Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Walden Journey #7
Thoreau makes an interesting point when confronted with the opinion that the ancient men were more intelligent than contemporary American men. He says that while this may be true. "a living dog is better than a dead lion." He goes on to say that people should try to be all that they can be, regardless of whether they can ever live up to the success of others who came before them. Do you agre? why or why not? Respose is minimally 16 sentences
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I definitely agree with Thoreau's argument because we are the current generation and although ancient men were wise, we have grown to new and different ideas and opinions. Besides the fact that we are in completely different time periods, our perception of life has changed. Common things we find useful today would be rejected by our fore fathers because we have grown to acquire different skills sets than them. For example, shower heads; they would find no use in it when they were use to take a bath per month and using a bucket. Just to dwell a bit on the quote; "a living dog is better than a dead lion." This serves a symbolic meaning on us because the lion stands for ancient wise while the dog stands for us, contemporary America. Although the ancient men, who are now deceased, molded our country to what it is, they passed indelible values down to their children who are their successors. In the spirit of Black History Month, as much as almost every African American man would like to be a Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, they cannot; I'm not saying that following their path is wrong, but trying to be exactly them is an impossible task mainly because African Americans have rights. Furthermore, we also have adapted in our definition of "success". Modernized technology such as the iPod, iPad, computer, cell phone, and many more are successes that we have. We consider this success because it is optimizing life to its fullest extent. Essentially, it is important to remember what the ancient people taught us and the impact on our lives, but to disagree with this quote is to disagree with modernization.
ReplyDeleteThoreau makes an interesting point when confronted with the opinion that the ancient men were more intelligent than contemporary American men. He says that while this may be true. "a living dog is better than a dead lion." He goes on to say that people should try to be all that they can be, regardless of whether they can ever live up to the success of others who came before them. Do you agree? why or why not?
ReplyDelete` I agree because even though you're successful or not, the generations ahead will look upon the pass as a guide for the future. American men look ahead and mostly never towards the past. And if ever, they did look back it would be nothing but pain striking memories of their fellow citizens. But in the sense, I believe that it was one of the reason why ancient men were more intelligent than the contemporary American men because they weren't ignorant and allowed many or varieties of result to come, to influence them to make great decisions. American men want it now and then, and even though it still takes time to think; they're not willing to expand their thoughts only to their main topic/purpose. In addition, it's very contradicting on how "Americans" are told to get/be influenced by their history because that's how the country came to be. But even so, Americans don't least sound the bit interested about their past events. When maybe their answers lies on reflecting back and making a decisive answer from the evidence they have. Reverting back to the quote, "A living dog is better than a dead lion." It's stating that though something that may be big and well known is dead, something always replaces it. And even though it might not be as good as the first, you'll have to work around with the flaws and use it to your advantage in every way. And that was the same thing I was stating in the beginning but to still look back and don't pretend the past wasn't there. Whether or not we like or not, the past have many significance to us and it can really help the future.
` Melissa . <3
I agree with Thoreau because you may not be as successful as others that where before you however, if you at least try and strive to complete the goals that you are trying to achieve you will be successful in your own way. No one is going to be as successful as the next person because everyone is there own person and is supposed to make there own accomplishments in life. For instance, Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates are both successful individuals but achieved their riches in different ways. Oprah became a talk show host and Gates invested his money and became a millionare. Thoreau mentions that ancient men are more intelligent than contemporary men because ancient men always found ways to accomplish there goals unlike contemporary men. For instance, ancient men created the wheel in order to get goals completed however, if something like that was left up to contemporary men they would easily give up and forget what the goal was that they needed to achieve.When Thoreau mentions that a "living dog is better than a dead lion" he makes a significant point because a lion is view upon as "king of the jungle" and a dog is looked upon as a mere pet however if a lion is dead a dog can achieve more than a lion because the dog is still alive a achieve goals that a dead lion cannot achieve.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Thoreau's opinion because today's generation might not know how to survive without technology while the ancient men will know how to survive without it. Imagine if something happened to all types of technology right at this moment such as phones, internet, etc. People would be completely clueless as to what to do with their life and how to solve the problem. However, there are some people who may be just as wise as those ancient men becauase of their extensive research. Thoreau goes on to say that "a living dog is better than a dead lion" because a lion would symbolize the wise man and the living dog would symbolize the contemporary American man. Eventhough the lion has all the power and wisdom, if they are deceased then it does not have that much use or effect on us. A living dog, however, will guide and protect thoses from harm. With this quote he also says that people should try to be all that they can be, regardless of whether they can ever live up to the success of others who came before them. He is basically trying to say that even though the ancient men may be wiser thatn the newer generations,people should not give up their goals and dreams. Everyone does not have to be like those ancient wise men and live out their goals and dreams. Everyone has plenty of different paths in life that they envision. They should not let a few wise men stop them from becoming successful in something they a good at.
