Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience speech is supporting the need to prioritize one's conscience over the decimates of laws.  It is criticized American social institutions and polices.  When he wrote it it was directed towards slavery and the Mexican-American war.  Civil Disobedience is refusal to obey certain laws, demand, or commands of a government.  Also described as nonviolent resistance.  Some say that gay marriage is going to be the next civil disobedience.  I also believe that this is true.  Civil disobedience is all about being nonconformists and going against society.  Gay marriage is defiantly an example of civil disobedience.  Although some states allow gay marriage but the majority of the others disagree and have made it illegal.  Gay marriage is so taboo in todays and mainly the 20th century's society that it had became illegal to marry your partner.  You hear about disagreements about it all of the time.  There are protests against it and parades for it.  I felt that gay marriage will become the next civil disobedience because it is actually a right to love who you love and to be able to marry whoever you want to.  I feel that it is wrong to limit some one because its not your personal preference and you disagree with it.  Being gay and liking the same gender is something that people don't choose to do or be.  It's just your genetic make up.  Its just like have brown hair or blonde hair.  Or have freckles or not.  So the fact that someone can't help something about themselves and then not be able to participate in marriage because of it is really wrong.  Society says that everyone should be treated equally but then when it comes down to gay marriage everyone disagrees and its just ironic that they are all for equality but the reality is is that its just fake and meaningless to them.  Gay marriage doesn't affect the people who aren't gay.  Whats the difference between seeing a guy and girl together and seeing a guy and a guy or girl and girl?  Nothing that is the difference.  Some people get disgusted when they see a same sex couple showing their affection for each other but when its opposite gender couples theres nothing wrong with it.  That to me doesn't sound like equality whatsoever.  When gay marriage is illegal and there are people out there who want to marry their partner but can't because they are the same gender is wrong.  People have already started the civil disobedience by going to other states to get married and its just going to continue and the more people try to refuse it the worse its going to get.  People should be able to marry whoever they want no matter the circumstances.  Gay or straight we are all people and deserve equality.  So that is why I see gay marriage becoming the next big civil disobedience in the 21st century.

Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau is known for being a student of Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy of transcendentalism.  Thoreau created his own ideas and perspectives of transcendentalism in several different ways.  One of those ways included the fact that they would escape from society.  "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately."-Thoreau.  This explains that he would escape from society and go off on his own to learn about everything that was there to be known.  Henry David Thoreau would almost imitate Emerson in some ways.  Since they believed in the same subject they would explain similar things that they'd discover outside of society and in nature.  Another way that Henry David Thoreau was a student of Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy is because they would create similar essays and produce similar thoughts.  They agreed upon most everything.  The two of them would discover things that were "out of this world" but were similar to each others discoveries.  The way the both described the things they had seen or done or experienced had similar meaning behind them.  Thoreau definitely followed in Emerson's footsteps.  Thoreau had similar experiences to Emerson and I believe that this is because Thoreau learned about transcendentalism through Emerson.  So therefore created similar thoughts and experiences that related to the philosopher's.

The Incredibles

Thesis:  The Incredibles are examples of transcendentalists because the superhero family are nonconformists and transcendentalism supports nonconformists in today's society.  

"When everyone's super, no one is."-Syndrome
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."-Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is an example of Individualism because it explains that people feel that they all have a special ability and when everyone has the same exact ability in common then no one is special and if you have an individual ability that only you have then it become a "superpower.

"I never look back darling.  It distracts from the now."-Edna "E" Mode
"Never look back unless you are planning to go that way."-Henry David Thoreau
This is an example of optimism because this quote is explaining that you always need to look ahead and not to dwell on the past because it can hold you back and slow you down in what may lie ahead of you.

"You always say to be true to yourself, but you never say what to be true to."-Buddy
"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."-Henry David Thoreau
This is an example of self-reliance because he's saying that you need to be true to yourself and figure out what part of you needs to true.

Emerson

Emerson is well known for his speeches and essays back in the early to late 1800's.  He was also known for being a transcendentalist and talking about transcendentalism.  He had several pieces of work that he had shared with people who would come from all over just to hear about his experiences.  He had written a piece called "Nature"  This piece was about setting off and getting away from society to experience transcendentalism.  One of his quotes was, "Envy is ignorance, Imitation is Suicide."-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This is an example of self reliance because it is explaining that envying someone is not realizing yourself and your abilities.  But if you imitate someone you might as well not be your own person because you need to venture off the beaten path and come up with your own ideas.  "Trust thyself"-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This quote may seem simple but it sort of ties in with individuality.  This is an example of intuition because he's sort of saying that you you need to trust your gut and follow what you believe.  This is a good example of intuition also because he's not saying trust someone else he's telling you that you know what is best for you in your mind set."  "Do not follow where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This quote is an example of individualism because Emerson is explaining that you need to take your own path and follow yourself.  You need to be one and do your own thing away from society and the people in the real world.  The past three quotes all sort of tie in together and relate to each other.  The last three themes kind of go hand and hand and have similar concepts to them and thats what I have realized has taken place in transcendentalism.  "Write in your own heart that every day is the best day in the year."-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This quote is an example of optimism with in transcendentalism because Emerson is sating that you should just tell yourself that it continues to get better and to not let yourself down.  Optimism is keeping your head up and never getting down because life goes on and you can determine if you're going to have a bad day or not by being either optimistic or negative.

Transcendentalism

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary the definition of transcendentalism is: a philosophy which says that thought and spiritual things are more real than ordinary human experience and material things. My definition of transcendentalism is: the act of experiencing something that people can't wrap their heads around and to do something that you don't see everyday and are told you can't possibly experience or do those things.  Some examples of this would be magic tricks, extreme sports, and really just anything that gets you thinking how someone could possibly do such a thing.  "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chambers as from society" -Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This quote is an example of individualism because it is explaining that in order to escape from society you also have to escape and exceed your comfort zone.  By this meaning that you have to escape and leave everything you have ever known and learned and just venture off into your unknown.  "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men, that is genius." Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This quote is an example of self reliance.  It relates to self reliance because its stating that if you believe in yourself and follow your gut then you are a genius.  This is transcendentalism because it is easier to follow the crowd and to go unnoticed but to go off on your own path you are experiencing personal and spiritual mind sets.  "I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan like…" Henry David Thoraeu.  This quote is explaining that he wants to live to the fullest and experience everything there is to experience.  He wants to be able to die knowing that he did all he could to learn everything that was to learn in the world.  This is an example of transcendentalism because it shows that he wants to go above and beyond what the average human does with their life.