How do Thoreau's words affect you personally?

WildCityWoman · Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:07 pm

Quoting from Wikipedia

In 1999, he published The Biggest Secret, in which he wrote that the Illuminati are a race of reptilian humanoids known as the Babylonian Brotherhood, and that many prominent figures are reptilian, including George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Kris Kristofferson, and Boxcar Willie.

Unquote

Kris Kristofferson and boxcar Willie! Ha! Ha! Ha! That's rich!

I wonder what he's got against them?

WildCityWoman · Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:12 pm


	Penelope wrote: I would like to give a pat on the back and my backing to Carley here. Our Governments may be self-serving and a bit pathetic...but at least we can vote them out........ The super-rich and influencial are always there....and we can't vote them out.

Like your signature says, Penelope . . . a closed mouth gathers no feet! Maybe I need to take that advice.

Can we really vote them out? I'd like to think we can and do hope that David Icke isn't right.

I'm wondering how you could get it by the people who count the ballots at election time - they would have to accept who we all voted for, wouldn't they?

Thanks for the pat on the back.

It's good to find people who will discuss this man's material with me, for or against it.

WildCityWoman · Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:14 pm

I must admit that I though he was being harsh on Jewish people. It was kind of ugly to say that.

Anyway, we can discuss this on the 'video' threads, I guess . . . if you can't find it, let me know and I'll start up another one.

I didn't mean to get everybody 'off topic' here.

Penelope · Mon Sep 15, 2008 4:22 am

Wild City Woman said:


	Quote: I went on about how political leaders don't really have any power - it's the rich influential families that have always been there. It doesn't matter who you vote for . . . well! Everybody looked at me like I was some kinda' nut!

The above was the remark about which I wanted to give you backing.

I really don't know much about David Icke. Except that I did read one of his books and he does have some very strange ideas. However, I did like the ethics of respect and tolerance for ones neighbour which he explained.

I do think it matters for whom one votes Carley. It is very different in Britain than in the States. We have two major parties, as in the US. Our two parties used to be very different in their attitudes to society. Now there is not much difference between the two. But, still, the power of voting is our only strength. That is, our strength is in our numbers and it is the only 'peaceful' power that we can wield against the very rich.

I do think it is vitally important that the ordinary people trust and support one another. I do think the Government (Wealthy) have a hand in causing division among us - and purposely. I am always very warey of any news item that seeks to divide and weaken the ordinary working people. That is, for instance, by pointing the finger at the immigrant population and trying to blame them for our economic problems.

Anyway....I just wanted to say that. And far from moving us off topic, I think you have made this debate much more interesting.

I had not realised until this Walden forum, how people of our age, in Britain and in the US and Canada, differ in their cultural experiences. How our formative years form our opinions and attitudes and how different your social backgrounds are from my own.

Please don't see this as any criticism - in fact, I am surprised, delighted and interested.

WildCityWoman · Wed Sep 17, 2008 11:20 pm

Just seems that it doesn't matter who gets 'in', things just go on . . . same sheet, different plate, eh?

No . . . I'm not taking it as criticism.

But even though Thomas seems like he's being a 'cop' at times, I am grateful to him for pointing out that I ought to be cautious . . . I tend to get blathering away about something that excites me and should keep it to myself till I know more.

Thanks for your support, Penelope - you're a great gal!

Much love from across the pond . . .

Carly

Art1972 · Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:52 am

I first read Walden about six or seven years ago. Previous to Walden, I had read Cape Cod, Civil Disobedience, and some misc. material online.

Although I enjoyed these others, it was Walden that had a profound effect on me, and it was this book that cemented my love for his writing.

I have always been attracted to writers whose descriptive powers had the ability to pull me into the pages, and left me with the feeling that I was observing the subject matter as if i was there with the author.

Three years ago, after a long search, I located a used (but very clean) fourteen volume set of Thoreau's Journal. I believe I paid somewhere around $100 or so, which was very reasonable compared to other prices I had seen on the internet.

As much as I have loved reading and re-reading Walden several times over the years, it is in his journal that my need for much more Thoreau was finally satiated.

As mentioned, and as you all know, Thoreau's grasp on descriptive writing is among the best I've ever read. That being said, his journal is also a powerful looking glass into a period of history, and a different way of life that for the most part does not exist any longer.
During the last three years, I still have yet to read all fourteen volumes. I started first chronologically, then experimented with finding and reading journal entries for current day of the year, then recently went back to my initial tactic.

I have found that in my opinion, some of his most passionate and best work is from the early 1850's- specifically 1850-1851. He was 34 years old, and the journal entries from this period are a pleasant mix of observations of nature, personal and internal growth as a person, and very deep philosophical musings.

Here's a beautiful entry from : July 16th 1851. (I dog-eared the bottom of this page, and have re-read it several times- it's become somewhat of a "mantra" for me.)

" What more glorious condition of being can we imagine than from impure to be becoming pure? It is almost desirable to be impure that we may be the subject of this improvement. That I am innocent to myself ! That I love and reverence my life ! That I am better fitted for a lofty society today than I was yesterday ! To make my life a sacrement ! What is nature without this lofty tumbling ? May I treat myself with more and more respect and tenderness. May I not forget that I am impure and vicious. May I not cease to love purity. May I go to my slumbers as expecting to arise to a new and more perfect day. May I so live and refine my life as fitting myself for a society ever higher than I actually enjoy. May I treat myself tenderly as I would treat the most innocent child whom I love; may I treat children and my friends as my newly discovered self. Let me forever go in search of myself; never for a moment think that I have found myself; be as a stranger to myself, never a familiar, seeking acquaintance still. May I be to myself as one is to me whom I love, a dear and cherished object. What temple, what fane, what sacred place can there be but the innermost part of my own being? The possibility of my own improvement, that is to be cherished. As I regard myself, so I am.
O my dear friends, I have not forgotten you. I will know you to-morrow. I associate you with my ideal self. I had ceased to have faith in myself. I thought I was grown up and become what I was intended to be, but it is earliest Spring with me. In relation to virtue and innocence the oldest man is in the beginning Spring and vernal season of life. It is the love of virtue makes us young ever. That is the fountain of youth, the very aspiration after the perfect. I love and worship myself with a love which absorbs my love for the World. The lecturer suggested to me that I might become better than I am. Was it not a good lecture then ? May I dream not that I shunned vice; may I dream that I loved and practiced virtue."

Wow.... beautiful huh?
Ok, glad to have found these forums, and I look forward to sharing with you all as time goes by.
Have a great day.

Art

DWill · Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:24 pm

I agree with your appraisal of that passage. I hadn't heard of it before, so thanks for posting it. Thoreau sometimes seems interested in renunciation, but there is a greater ambition shown here. He is not always so solicitious of his fellows, either, and that is another attractive quality in the passage. Wish you could have been around when we discussed Walden.

Thomas Hood · Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:44 pm


	Art1972 wrote: As much as I have loved reading and re-reading Walden several times over the years, it is in his journal that my need for much more Thoreau was finally satiated.

The 1854 daily Journal entry is now being posted and discussed at Waldenlist, but it's only in the last few weeks that I have begun to follow it closely. The background of the Journal is especially difficult. Much is unintelligible without knowledge of the geography of Concord and Thoreau's special place names as given in the Thoreau Gazetteer, of plant names ( http://www.ray-a.com/ThoreauBotIdx/ ), and of contempory history. In addition, the Journal is as allusive as Walden.

Tom

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