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Nature calls....

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simple request please stop carving into me it's majorly annoying hey my aching [Tree talking]

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bark ok transcendentalism, WTF... that's er, Whitman Thoreau and Fuller okay who are

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those people and what is transcendentalism easy question tough

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answer buckle up because things are about to get abstract up in here [Person buckles up seat belt]

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transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that began in the 1800's

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philosophical movement a different kind of movement there did that

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transcendentalist movement A) stress the importance of being isolated and

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physically removed from society? B) encouraged people to spend time in

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nature so they could get closer to God C) argue that nature's spirit could be

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expressed through human beings? D) argue against conformity or E) urge people to

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listen to their own instincts when it comes to judging moral right from wrong

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the answer F) all of the above and i warned you it was complicated okay so [Tree discussing answers]

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let's start with the transcendentalist the folks who came up with all these

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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]

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19th century there were a bunch of great thinkers most of them living in the New

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England area who felt that being alone was just the bomb if a person really [Walt Whitman celebrates]

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wanted to be happy and find enlightenment and succeed in life they

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needed to spend time with numero uno i.e themselves and more time with me

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nature those were the two big ideas of

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transcendentalism spend time alone and spend time in nature basically like

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being on a Boy Scout trip and getting lost you've heard the phrase God is in [Boy scout walking alone in the woods]

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the details well for the transcendentalist God was in the leaves

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and the babbling brooks and you know the deer droppings so the

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big question why did this philosophy crop up well just take a look at who was [A log cabin appears]

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ruling the roost in early america it was the Puritans; the doom and gloom club

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those guys were about punishment for our sins, self-sacrifice grin and bare it down

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here on earth so you can live like a rockstar in the hereafter well that

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debbie downer philosophy sounded like a real bummer to the transcendentalist [Debbie walks up to log cabin]

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they didn't think you should have to wait until you are dead before you could

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have a relationship with God how about taking delight in nature and communing

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with God through all the you know cool stuff he put here how about actually

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getting something out of this gift of life we've been given rather than [Woman looks at christmas presents under a tree]

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focusing entirely on getting rewarded in heaven afterwards add to this disconnect

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the fear of herd mentality you know like your mom asks if everyone else jumps off

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a bridge are you gonna jump too? well if folks conformed ie went along with what

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everyone else did there would be no great ideas or innovation people would [Woman and man on a small boat]

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be afraid to express their own opinions for fear of rocking the boat so yeah all

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of this contributed to the reason the transcendentalist stressed spending

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time alone so you would feel less pressure to conform the social norms and

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spending quality time in nature so you could connect to God without having to

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die first and so with a bunch of like-minded

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people all living in roughly the same area the transcendental club was formed [Man walks into transcendental club cabin]

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they would get together for occasional meetings where they would try to recruit

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new members and attempt to spread their philosophy as much as possible but one

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of the club's prominent members was literary bigshot henry david thoreau

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writer of the book Walden and famed loner and yes when I fell in the woods [Thoreau sitting on a bench with squirrels]

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he heard me and then there was Walt Whitman one of

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the greatest poets in American history author of the poem collection Leaves of

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Grass and 1889 runner-up for best beard in New Jersey we also had Emily

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Dickinson a prolific writer who penned over 1800 poems not one of which was [Emily Dickinson on cover of Playboy magazine]

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published in Playboy and then there's Henry Wadsworth Longfellow author of the

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Song of Hiawatha and victim of much teasing in high school and popularity in

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college for his last name and finally we have Ralph Waldo Emerson essayist, poet,

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hide-and-seek aficionado oh sorry that was the other Waldo there Emerson was at

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the forefront of the transcendentalist movement and he's worth a closer look so [Magnifying glass inspects Emerson]

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put on your 3d glasses now... Emerson was born

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1803 the son of a Unitarian minister and he was trained to be one himself

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Unitarians believed that there was just one God

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hence the Uni there in Unitarian there was no Holy Ghost and Jesus was just

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some dude the son of God but basically just some dude with a lot of hair the

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religion promoted the idea of a free conscience ie you should ask yourself [Woman sitting in a church]

