U2 - "Beautiful Day"

    The U2 song "Beautiful Day" is an excellent example of modern day transcendentalism because it talks about going beyond and appreciating the small things in life. The lyrics talk about seizing the day while you can, giving up what you don't need, and taking the time to appreciate nature and a non-materialistic life, among other things, like self reliance, intuition, and optimism.

 "Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! (Thoreau 204)."

• This quote from Walden connects to the quote from the song "The traffic is stuck / And you're not moving anywhere" because it shows the transcendental idea of moving beyond society and the things in life that keeps one from focussing on the true meaning of life. There are so many little things in life that distract us and keep us from really becoming on who we are. With so many trivalities, things like traffic and specificities distracting us, there is little to no time to engage the other ideas of transcendentalism, like intuition, 

"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think (Emerson 184)."

• Emerson, in Self Reliance, is stating that he needs to focus on himself, and not on the people and society around him. This is parralleled in the line "I know I'm not a hopeless case" from Beautiful Day. This line implies that that is what the world is saying about the singer, saying that there is no hope for him. However, this works as an example of transcendentalism because the writer goes beyond, transcends the words of the rest of the world because he knows that isn't true. He knows there is more to himself than that, and rather than listen to what society is telling him, he is breaking free of that. Emerson was a strong proponent of this idea.

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile (Emerson 180)."

• The idealism in this quote from Nature is important because it shows how the common man looks up at the stars every night and does not appreciate them. The common man sees the stars as something normal, something that is simply a part of life, something that does not go beyond what is there. However, Emerson is trying to make us see that the stars are more than what they appear, and that we should appreciate them every time we see them. The line "It's a beautiful day / Don't let it get away" follows that same line of thinking in the way that we rarely appreciate or see beyond the little things, like stars or a pretty day, to the point where we lose a lot of the meaning behind them.

The song "Beautiful Day" is an example of transcendentalism because it incorporates trascendental ideas like idealism, self-reliance, intuition, and optimism. It talks about looking at the world in a new way, and going above and beyond just what we think the world is, and siezing the day while we can.

Transcendentalism Overview

     Transcendentalism is the philosophy that urges one to get out and question reality and society. It started after the era of romanticism and marks a new time of thinking for America. It urges the common man to ascend to a higher level of thinking through breaking away from common conceptions and ideas in order to come to their own conclusions about life. The main goal of transcendental thinkers is to find the purpose and meaning about life, and they believe that things like society inhibit that ability to discover beyond the normal meaning of things. Ideas like individualism, self-reliance, optimism, and intuition are all important to transcendentalists, and are common themes within transcendental writings and beliefs. Two very important transcendental writers were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and both had incredible writings on the topic of transcendentalism. In his work "Nature," Emerson says,"In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages (Emerson 181)." This quote shows how transcendalists believed in breaking away from society and finding meaning in nature. Emerson, in "Self Reliance," also says, "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string (Emerson 183)." He is saying in this that every man needs to rely on himself to find truth and meaning. Emerson's student, Thoreau, in his book "Walden" states, "We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch

in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches to-day to save nine to-morrow. As for work, we haven’t any of any consequence (Thoreau 205)." He is arguing that our common conceptions are holding us back from appreciating life. Overall, transcendentalism is the goal of a man to be greater and go beyond what he knows and understands.

Elements of Transcendentalism with Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the most important people within the Transcendentalism movement. He had influential writings, such as "Self-Reliance" and "Nature" that served as building blocks for future transcendentalists. Emerson's ideas surrounding transcendentalism echos the fundamental ideas of transcendentalism with the many examples found in his works reflecting individualism, self-reliance, optimism, intuition.

Individualism is defined as the ability and attribute of someone who longs and is different from everyone around them. Someone who is an individual is independent from everyone else and attempts to stay that way, as that is the lifestyle they promote and enjoy. Emerson shows individualism in his work "Self Reliance," saying "There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion (Emerson 183)." This quote represents transcendentalism because it shows that every man must be a man for himself and no one else, that imitation and envy are worthless.

