Henry David Thoreaus Walden and Aldo Leopolds A Sand County Almanac E

Henry David Thoreaus Walden and Aldo Leopolds A Sand County Almanacdarn discussing Henry David Thoreaus Walden and Aldo Leopolds A Sand County Almanac, we attempted to address an important take exception -- Is the stuffy observation and description of nature merely an lite amour for people in todays cosmos? It could be suggested that nature writing and the close enjoyment of inbred environments is merely recreational and not intellectu all in ally, economically, or politically worthy of our efforts. Perhaps this makeivity has spiritual value or gives us a sense of peace. But does it really have anything to do with the elbow room we live in the world today? It seems to me that this question is central to the exclusively course of study and that we need to be able to answer it convincingly and in some detail. In my view, there can be no doubt to the correct answer. The close observation and description of nature is no idle thing. It is an act of world-making, or founding ones w orld view. Since behavior is fixed by the ways in which one sees the world (reality), it is the groundwork of ones behavior. It is this act in which we find both Thoreau and Leopold engaged. Thoreau himself comments on its significance in the essay, Where I Lived and What I lived For. By closely ob portion, scarce especially by describing (by employ language) we establish our lives within the whole natural world. We express our desire and committal to live within that world. Now, perhaps this sounds trivial and trite in todays world, but it is no trivial commitment for a citizen of today. Modern human career is set so firmly within a human-built world and d intimatelys so thoroughly on human issues only that it is normal for us all to grow up and live out our lives... ... goal of that purification is to pass us outside of our human selves, located firmly within its agendas and serving its purposes. That culture does not want to acknowledge another world, a natural world. To do that would be allowing human liberation, for that would present people with a professedly picture of who they are and offer them a station that is not henpecked by the established political/economic agenda of today. This is no idle thing it is a powerful political issue, in fact. The established culture does not really want its citizens to live in any world but the specific one that it provides, that it has defined, and that it controls to its advantage. When we read Thoreaus Walden closely, we see this same heathenish tension even one hundred and fifty years ago. Thoreau was well aware of the fact that his life at Walden Pond was a liberating counter-cultural experience.