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what's right and then you should use reason to evaluate things from a

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different perspective ie your own well after a lot of

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back-and-forth you were supposed to make up your own mind about stuff rather than [Free conscience tank battles with popular opinion tank]

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just going along with popular opinion in other words society might be telling you

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that girls should play with Barbies and not microscopes but if you're a girl and

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you're interested in microscopes feel free to kick Barbie to the curb or [Barbie doll thrown out of window]

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Society is telling you that spraying aerosols in the air isn't hurting the

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environment but your rational mind is telling you otherwise you should listen

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to your own brain and not everyone else's well Emerson's religious

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background which placed a huge focus on self over society had a lot in common

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with the philosophy of transcendentalism that he would help establish when

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he was older at the same time Emerson was influenced by both romanticism and

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the enlightenment and there are elements of both philosophies clearly evident in [Romanticism and enlightenment chains interlink]

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transcendentalism Romanticism stressed the uncensored expression of emotion it

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bucked all that lovely repression that had been so popular in the 17th and 18th

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centuries British royals had been all about keeping a stiff upper lip and

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revealing zero emotion and that attitude had filtered into the rest of British

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society and then into American society as well while bottling things up was bad [Man stacks bottles together]

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unless it was to be sold out of your local liquor store and there was a

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connection between that recommended outpouring of emotion and nature away

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from the hectic city life on the top of mountain or isolated on a grassy [Woman meditating in a grassy hillside]

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hillside you could really get in touch with those inner feelings and maybe even

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twirl around in circles and sing a song if you were so inclined you know

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and then there was the influence of the Enlightenment the movement that

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originated in Europe but inched its way over to America

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well the Enlightenment was about shaking things up looking at life from a [Person puts salt on a food dish]

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different and new angle there were revolutions galore revolutions of the

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mind but also actual bloody revolutions people like Emerson were suddenly [Emerson reading a book]

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empowered to come up with their own controversial philosophies like giving a

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rude gesture to society and saying suck an egg I'm off to get some me time and

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none of you were invited well as Emerson got older he got his message out using a

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variety of mediums he wrote a poem he wrote and delivered lectures and he

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wrote essays there are two essays in particular that earned him the bulk of [Emerson on stage and audience celebrate]

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his fame nature and self-reliance we'll start with nature...Hopefully you've already

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read it if not give it a look or at least a sniff paying special attention

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to the introduction chapter 1 and chapter 7 go ahead and hit pause if you need to,

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we won't be offended....... alright Nature

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why did Emerson write this thing well he looked around and saw the vast majority [Girl playing a guitar]

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of human beings living in his view incorrectly he saw the demands of

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society distracting everyone from what was right in front of their eyes people

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were caught up in the hustle and bustle of what would lead to a meaningless life

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no one was taking the time to appreciate the air they breathed or to stop and [Girl stops to admire woman's flowers]

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admire the flowers or to roll around gleefully in a patch of poison ivy

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so nature was intended to be a wake-up call Emerson wanted to call attention to

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the beauty and magnificence of nature not just because he thought that

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shrubbery was awesome but because he believed that through nature one could

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find God but it went deeper than that Emerson wasn't just suggesting that we [Man appears in changing room]

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could all benefit from a few days of relaxation poolside the elements of

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nature weren't just pretty they were physical manifestations of spirituality

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itself Emerson explores the idea of spirit in this essay quite a bit and

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yeah it gets a little out there but the idea is that physical nature isn't just

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the twigs and dirt and water you can feel with your bare hands it's a

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spiritual phenomenon and nature's very spirit is expressed through us so if we [Woman walking through woods alone]

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ignore it to focus on the petty superficial trivialities of our lives

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we're doing nature and by extension God a huge disservice

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and finally Emerson isn't suggesting we organize a big ol group of [Group of people sitting on a bus]

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field trips and roast marshmallows over a fire while we all hold hands and sing

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do your ears hang low he makes it clear that this is something each of us has to

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embark upon by ourselves communion with nature has to be a personal undertaking

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so yeah you had to go it alone not even Siri can join you all right moving

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along to another of Emerson's essays self-reliance well if you haven't yet [Girl reading Self-reliance book]

