Oh, Henry!

“How can he remember well his ignorance- which his growth requires- who has so often to use his knowledge”

I think Thoreau is expressing the fact that society promotes continual use of what we know and how we are perpetually adding on to existing knowledge, nowadays through the media of television and internet, that we forget what we don’t know. Humility is a virtuous trait when it comes to our own knowledge. We have to be willing to realize that we don’t know that much. In fact we know hardly ANYTHING from direct experience. We continually take the word of so-called “experts” and keep adding to a belief system based on endless information. Even science is subject to so many biases and distortions that we truly cannot accept ANYTHING without first-hand experience.  He was big on the notion that you need to try things out for yourself. What information do you accept with blind faith? More importantly, what type of behaviors have you adopted based on what somebody else tells you?

“The Finest Qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another so tenderly.”

I would say this quote speaks for itself.

“It is never too late to give up our prejudices”

Amen, Henry!

“If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my mentors said nothing about…so little has been tried”

Oh, Henry!  I love this quote because one of his assertions is that we rarely accomplish anything new. The mass of men, as Thoreau calls us, are living mostly the exact same lives that our parents lived and theirs before them. Yeah, we may have more convenient technology, but what is the point of existing to just keep the cycle going endlessly? The same thing. Grow up. Go to school. Get a job. Have a family. Die. Repeat. Where is the new frontier? What is the last thing that was radically new? Like Henry says, so little has been tried because we keep living the same fucking lives. Fear keeps us this puny little nothing race that has nothing to offer especially to this beautiful planet that we are trashing. We are human beings with the intelligence and materials to continue to expand and create. All we create is something to stick on a wall or titillate our senses.  I am sorry, artists, but I’ve seen enough paintings and the movies that come out are mostly the same goddamn stories rehashed. Is this all we are limited to? Let’s turn off the television and think of something radical that doesn’t require a paintbrush or a computer. Aren’t we better than this??