Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site peora.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!hjuxa!petsd!peora!jer
From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Thoreau (Reply to Dan Asimov)
Message-ID: <2050@peora.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Mar-86 16:15:44 EST
Article-I.D.: peora.2050
Posted: Wed Mar 26 16:15:44 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Mar-86 05:31:22 EST
References: <688@hounx.UUCP>
Organization: Concurrent Computer Corporation, Orlando, Fl
Lines: 56

> Galileo, Spinoza, and Thoreau were ostracized by the entrenched
> authorities.  Thoreau spent a night in jail for his civil disobediance.
> He exiled hmself to Waldon [sic.] Pond to seek his Utopian goal.

I think this description of Thoreau is a somewhat political one.  Thoreau
did spend a night in jail (he wanted to stay in longer, but his aunt
bailed him out against his wishes) because he refused to pay his taxes due
to his objection to a war (I think the Spanish-American war, if I remember
correctly... a war that tended to be generally unpopular and which, again
if my rusty memory of history is right, was inspired largely by "yellow
journalism").  This has apparently gained him a reputation among the
civilly-disobedient as one of the revolutionaries.

However, I don't think Thoreau was in any sense "ostracized by the
entrenched authorities." He did have his (usually philosophical) clashes
with authorities, and in fact perpetrated criminal acts by assisting
several slaves in escaping to Canada.  However, he more commonly was
*pursued* by the "entrenched authorities," who often wanted to sign him up
as honorary members of their various societies, or to have him speak before
various assemblies.  He didn't particularly like this [though he did enjoy
lecturing if he felt anybody understood what he was talking about],
especially when he was admitted, without first asking his permission, into
some organization as an "honorary member" (something some famous societies
we know of do in order to claim they have "famous people" as members :-)),
and eventually went so far as to publish a legal notice in the Concord
newspaper saying that he refused to be a member of any organization he
hadn't himself joined.

Thus, I think Thoreau's tendency to maintain himself somewhat aloof from
society was by choice, not by ostracism.  He went to Walden not to
implement some utopian society, but just to have time to think, to better
know himself, and to write.  He eventually left it and went back to live
with Emerson's family in Concord, and to publish his 2nd book, "Walden,
or, Life in the Woods" (his first book, "A Week on the Concord and
Merrimack Rivers," had been a commercial failure).

I suspect he would be somewhat displeased to know that he is now counted
by some among the revolutionaries (though you can never tell; he might
have enjoyed it as a springboard for a philosophical discourse... yet
if you think of what he wrote of reformers ("if you find yourself betrayed
into [participation in some reform-oriented group], let not your left
hand know what your right hand is doing, for it is not worth knowing.
Rescue the drowning and tie your shoelaces.")).

	"There is a new dawn lurking behind every horizon at
	 noontide.  There are eyes that see the sparkling dews,
	 and ears that hear the drowsy crickets even then.  Only
	 that day dawns to which we are awake.  There is more day
	 to dawn.  The sun is but a morning star."

	    -- original conclusion to Walden, revised before first
	       publication.
-- 
E. Roskos

"It's Halley's comet!"