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Transcendentalism and its origins
Transcendentalism and its origins
Transcendentalism modern day
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The Comparisons of Charles Manson to Transcendental Philosophy
Charles Manson and various members of his “family” brutally killed several people from the Tate and LaBianca family on two seperate ocassions. The purposes of these killings are misunderstood by today's society, when ignoring
Manson's philosophy. Although Manson never killed anyone, he went to prison in
1969 for masterminding the operation. Today's society has labeled Charles
Manson as a mass-murderer who had no purpose through his cause. However, society overlooks the goal of Manson's plan, which included creating a better society. Manson continues to preach his cause through repeated parole attempts, behind the walls of a California prison where he resides currently. His cause remains unknown to many, but several of Manson's underlying themes coincide with earlier transcendental views.
Many of Charles Manson's beliefs include creating a better society by reducing the size of the government, and preserving the role of an individual in society. This explains why Manson refused counsel at his trial, he represented himself until the judge found many of his motions “ludicrous” and appointed him an attorney. Manson preached that only he could represent himself, because no one could preserve his individuality. Mr. Manson lost his sixth amendment right to self-representation, and he uses this example now to prove that the individual rights of people are controlled and manipulated by the government.
The story of the “Manson Family” goes beyond the Tate/LaBianca murders, to years before the murders took place. Manson and his “family” would gather together in a house, when generally they would sit contently and listen to
Charles preach. Usually the sermon would last for an hour or two and include stories and prophecies about the “revolution” that Manson felt was coming.
Manson called this revolution helter skelter, after a Beatles song, which he felt told about the future of our society. Manson believed that the African-
American members of our society were troublesome and would over-through the white race. Therefore, Manson began to prepare for helter skelter by informing his family. Instead of waiting for helter skelter, Manson wanted to prevent it by creating a utopian society that excluded the African-American race.
Above and beyond individuality, Manson felt that four important things needed preserved: air, water, trees, and animals. Mr. Manson commonly refers to these things as AWTA, and claims that his “family gave their lives to unite the brothers and sisters of the world” with these standards. The use of euphorics by Manson and his followers, provided an enhanced sense of individuality in an environment interacting with nature. Manson commonly used music to get his message out to other people, and generally, he would end a session with songs
In the film Into the Wild directed by Sean Penn, viewers may have gathered enough evidence to back up their thoughts on Christopher McCandless being a transcendentalist or a non-transcendentalist. Chris portrayed the effort of being a transcendentalist just as Ralph Waldo Emerson and David Thoreau did. He abandoned his nice life to hitchhike all over North America and he was happy about it. McCandless unfortunately died in the wilderness of Alaska after he had eaten moldy seeds. Sooner or later, that mistake was enough to end his life. He shows behavior of being a Transcendentalist by the ways that he despised society, burned his money after he abandoned his car, and went out to Alaska on his own.
Throughout Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful and courageous excerpt, “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” many tenets of transcendentalism are apparent as he wrote in the margins of a newspaper sitting in jail. Out of the ten tenets of transcendentalism, the three that are displayed the most in the excerpt are Society and Corruption, Intuition, and Self-Reliance. The uses of these three tenets, Society and Corruption, Intuition, and Self-Reliance, are all displayed and included to show the fact that Martin Luther King Jr.’s writing and opinions were against racial segregation.
Billie and Walt McCandless quietly shed tears concerning their twenty-four year old son, Chris McCandless, who had not talked to them for over two years and was found dead in the Alaskan woods. They question why their son had left society, left his own parents nevertheless, and risked his life which ended in his fatality. The transcendental principles which include rejection of society, intuition, and searching for a purpose of life may have guided the aforesaid experience-seeking individual. Chris McCandless’s identification as a transcendentalist is confirmed through his nonconformist actions, his human relationships, and his quest for a higher truth.
What he was claiming was that African Americans slaves were born in the United States so they should be entitled to same American values given to the white Americans. He also goes ahead to bash the government for the attitudes towards his people and goes on to explain how he feels they are be exploited. His impact that he intended to have from this speech had been to bring freedom to African American’s by letting proper democratic ideals decide who is entitled to what rights. During the time of the speech he said black American’s should be ashamed to celebrate this holiday due to the misdeeds and unfair enforcement of these laws. His main take away from this was that the slavery going on in America was harmful and illegal because they violated the founding father principle rights. Throughout him speaking he goes on to undercut many powerful institutions in America that are simply letting slavery go on and not doing anything about it (Church). He is a very faithful man and believes looking back at his sentiments will ring home and show that he was inevitably correct in due time. In conclusion this ties to the ideas that African Americans should not have to celebrate this holiday until they feel like they are being equally treated under the same law are the white
What is transcendentalism? Webster says transcendentalism is a philosophy that says that thought and spiritual things are more real than ordinary human experience and material things. The more simplified definition of it is the idea that our spirits have deep connection with. We are more "in tune" with nature and our mood is depicted by nature. So people can come to the conclusion that the “going green” movement and being “eco-friendly” is all a part of transcendentalism, and people who support these movements are transcendentalists. Leonardo DiCaprio, a multi millionaire, lives his life eco-friendly, and donates millions of dollars to protect our environment. By doing this, he is showing that he values the environment and nature more than he values material items, which is part of being a transcendentalist. DiCaprio is also an advocate for the gay rights movement. The other part of being a transcendentalist is the independence of the individual; and in today’s society the gay rights movement has become a great deal and the supporters of gay rights can be considered transcendentalists because homosexuality is interlinked with independence of the individual, which is stressed by transcendentalism.
