Thoreau's Economy

Response to Thoreau's Economy
Peter Joelson
12/8/08
English 400
Hans Richter



Mr. Thoreau your ideas that you right in your book are quite interesting. However there is a kind of hypocrisy within your words. You say that there are poor men in the world who have inherited farms, cattle and other such items. You then move on and proclaim that men "are so occupied with factitious cares superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them." As a transcendentalists (which I know you refuse to call yourself), to be in touch with nature is one of the most important aspects of life. How can men, who have inherited farms and livestock, live their lives without the slightest grasp or "plucking finer fruits" of nature. Their life is abiding by the rules of nature. They grow crops, for trade or for themselves, but either way they are working with the earth around them. How dare you judge that those people are obsolete to you. You constantly are talking down to them, yet they have grasped the meaning of life more that you ever will. Those peoples or those commoners have families. They are entangled with nature far more than your narrow mindlessness will ever be able to grasp. Having a family is part of nature, possibly the most important part of nature. They have joined the cycle of nature by having kids. An experience you have yet to experience. Mating is the purest form of nature. How dare you suggest that these people are living a life of impurity.

I admire your lifestyle Mr. Thoreau, such simplicity must have a bliss many cannot understand, but I admire your criticism of people. Their life will never be like yours, yet just because their lifestyle is different does not give you the right to condescend them.