1/2 transcendentalist

"If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again (Thoreau 4)." This quote from Civil Disobedience expresses the meaning of a philosophical movement that caught fire among writers and citizens in the United States around the 1800s. Transcendentalists protest against the general state of culture and society. Their core belief was in the ultimate divinity of both nature and humans and intense feelings of self-reliance. The real question is whether or not I would follow in the footsteps of these important American writers and “conform” to the transcendentalist movement. Oh the irony!

I would consider myself a half-transcendentalist in the fact that I don’t want to protest everything my government passes and enforces. I feel that society needs rules and regulations in order for it to work smoothly. There is a quote from Self-Reliance by Emerson that comes to mind as a good example of the exact opposite theory that I believe in, “Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man works; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is center of things (Emerson 4)." I do not think we should hurl in the face of custom, trade, and office. Although that image is extremely graphic, I think these qualities speak to our character more and that is why we should keep them.

I said I consider myself half a transcendentalist because I do love the image of all of nature as being the Divine. I'm not really sure where I got it from, but I have always had an immense respect for the land and nature around me. It often times reminds me of something so pure and untouchable; I think that is also why I was able to connect with the idea of divinity.

In short, I would throw out all ideas of nonconformity with respects to government, but hold fast to the idea that nature is divine.

Personal Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of an older teenager’s life, it becomes necessary to assert dominance over any younger parties who happen to reside under the same roof as us; we must assume total independence to which our newly earned age has granted us.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all teenagers of the eldest variety will be endowed by our Superiors certain unalienable privileges, that among these are a later curfew, laptop superiority, and the pursuit of total dominance. That, to secure these privileges, elders are present among living quarters to validate the teenager’s superiority and to keep the peace among residents. That, whenever any younger resident tries to rise up against the grain of hierarchy, it is the right of the teenager to disown or chastise them, and to reassert total dominance. Age, indeed, will dictate the older sibling’s long establishment of rights that should not be changed for any reason whatsoever. The history of the eldest sibling is a history of repeated undermining and exploitation by those inferior in age. To prove this, let facts be revealed to the modern world.

They have refused to leave the desired elder alone especially when the eldest is most occupied.

They have called together a congregation of minions of equal annoyance to cause havoc in the threshold.

They have acquired the eldest’s assistance to transport them to obscure places at the most inconvenient of times.   

They have obstructed the eldest from using the lavatory when its private and exclusive use is most desired.

For quartering large bodies of friends over an extended period of time:

For exciting domestic insurrection among us:

In every stage of these Oppressions, we have petitioned for righteous status as noble and superior brothers and sisters by birthright and most importantly birth order. We have appealed to their native immaturity and although tied by common kindred relations they have remained deaf to the voice of superiority.

We, therefore, the first born of the household, in General Assembly, appeal to the Supreme Judge of the World, or parents, do solemnly publish and declare that we ought to be free and independent from those lower in the birth order then us. We are absolved from any and all family ties and from all duties encumbered. And in support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of our station in life, we mutually pledge to each other our friendship, our iPods, and our single bedrooms.  

Map Project

Observations:
-California is depicted as its own island with another sea that separates it from the mainland
-Entire map is in a very old form of Spanish language
-Large pieces of land or bodies of water have the same names as they do today
-Multiple rivers within the Florida and Alabama region don’t exist today
-Large animals are drawn on map to show what region they thrive in
-Lots of places are named after pre-existing countries (New Canada, New France, New Mexico)
-Sense of proportions is off, the Great Lakes are pushed much further up into Canada than actually geographically correct.
-Mountain ranges present
-Longitudinal and Latitudinal lines present
-A depiction of an Indian in legend
-Bermuda is geographically incorrect
-No religious markings present

2. The largest narrative that this map presents is how much of an influence the spanish culture had over America during that time period. This can be shown through the language that this map is written in and the fact that much of the Mexico region is finely detailed with names of regions and rivers. Another obvious narrative that this map presents is that hunting and livestock was a large part of these people’s lives. I noticed that there are large pictures of animals that live in that region all across the main land mass of America. The fact that “New France,” “New Belgium,” and “New Canada” are present on the map makes me believe that Columbus’s spanish crew that came with him to take over, were living with people of other nationalities. “issues of race, class, and gender are increasingly engaged to mark English-Puritan identity as white (Babb 62).” This quote also points out that they had to share the land with these other countries. I had also noticed that some of the map isn’t geographically correct. For example I noticed that Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans is geographically correct, but there are no rivers that match the ones I saw connected to it on the map. This could tell us how much the land has changed since the discovering of America, or it could tell us that this map gives us false information about where these geographic landmarks are. Another portion that isn’t geographically correct is in the midwest region of the map. I found that what I think is the great lakes are actually pushed much further up into Canada than is actually correct. I’m not absolutely sure that these are supposed to be the great lakes, but if they are not then that shows that much of Northern America had yet to be accurately graphed on a map.