Resistance to Civil Government/Guy in Video

I found the essay, Resistance to Civil Government, to be really eye-opening. It gave me an idea of how the Transcendentalist felt toward government. I love the line about how the best government is the one that does not govern at all. I agree with this statement because a government is necessary, but it only works well when the people are involved and we all make a vote. “The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right…” A couple of lines before that quote, it said that shouldn’t there be a government where it doesn’t decide for you what is right from wrong but one that it enables you to use your conscience. Later on it continues on to say that why do people have a conscience at all if we can’t decide for ourselves. I think this one of the most powerful statements from the essay and that we need to appreciate that we do have a right to voice our opinion now and it was something that was worked on for many years.

Since Transcendentalists believed that the individual human mind was a very powerful instrument, I believe that this quote demonstrates it. “I know this well, that if one thou­sand, if one hun­dred, if ten men whom I could name, — if ten hon­est men only, — aye, if one hon­est man, in this State of Mas­sa­chu­setts, ceas­ing to hold slaves, were ac­tu­ally to with­draw from this co­part­ner­ship, and be locked up in the county jail there­for, it would be the ab­o­li­tion of slav­ery in Amer­ica. For it mat­ters not how small the be­gin­ning may seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever.” This quote basically says if at least one honest person was willing to stand up for themselves and retreat from approving slavery, that it would end it forever. Transcendentalists believed that everyone was connected in a way. If one person was to retreat from that co-partnership, that everyone would, too.

Man in Video
I thought that the man in the video applied transcendentalism to his life in many ways. He was alone in the wilderness and shows a lot of individualism. He built his own cabin with all the amenities he needed and that show he was very hard working. Being in the wilderness in general alone connecting with nature also demonstrates transcendentalist’s beliefs.