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Description:
"Transcendentalism." Gee, that's a long word. Basically, it's a philosophical movement that stressed independence and isolation, as a means to enlightenment and communion with God. Which is a great excuse for any introvert who's being asked to be more social.
Transcript
- 00:03
Nature calls....
- 00:23
simple request please stop carving into me it's majorly annoying hey my aching [Tree talking]
- 00:29
bark ok transcendentalism, WTF... that's er, Whitman Thoreau and Fuller okay who are
- 00:36
those people and what is transcendentalism easy question tough
- 00:41
answer buckle up because things are about to get abstract up in here [Person buckles up seat belt]
Full Transcript
- 00:45
transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that began in the 1800's
- 00:49
philosophical movement a different kind of movement there did that
- 00:53
transcendentalist movement A) stress the importance of being isolated and
- 00:57
physically removed from society? B) encouraged people to spend time in
- 01:02
nature so they could get closer to God C) argue that nature's spirit could be
- 01:07
expressed through human beings? D) argue against conformity or E) urge people to
- 01:14
listen to their own instincts when it comes to judging moral right from wrong
- 01:17
the answer F) all of the above and i warned you it was complicated okay so [Tree discussing answers]
- 01:22
let's start with the transcendentalist the folks who came up with all these
- 01:25
crazy ideas and see if we can get to the heart of their philosophy well in the [Walt Whitman appears and chest opens showing beating heart]
- 01:30
19th century there were a bunch of great thinkers most of them living in the New
- 01:33
England area who felt that being alone was just the bomb if a person really [Walt Whitman celebrates]
- 01:38
wanted to be happy and find enlightenment and succeed in life they
- 01:42
needed to spend time with numero uno i.e themselves and more time with me
- 01:47
nature those were the two big ideas of
- 01:50
transcendentalism spend time alone and spend time in nature basically like
- 01:54
being on a Boy Scout trip and getting lost you've heard the phrase God is in [Boy scout walking alone in the woods]
- 01:58
the details well for the transcendentalist God was in the leaves
- 02:02
and the babbling brooks and you know the deer droppings so the
- 02:06
big question why did this philosophy crop up well just take a look at who was [A log cabin appears]
- 02:10
ruling the roost in early america it was the Puritans; the doom and gloom club
- 02:15
those guys were about punishment for our sins, self-sacrifice grin and bare it down
- 02:21
here on earth so you can live like a rockstar in the hereafter well that
- 02:25
debbie downer philosophy sounded like a real bummer to the transcendentalist [Debbie walks up to log cabin]
- 02:28
they didn't think you should have to wait until you are dead before you could
- 02:32
have a relationship with God how about taking delight in nature and communing
- 02:36
with God through all the you know cool stuff he put here how about actually
- 02:40
getting something out of this gift of life we've been given rather than [Woman looks at christmas presents under a tree]
- 02:44
focusing entirely on getting rewarded in heaven afterwards add to this disconnect
- 02:49
the fear of herd mentality you know like your mom asks if everyone else jumps off
- 02:54
a bridge are you gonna jump too? well if folks conformed ie went along with what
- 02:58
everyone else did there would be no great ideas or innovation people would [Woman and man on a small boat]
- 03:02
be afraid to express their own opinions for fear of rocking the boat so yeah all
- 03:07
of this contributed to the reason the transcendentalist stressed spending
- 03:11
time alone so you would feel less pressure to conform the social norms and
- 03:15
spending quality time in nature so you could connect to God without having to
- 03:19
die first and so with a bunch of like-minded
- 03:22
people all living in roughly the same area the transcendental club was formed [Man walks into transcendental club cabin]
- 03:27
they would get together for occasional meetings where they would try to recruit
- 03:30
new members and attempt to spread their philosophy as much as possible but one
- 03:34
of the club's prominent members was literary bigshot henry david thoreau
- 03:38
writer of the book Walden and famed loner and yes when I fell in the woods [Thoreau sitting on a bench with squirrels]
- 03:43
he heard me and then there was Walt Whitman one of
- 03:47
the greatest poets in American history author of the poem collection Leaves of
- 03:51
Grass and 1889 runner-up for best beard in New Jersey we also had Emily
- 03:56
Dickinson a prolific writer who penned over 1800 poems not one of which was [Emily Dickinson on cover of Playboy magazine]
- 04:01
published in Playboy and then there's Henry Wadsworth Longfellow author of the
- 04:07
Song of Hiawatha and victim of much teasing in high school and popularity in
- 04:12
college for his last name and finally we have Ralph Waldo Emerson essayist, poet,
- 04:18
hide-and-seek aficionado oh sorry that was the other Waldo there Emerson was at
- 04:23
the forefront of the transcendentalist movement and he's worth a closer look so [Magnifying glass inspects Emerson]
- 04:26
put on your 3d glasses now... Emerson was born
- 04:31
1803 the son of a Unitarian minister and he was trained to be one himself
- 04:35
Unitarians believed that there was just one God
- 04:38
hence the Uni there in Unitarian there was no Holy Ghost and Jesus was just
