Thoreau the Reading Selection I

Thoreau

The reading selection I chose is contained in the seventh paragraph from Part II of Henry David Thoreau's essay "Life without principle." In it Thoreau talks about the difference in thought between people who engage in everyday conversation that he calls "gossip," and people who try to spend time deeply contemplating about what he calls their "inward lives." Thoreau explains that people who frequently read newspapers or receive extensive letters of correspondence and discuss about the latest news and events incessantly, are the ones engaging in "gossip." In contrast to this he explains that people who avoid such discussions in order to spend time thinking and understanding about themselves and about humanity in general, are the ones engaging in thoughts regarding their "inward lives." Thoreau further goes on to explain that in his view, people that only discuss about things they read or hear about on the news are just preoccupied with empty superficial thoughts. According to him it is the people who rise above thinking about matters of everyday life and think more deeply into the meaning of their lives, who should be considered as being rational thinkers.

This passage is important to me in this time of my life because I feel that I see too many people nowadays engaged in what Thoreau would consider to be superficial thinking. Nowadays especially the influence of the media has become so invasive and widespread that all people seem to do is just discuss about whatever the media portrays the world as being. I also feel that the media has succeeded in "dumbing down" people's thoughts, so that they do not even bother discussing anymore about politics or current events unless they are forced to. Instead many people today occupy themselves frivolous news surrounding celebrity gossip and entertainment. If people took the initiative towards breaking away from these superficial thoughts in order to start thinking, questioning, and investigating what is really happening with their lives and with the world, it can then be said that we have become the rational thinkers that Thoreau yearned for in society. Then we would no longer be engaged in boring and meaningless gossip and instead we would have the ability to not passively accept what more powerful members of society want us to think about regarding the world and our place in it.