Is a person that leaves everything behind to find individualism in the wilderness a genius or another insane person? Christopher McCandless is the main character in the novel Into The Wild. He is an idealist, extremist, and a bright person when it comes to academics. He read books by Henry David Thoreau, Tolstoy, Jack London, and even Ralph Waldo Emerson. This is significant because each author have stories about transcendentalism or even about how society wants people to conform. Thoreau, founder of transcendentalism, wrote the book called “Walden” that talks about Henry David Thoreau building a cabin from nature and living there away from society in solitude. Emerson wrote “Self Reliance” that talks about not conforming to society that which has ideas that are hypocritical to the ideas of self-reliance.
The transcendentalists of America are heralded as some of the best writers in history, because they revolutionized the ways in which people think. Although Martin Luther King Jr. was not a transcendentalist, his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is considered to share many similar ideas to the transcendentalists and can also be considered revolutionary. In today’s American society, nonconformity and independent action are built off of the same ideals that the transcendentalists had. One such act is the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. According to transcendentalist ideas and modern day protesters, the main reason for independent action and nonconformity is a sense of greater purpose in the world brought about by religion.
He says that the declaring of a new nation was a “great deliverance,” comparing it to the group led by Moses out of Egypt. He does this to further support why he likes the original ideals of the Americans, since they follow great examples from religions most audience members follow and can get behind. By planting early images of religion, he can later create a religious appeal to the audience.
As a child he was sent to many reform schools. He has spent the last four decades behind bars. He will never get out prison. He will eventually die in prison. This is the life of Charles Manson. Charles Manson is a sick and cruel criminal.
Charles Manson and the Manson family committed gruesome crimes that shocked Los Angeles in 1969. The actress Sharon Tate and four others were ritualistically slaughtered in her Hollywoods Hills home. The murderers had left cryptic messages on the walls in the victims blood, and law enforcement were stumped by the multiple stab wounds found on the victims. The next day a married couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, who were successful shop owners, were found in their Las Feliz home murdered in the same way as Sharon Tate and her friends.
In the 1830s the Transcendental movement sprouted. Through the movement founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the idea emerged that there is an inherent goodness in all of us. We learned that just because everyone else has a certain philosophy, it does not mean you are required to think that way. Transcendentalism revolved around the themes of religion, politics, the environment and intuition. Even though the transcendental movement ended more than a century and a half ago, its ideals thrive within modern day society. A fantastic example of a modern day transcendentalist would be Bono, the lead vocalist for the world renowned band, U2. Throughout the years, Bono has carried on the legacy that Emerson and his fellow transcendentalists left behind. Bono and U2 demonstrate transcendentalism through the band’s religious beliefs, political beliefs/actions, environmental movements, song lyrics, and the passion through which they express themselves.
He experienced the kind that the majority unintentionally masks their racism. They believe that their strategies are not racist, but their attempts to not be racist makes it worse. They try to control minorities instead of listening to their issues and using their privilege to actually help. The Brotherhood is a Marxist minded organization that is predominantly white. The Brotherhood recruits African-American men to hold certain positions in order to spread the word about an experiment and methodology they have developed to promote equality in the communities. However, all that their methods did was control the way African-Americans think, how they relay their ideals, and what jobs that they can have. They took what stereotypical view they had of African-Americans and designed a template for how they think African-Americans to act in order to form peace. African-Americans are not guinea pigs for social and environmental experiments. They are not a species that made their way to America, and now there needs to be a plan in order to control them. America is now a land where millions of people from different backgrounds can influence others from their cultural experiences. The Brotherhood’s use of the term “brother” is a way to include themselves in a culture they did not understand. The only reason that they cared about how African-Americans thrived in the North is because they noticed that a culture
He mentions the very recent violence that occurred in Selma, Alabama; where African Americans were attacked by police while preparing to march to Montgomery to protest voting rights discrimination. Without mentioning this violent event that occurred a week prior, there would not be much timeliness to his argument, and it wouldn’t have been as effective. The timeliness of his argument gave the speech a lot more meaning, and it heightened the emotions of many who heard the address. He is appealing to the emotions of many American people, both Congressmen and ordinary citizens, to encourage them to support his cause. He reminds us of all of the Americans around the world that are risking their lives for our freedom. He refers to them as “guardians of our liberty.” He also address the problem as the whole nation should be concerned not just the north, the south, or the African American
Many people have theories and philosophies about life in general. There have been hundreds of thousands of books published by many different people on the ideas of people in the past and the present. Transcendentalism falls in amongst all of these ideas. There have been articles, essays, poems, and even books written about this subject. Transcendentalism has effected many people since the philosophy was first introduced. The idea was complex and hard to grasp for many commoners and therefore it was understood by few people, and some would think that the idea was not understood at all and that was part of the idea. Henry David Thoreau once stated about himself, “I should have told them at once that I was a transcendentalist. That would have been the shortest way of telling them that they would not understand my explanations” (Reuben 1).
He uses phrases like “Even during the darkest days in the history of our struggle, you held the flag of liberty high” (Mandela) to complement his supporters and followers.