- 04:44
some dude the son of God but basically just some dude with a lot of hair the
- 04:48
religion promoted the idea of a free conscience ie you should ask yourself [Woman sitting in a church]
- 04:51
what's right and then you should use reason to evaluate things from a
- 04:55
different perspective ie your own well after a lot of
- 04:59
back-and-forth you were supposed to make up your own mind about stuff rather than [Free conscience tank battles with popular opinion tank]
- 05:02
just going along with popular opinion in other words society might be telling you
- 05:06
that girls should play with Barbies and not microscopes but if you're a girl and
- 05:10
you're interested in microscopes feel free to kick Barbie to the curb or [Barbie doll thrown out of window]
- 05:14
Society is telling you that spraying aerosols in the air isn't hurting the
- 05:17
environment but your rational mind is telling you otherwise you should listen
- 05:21
to your own brain and not everyone else's well Emerson's religious
- 05:25
background which placed a huge focus on self over society had a lot in common
- 05:29
with the philosophy of transcendentalism that he would help establish when
- 05:32
he was older at the same time Emerson was influenced by both romanticism and
- 05:37
the enlightenment and there are elements of both philosophies clearly evident in [Romanticism and enlightenment chains interlink]
- 05:41
transcendentalism Romanticism stressed the uncensored expression of emotion it
- 05:48
bucked all that lovely repression that had been so popular in the 17th and 18th
- 05:52
centuries British royals had been all about keeping a stiff upper lip and
- 05:57
revealing zero emotion and that attitude had filtered into the rest of British
- 06:02
society and then into American society as well while bottling things up was bad [Man stacks bottles together]
- 06:07
unless it was to be sold out of your local liquor store and there was a
- 06:11
connection between that recommended outpouring of emotion and nature away
- 06:16
from the hectic city life on the top of mountain or isolated on a grassy [Woman meditating in a grassy hillside]
- 06:21
hillside you could really get in touch with those inner feelings and maybe even
- 06:25
twirl around in circles and sing a song if you were so inclined you know
- 06:32
and then there was the influence of the Enlightenment the movement that
- 06:36
originated in Europe but inched its way over to America
- 06:39
well the Enlightenment was about shaking things up looking at life from a [Person puts salt on a food dish]
- 06:43
different and new angle there were revolutions galore revolutions of the
- 06:47
mind but also actual bloody revolutions people like Emerson were suddenly [Emerson reading a book]
- 06:52
empowered to come up with their own controversial philosophies like giving a
- 06:56
rude gesture to society and saying suck an egg I'm off to get some me time and
- 07:00
none of you were invited well as Emerson got older he got his message out using a
- 07:04
variety of mediums he wrote a poem he wrote and delivered lectures and he
- 07:08
wrote essays there are two essays in particular that earned him the bulk of [Emerson on stage and audience celebrate]
- 07:12
his fame nature and self-reliance we'll start with nature...Hopefully you've already
- 07:17
read it if not give it a look or at least a sniff paying special attention
- 07:21
to the introduction chapter 1 and chapter 7 go ahead and hit pause if you need to,
- 07:25
we won't be offended....... alright Nature
- 07:29
why did Emerson write this thing well he looked around and saw the vast majority [Girl playing a guitar]
- 07:33
of human beings living in his view incorrectly he saw the demands of
- 07:37
society distracting everyone from what was right in front of their eyes people
- 07:41
were caught up in the hustle and bustle of what would lead to a meaningless life
- 07:44
no one was taking the time to appreciate the air they breathed or to stop and [Girl stops to admire woman's flowers]
- 07:49
admire the flowers or to roll around gleefully in a patch of poison ivy
- 07:54
so nature was intended to be a wake-up call Emerson wanted to call attention to
- 07:58
the beauty and magnificence of nature not just because he thought that
- 08:01
shrubbery was awesome but because he believed that through nature one could
- 08:05
find God but it went deeper than that Emerson wasn't just suggesting that we [Man appears in changing room]
- 08:09
could all benefit from a few days of relaxation poolside the elements of
- 08:13
nature weren't just pretty they were physical manifestations of spirituality
- 08:17
itself Emerson explores the idea of spirit in this essay quite a bit and
- 08:22
yeah it gets a little out there but the idea is that physical nature isn't just
- 08:27
the twigs and dirt and water you can feel with your bare hands it's a
- 08:31
spiritual phenomenon and nature's very spirit is expressed through us so if we [Woman walking through woods alone]
- 08:36
ignore it to focus on the petty superficial trivialities of our lives
- 08:40
we're doing nature and by extension God a huge disservice
- 08:44
and finally Emerson isn't suggesting we organize a big ol group of [Group of people sitting on a bus]
- 08:49
field trips and roast marshmallows over a fire while we all hold hands and sing
- 08:53
do your ears hang low he makes it clear that this is something each of us has to
- 08:58
embark upon by ourselves communion with nature has to be a personal undertaking
- 09:03
so yeah you had to go it alone not even Siri can join you all right moving
- 09:07
