- What does Thoreau have to say about time management, clothing, and shelter?
- Does life experience make you more capable of giving advice?
- How does your culture influence what you consider necessary?
- How are things true in the past but false today?
- According to Thoreau, is it better to own your own house or rent?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Let it snow! Some things to think about
Hello, guys. I'm unsure of whether we'll actually be in school tomorrow, so I'm posting some things to consider here. You may comment on any of these things or just use them to jump start discussion whenever we return. Please make sure you've read the article "Has Our Living Standard Stalled" before we return. If you need a copy, you can find it here.
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Thoreau doesn't really believe in time management as far as I can tell. He thinks we should own only one set of clothes, and wear them until we either grow out of them or they are worse than rags. As for shelter, he thinks we could live in what pretty much amounts to a coffin with air holes.
ReplyDelete-Abby Gandy
According to Thoreau, life experience doesn't make you more capable of giving advice. He basically says a new generation of people should live life in their own ways, make their own choices, and learn from their own mistakes. He says they should not follow the advice from an older, more experienced generation. I don't know if I totally agree with that, I think my grandparents have given me some fantastic advice- but thats just my opinion.
ReplyDelete-Dominique Gannuch
From what I have gathered from Walden, I think Thoreau finds it is better to own a house rather than to rent. This goes back to his strong belief in self-sufficiency. If you rent a house, you are not completely self-sufficient because you are dependant upon the person you are renting from.
ReplyDelete-Rachel Butler
In what I've observed from books, people, movies, and such, the more one has undergone in the timespan of his or her life the more apt they are to give legitimate advice, soley because the more one undergoes, the more mistakes they make. And the more mistakes they make, the more ways they know to better them the second time around.
ReplyDelete-Ingrid Murati
Things are different now than in the past because times have changed. Our situations have changed as well as our morals and our culture.However, usually love is a constant theme throughout history. Thoreau's view on philanthropy and helping others really disturbed me and he seems to be vvery situaton and self-centered.
ReplyDeleteAs for people with life experience giving advice, it really depends. General things, like thinkin of others is something that many people with life experience could testify to. But if I asked my granfather that grew up during WWII in Lacombe, LA, advice on how to work online dating, he'd have no clue.
Thoreau believes in being very bland. He quite frankly doesn't care what people think of him and I respect him for that. However, like someone stated before me, Thoreau believes that clothes should just be about retaining warmth. Now I'm no fashion wiz, but I don't know if I completely agree with what he believes. With that being stated, props to him for not caring what other people think about him.
ReplyDelete-Ben Purinton
Interesting comments, guys. These are some of the points we'll bring up in class Monday.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Thoreau's view on clothing was interesting. He seemed to be saying that if you bought a new piece of clothing that you were not being true to yourself and that by buying new clothes you were changing who you really were. He said that before you buy new clothes, you should decide whether you are just redressing yourself or if you are trying to change who you are inside, like putting a new label on an old bottle of wine. I thought this whole thing was a little obnoxious, but it's what he thinks.
ReplyDeleteI believe that yes, eperience can make you more capable of giving advice. One can't truly give advice that they have not lived through. And Thoreau, being oh so clever, thinks that his experience is worth telling to the world.
ReplyDelete-Amanda Areo
#2
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is yes, experience can make you more capable of giving advice. I remembers that my mom always telling me a story about blind marriage in Korea and it was very interesting story to me. Because The parents of both side make decisions(whether other side of child is worth to get marry to other side of family or not)after they are seeing each others face(both side of children never seen each other before, if both side of parents make agreement then they are going to get married). Both side of parents make an agreement because sometimes people can tell whether they lived hard life or not(For example teachers can tell a student who did their homework or didn't do their homework). You can tell the diffrence when you gets older because you have been seen or mat more people than a younger people. Also older people learned more than a younger ones. So that way, I would say more experience can make people more capable of giving advice.
Thoreau says that just because you are older you are not more qualified to give advice. I both agree and dissagree with him. I belive that you are more qualified to give advice when you are older because you have learned more and had more life experiences, but not all old people have had your same experiences. So pretty much some of thier advice could be very good and some could be bad depending on your shared experiences.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's really a question of whether or not life experience makes someone give better advice but whether or not the people you give advice to are going to listen and follow the advice. Because if the aren't, you're pretty much just talking to yourself.
ReplyDeleteThoreau says that one should spend most of his/her time leisurely. He spends only one day of each week doing real work, and the rest of his time enjoying nature and self-actualizing. I think these actions relate back to his wish to live deliberately. Regarding clothing, I think Thoreau has some very interesting points! He says that the styles of today are nothing but subjects for the next generation to laugh at. He also states that even if you wear a new outfit, you're really just the same old person underneath.
ReplyDeleteI think that when you have more life experience than another person, your advice is probably valuable. However, this less experienced person probably will not accept your advice until they have experienced the situation themselves and can fully understand your view point.
Life experience creates who we are and looking back, we see what our life has been like so far. Some of us have learned from our mistakes, some remain ignorant, and some repeat their mistakes. How we live our lives and what we have been through greatly shapes what advice we give and what kind of advice it is. We can't give accurate advice to someone about a situation if we have not been in that situation before. In addition, even though you may have gone through a similar situation, maybe it didn't have a good outcome and you failed to recognize it that or failed to learn from it. You must be careful about what you say to people, because it will affect them someway.
ReplyDeleteCulture can influence what you consider necessary because if you live in a upper class society culture, then the extravagant lifestyle would be necessary.
ReplyDelete-Lucero
According to Thoreau, it is better to own a house because when people rent houses they are dependent on the owner of the house.
ReplyDelete-Lucero
I find Thoreau's belief that listening to other people's experiences is useless both curious and interesting. I can see where he come from on this issue because many teenagers believe that their parents have no right to give advice on how to live because the parents' experiences are way different from teenagers' experiences. I also understand Thoreau's view from a historical perspective-after the War of 1812, America had a surge of nationalism and began to reject the ideas of the Old World. Likewise, Thoreau believed that elders' advice is practically useless.
ReplyDelete