Self-reliance is defined as the reliance on one's own abilities rather than the powers and abilities of others. Self-reliance is needed by most transcendentalists because it helps supports the idea that truth comes from within, rather than from the people around us. In his writing "Self-Reliance," Emerson says, "...That though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till (Emerson 183)." He is saying that a man can not rely on any one else in the world except for himself, and he will get nothing good out of life if it not from his own hands, which follows transcendentalism because one can not go beyond society and also be a part of it.

Optimism is defined as the philosophy that any situation or event has good and that nothing is all bad. There is good in everything, and there is always a second chance. In the "glass half filled" scenario, optimists believe that the glass is half full. Emerson is an optimist in "Nature" when he says, "Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration (Emerson 181)." In all of these scenarios, Emerson finds the good in any aspect of nature, which is a very important element. There is nothing that disappoints Emerson in the woods.

Intuition is defined as the knowing of something that comes from within, rather than from experience. Intuition comes from the conscience and from instincts, and transcendentalists believe that society and reality inhibit those internal moral compasses, and that escape is an excellent way to develop your own intuition. In "Nature" Emerson says, "The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood (Emerson 180)." This is a representation because it talks about the senses being adjusted to each other as a result of being close to nature and understanding nature. The spirit of infancy is the essence of pure intuition because it has not yet been corrupted by society.

Civil Disobedience

     A situation in which calls for civil disobedience would be any issue in which people are fighting to ratify an unfair situation in the name of justice, specifically in the name of discovering truth. Truth is the ultimate goal, and if an institution is inhibiting the truth, then civil disobedience would be an acceptable response. An example of current civil disobedience in the name of discovering truth would be the protests in Hong Kong in order to try and make their government a democracy, as they believe that currently, the communist party is not supporting the people the way they should, and that their policies are not supporting and upholding the truth in the terms the people want it. This directly translates to what Thoreau was discussing in his essay "Civil Disobedience". The text says "Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient (Thoreau 212)."  This, in relation to the Hong Kong protesters, shows that sometimes government is not as effective as it needs to be, and that the people need to present their distaste. In "Civil Disobedience", Thoreau does not believe in slavery or wars, and so protests as a way to show his disapproval. Similarly, any event that has been fought in the name of upholding the moral/ethical truth has been fought with protest, such as the rebellions of the Amerindians or the peaceful civil rights protests. The text states "However, at the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as this in writing:- 'Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined.' (Thoreau 213)." In this, Thoreau is protesting the decisions of his government, and in doing so, showing civil disobedience. Furthermore, the protesters in Hong Kong show that the people of Hong Kong are seeing past what their society is telling them to believe, and are making their own conclusions. Thoreau says "I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was (Thoreau 214)." This exemplifies that overall, civil disobedience leads to the discovery of truth. By knowing democracy, and fighting for democracy, the people of Hong Kong are discovering truth and rising above the confines of their government. Civil disobedience is worth fighting for truth, and through that truth, finding the best possible life. Truth is what we want if we commit civil disobedience, and the discovery and embracing of truth is worth the protests and the problems that accompany it.

Emerson and Thoreau

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a transcendental thinker and philosopher that was really the one that discussed going beyond what society gives as truth and to rely on oneself in order to discover the true nature of life. Emerson wrote essays such as "Nature" and "Self-Reliance", and not only very strongly believed in the concept of transcendentalism, but was a key component in its popularity. Among its popular following was Henry David Thoreau, who believed very strongly in the teachings of Emerson. He believed so strongly in the idea of trancendentalism, that he went above and beyond, and commited himself to following the teachings, like going away from society to Walden Pond and writing about his ideas and experiences. In this way, Emerson was the teacher and Thoreau was the practitioner, taking the words from Emerson's essays and speeches and really attempting to incorporate them into his life and reach that higher level of understanding. For example, in his essay "Nature," Emerson says "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from the rest of society (Emerson 180)." Thoreau embraced this idea by going into the wild to try and find himself, and says in "Waldon," "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived (Thoreau 204)." Emerson gave Thoreau the big idea to remove himself from the reality of society, and Thoreau took his teachings and went beyond that. Emerson, in "Self-Reliance," states "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater (Emerson 184)." Thoreau, believing this, executes Emerson's ideas in his essay "Civil Disobedience," saying "Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself (Thoreau 213)." In this way, Thoreau is going against the ideas of society and thinking for himself, both of which are ideals of Emerson.