along to another of Emerson's essays self-reliance well if you haven't yet [Girl reading Self-reliance book]
- 09:12
exhibit some self-reliance and read the darn thing yourself I'll be blowing in
- 09:16
the wind till you return....As with nature Emerson wrote self-reliance
- 09:24
because he felt most Americans needed someone to grab them by the ear and [Emerson appears beside a woman in the woods]
- 09:27
scream bloody murder into their head holes okay that sounded more graphic
- 09:31
than it really was point being he saw some stuff going on
- 09:34
that scared that gee willikers out of him he saw mindless lemmings all
- 09:37
followers and no leaders he saw people ignoring their own instincts
- 09:42
selling out their own ideals for a quick buck in the essay Emerson says a foolish
- 09:47
consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds adored by little statesmen and [Paragraph from Emerson's book appears]
- 09:52
philosophers and divine's huh great line aside from this quote being awesome
- 09:57
because of the inclusion of the word Hobgoblin among other things it does a
- 10:00
good job summing up Emerson's main idea he's criticizing mankind's foolish
- 10:06
consistency i.e refusal to break from one's own established beliefs or
- 10:11
from the established beliefs of their society it's sticking to your opinion [Tree discussing Emerson's paragraph]
- 10:15
that the earth is flat even after someone's offered you proof that it's
- 10:19
round or insisting that Hayden Christensen can act even after watching
- 10:23
the Star Wars prequels like come on people there are a few major themes in [Man watching Star Wars on TV]
- 10:27
this essay the first of which is the idea of individual Authority the concept
- 10:32
there is that yeah there are authority figures in your life if your teacher [Girl throws paper plane at teachers head]
- 10:35
sends you to the principal's office well, you'd better book it over there
- 10:39
if a cop pulls you over speeding and be ill-advised to speed up but in Emerson's
- 10:43
view nothing has authority over the self so you're the Grand Poobah of your own
- 10:49
life makes sense now he wasn't recommending you spend every waking [Man runs past and places kick me sign on mans back]
- 10:52
moment sticking it to the man Emerson knew there were rules and he
- 10:56
wasn't suggesting you start breaking them at will but he did stress that if
- 11:00
anyone or anything came in the way of what someone believed the self could
- 11:04
basically push the override button then there's the theme of nonconformity which [Themes appear on piece of paper]
- 11:08
we touched on you do you don't follow other people's ideas of right or wrong
- 11:13
we're pretty sure that's been the mantra of many a serial killer but we don't
- 11:18
think that was Emerson's intention there's the theme of solitude versus
- 11:21
community this guy was not big on the family and getting together for [Emerson climbing stairs]
- 11:25
Thanksgiving Emerson would have been the one antisocial dude up in his room while
- 11:29
everyone downstairs talks smack about him behind his back but in his view
- 11:33
solitude was the only way you could divorce herself of society's pull so you
- 11:37
wouldn't get swayed by majority opinion you should have seen the look on his [Emerson appears at dinner table with family]
- 11:41
family's face when he popped downstairs to announce his decision that real
- 11:45
cranberries were superior to the canned stuff we're talking real controversy
- 11:49
here people finally there's the theme of spirituality
- 11:52
Emerson felt that truth resides within us so by being alone and not getting too
- 11:57
caught up in institutionalized religion a person can be more in tune with [Man playing saxophone on stage]
- 12:01
reality not sure how his Minister Father would
- 12:04
have felt about hearing his son say such things but probably didn't go over too
- 12:08
well all right so even if we have vaguely
- 12:10
wrapped our heads around this philosophy by now so what why do we care well there
- 12:16
may not be any transcendentalist club meetings coming up on your calendar but [Person searches for transcendentalist club meetings on google calendar]
- 12:20
the movement definitely left an imprint the focus on self paved the way for
- 12:24
people like Ayn Rand who created a philosophy of her own objectivism and
- 12:29
inspired generations of followers to adhere to the guidelines of strict
- 12:33
individualism over the demands of a needy freeloading Society and really our
- 12:38
entire economic system of capitalism is in line with the transcendentalist [Person draws line from economy to transcendentalism]
- 12:42
philosophy while we do live in a society ie we're not all living off our own
- 12:47
private cabins and woods like Thoreau we're working for ourselves providing
- 12:52
for our own families following our own principles and living life the way we
- 12:56
choose to live it and how about the Industrial and technological revolutions [Tree discussing industrial and technological revolution]
- 13:00
of the past 200 years well for us to achieve progress we've had to think
- 13:04
outside the box explore unchartered avenues of scientific
- 13:07
discovery all stuff Emerson and company would have applauded [Audience applauds and Emerson standing on stage]
- 13:11
so there's Ralph Waldo Emerson and transcendentalism in a nutshell now you
- 13:16
know why the guy was such a tree hugger oh hello can anyone tell me if I made a
- 13:21
sound when I fell there...any, please? [Tree falls to the ground]
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