Trascendentialists writers such as Raph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreu seemed to believe in the illusional idea that society is bad and that government control should be minimalized. Although the utopian ideas they present may sound good in paper, when applied in real life it would be disastrous.
In the first place, a corrupt government is better than no government at all. If you look at countries with massive corruption like Honduras, of course you notice the poverty and the violence, but how would that get better without a government? People need someone to lead them, even if it’s a spray-tanned clown or a war mongering psycho so we don’t descend into chaos. If everyone is only thinking about themselves we would live in an even more unbalanced world. Poor people would get poorer and rich people would get richer. No one would help each other if individualism was implemented as Thoreu and Emerson wanted. Even if there was individualism, a society would rise up again. Families would keep getting bigger, and people would start caring for more people eventually, until finally a society is established once again.
One of the most ridiculous things that they believed was that humans were born good and society
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When he says “If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.” he contradicts himself. He uses this phrase to support his idea that man should live without society and government, but man’s nature is to live in a society. Ever since before the age of civilization, humans have lived in societies with governments. Even indigenous people that are cut off from the outside world live in their own small society. So yes, Thoreu is right when he uses that phrase, because humans would not survive without following its nature, which is living in a society. You can even see animals in nature (which trascendentialists admired deeply) that have