Reliance 47-49, Emerson). By this Emerson is saying that people who want to go by things the same just because thats the way they have always been are wrong and ridiculous. Without questioning your way of life, great minds can non boost and be great. At the time that he wrote this people did not feel the same way. Society pushed to keep everything unchanged because thats the wa y it had always been done and it worked that way. Henry David Thoreau also wrote something along the same lines that about government.He wrote, This American government- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself undamaged to posterity, but each instant losing some integrity (Resistance to Civil Government 25-27, Thoreau). Thoreau, like Emerson, dialogue about how enforcing tradition is a ridiculous notion. Thoreau points out that even the young government is trying to off sure that through future generations the system would still be unimpaired and consistent. Again, the ideas provided by the two were not popular with the majority of society at the time but became very popular with future leaders. in all of the leaders in the past who have made a difference have given something new. As Whitman says in one of his many poems, I hear America vocalizing, the varied carols I hear, Each tattle what belongs to him or her and to none else (I Hear America Singing 1and 9, Whitman). Every leader who stood up against society, against the crowd, was singing their own song. Popular leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi sang the songs of true nicety and equality. Their songs or ideas, though their own, were heavily influenced by those of the people who came before them.They used the ideas expressed in Thoreaus famous essay Resistance to Civil Government. When Martin Luther King Jr. spent the night in Birmingham throw out he wrote about what made laws just and unjust and questioned if the laws made by the majority were rightfully fair. That notion was inspired by the line in Thoreaus essay, After all, the practical reason why, when the agency is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are the most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest (Thoreau 57-61).By thi s he is saying that just because things may be voted for by the majority, doesnt necessarily mean its fair to everyone and when Martin Luther King Jr. saw this it stuck and he then wrote similar ideas expanding on the thought. Gandhi then did the same thing when talking about nonviolence. He used Thoreaus example of his one night in jail to say that instead of fighting with our fists, use quiet actions to gain people on your side. These are just two examples of the impact the transcendentalists made on history.Once thought to be wild and outspoken, the early transcendentalists are now considered the start of what we are encouraged to do every day. They were different and spoke their minds just as we are encouraged to do now. They were the start of a domino effect in America where one great leader got their ideas from a great leader before them, who somewhere down the line got their ideas from one of the early transcendentalists. Now considered mild and tame, Walt Whitman, Henry Davi d Thoreau and Ralph Emerson will forever go down in history as the men who lived on through the ideas of great leaders.