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exhibit some self-reliance and read the darn thing yourself I'll be blowing in

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the wind till you return....As with nature Emerson wrote self-reliance

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because he felt most Americans needed someone to grab them by the ear and [Emerson appears beside a woman in the woods]

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scream bloody murder into their head holes okay that sounded more graphic

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than it really was point being he saw some stuff going on

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that scared that gee willikers out of him he saw mindless lemmings all

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followers and no leaders he saw people ignoring their own instincts

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selling out their own ideals for a quick buck in the essay Emerson says a foolish

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consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds adored by little statesmen and [Paragraph from Emerson's book appears]

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philosophers and divine's huh great line aside from this quote being awesome

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because of the inclusion of the word Hobgoblin among other things it does a

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good job summing up Emerson's main idea he's criticizing mankind's foolish

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consistency i.e refusal to break from one's own established beliefs or

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from the established beliefs of their society it's sticking to your opinion [Tree discussing Emerson's paragraph]

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that the earth is flat even after someone's offered you proof that it's

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round or insisting that Hayden Christensen can act even after watching

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the Star Wars prequels like come on people there are a few major themes in [Man watching Star Wars on TV]

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this essay the first of which is the idea of individual Authority the concept

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there is that yeah there are authority figures in your life if your teacher [Girl throws paper plane at teachers head]

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sends you to the principal's office well, you'd better book it over there

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if a cop pulls you over speeding and be ill-advised to speed up but in Emerson's

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view nothing has authority over the self so you're the Grand Poobah of your own

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life makes sense now he wasn't recommending you spend every waking [Man runs past and places kick me sign on mans back]

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moment sticking it to the man Emerson knew there were rules and he

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wasn't suggesting you start breaking them at will but he did stress that if

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anyone or anything came in the way of what someone believed the self could

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basically push the override button then there's the theme of nonconformity which [Themes appear on piece of paper]

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we touched on you do you don't follow other people's ideas of right or wrong

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we're pretty sure that's been the mantra of many a serial killer but we don't

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think that was Emerson's intention there's the theme of solitude versus

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community this guy was not big on the family and getting together for [Emerson climbing stairs]

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Thanksgiving Emerson would have been the one antisocial dude up in his room while

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everyone downstairs talks smack about him behind his back but in his view

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solitude was the only way you could divorce herself of society's pull so you

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wouldn't get swayed by majority opinion you should have seen the look on his [Emerson appears at dinner table with family]

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family's face when he popped downstairs to announce his decision that real

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cranberries were superior to the canned stuff we're talking real controversy

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here people finally there's the theme of spirituality

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Emerson felt that truth resides within us so by being alone and not getting too

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caught up in institutionalized religion a person can be more in tune with [Man playing saxophone on stage]

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reality not sure how his Minister Father would

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have felt about hearing his son say such things but probably didn't go over too

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well all right so even if we have vaguely

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wrapped our heads around this philosophy by now so what why do we care well there

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may not be any transcendentalist club meetings coming up on your calendar but [Person searches for transcendentalist club meetings on google calendar]

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the movement definitely left an imprint the focus on self paved the way for

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people like Ayn Rand who created a philosophy of her own objectivism and

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inspired generations of followers to adhere to the guidelines of strict

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individualism over the demands of a needy freeloading Society and really our

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entire economic system of capitalism is in line with the transcendentalist [Person draws line from economy to transcendentalism]

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philosophy while we do live in a society ie we're not all living off our own

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private cabins and woods like Thoreau we're working for ourselves providing

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for our own families following our own principles and living life the way we

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choose to live it and how about the Industrial and technological revolutions [Tree discussing industrial and technological revolution]

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of the past 200 years well for us to achieve progress we've had to think

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outside the box explore unchartered avenues of scientific

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discovery all stuff Emerson and company would have applauded [Audience applauds and Emerson standing on stage]

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so there's Ralph Waldo Emerson and transcendentalism in a nutshell now you

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know why the guy was such a tree hugger oh hello can anyone tell me if I made a

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sound when I fell there...any, please? [Tree falls to the ground]

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