ReplyDeleteagree. When you try to reach your goals you become a stronger person. You might not be the wealthiest person but you can live a comfortable enjoy-filled life. I think Thoreau's point about living up to the sucess of others before you is very true. You aren't that person. You shouldn't have to walk in their foot steps. What you think is successful isn't going to be on the same radar as others. Everyone should be their own person. You should set out your own goals whether you reached them or not your strived. When you strive you show that you care about your future. You at least made an attempt and effort to reach your own goals. God didn't attend for you to follow others thats why people have a mind of their own. Ancient men were not more intelligent than contemporay American man. They might have been a tad bit wiser on life. But now we have so much more advancement in the field of technology and science. If they had been smarter they would've been up on that kind of stuff. Life would've been much more easier for them if they were more intelligent.
ReplyDelete-B. Mizzle
I agree with Thoreau's point, "a living dog is better than a dead lion." and that people should try to be all that they can be, regardless of whether they can ever live up to the success of others who came before them. Although ancient men were wise and the sucess of others may be greater, when you try all that you can be, that energy will feed off and influence others to find new and differet things greater then those who came before us.For example, Micheal Jordan, a great basketball player from the past..now you have a kid named Fred who just plays at the courts and put so much heart in it that he influences Kobe Bryant young 10 year old to play and become a great plaer as well. Also, even though you may put your all in and fail, its just an example and guide for people to learn and try not to fall into. It helps those avoid problems others got themseleves into. Also its like parents. Parents never want their child to be just like them they want them to be better then them. As parents try their best to train their child though they might not be better then past parents their preparing some who might be even better.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Thoreau’s opinion stating that "a living dog is better than a dead lion" because hard work seems to be the reason to be of the current generation. All sorts of self-help books and clichés are bandied around the place on how to get things done, stop procrastinating, and motivate you, well that’s what the ancient men used to do, but now things change. With the advent of the computer and information age in the early 1980’s access to instant information began to grow. Likewise, through the invention of the internet, connections between the world best libraries were instantaneous, and a new virtual library of information began to be born. Soon enough the pace of life began to pick up and move at virtual speed. I think that ancient men believe that they have more experience and hopefully more wisdom. As for American men, they believe they are smarter and wiser when it comes to most things especially their own life, than those who are old. When it comes to technology, computers, touch screen phones, etc., they believe younger people know so much about that and looks to them for help when it comes to using them. But, when it comes to life and the experiences that come with it, they know a whole lot. It may come off as if they are saying they are smarter than younger people, but sometimes, that's not the case. They just know a lot and experienced life way ahead of us, so they have the wisdom that younger people can take from them so they can avoid mistakes and learn lessons. The young generation is smarter because they are younger; owing to the greater knowledge already passed on to them is better equipped. They are familiar with things that were in the just in the development stage for the older generation. As long as there is steady development in knowledge and technology, the younger generation would be in an advantageous position. Yet there are few exceptional cases where members of the older generation, through hard work, catch up with their younger generation. Generally, younger generations know more than older generations because the older generations have made new discoveries for you to learn from. I say generally, because while you may have learned more in school, if you failed to take advantage of your educational chances, then you are not smarter than your ancient men.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Thoreau's statement. Everyone should live up to their own expectations, instead of worrying about being at the same level as someone else. Just because someone in the past did something exceptional doesn't mean you can, will, or should do just as much. Also, the fact that older generations are smarter than the more current ones of today is very much true as well. Because of the advancement in tehcnology and the internet, people of today's era have begun to rely more on these resources. These sources of course forces us to not rely on our own intellignece and better judgement. For example, instead actually solving a math problem, anyone can simply use a calculator. The advancement of society has hindered us and therefore in a way weaken society mentally, where these advancements were created in the first place to help us. Back to my earlier statement, people shouldn't worry about meeting other's expectations. Everyone is made differently, which makes everyone unique. Just because your limitations aren't to par with someone else's doesn't make you less of a person. These ideas can be tied together however. The reason I say this is because of the advancement in technology, our current generation's expectations are lowered. In short, the ancient man is smarter than our current man, but only because the ancient man did more for themselves. The current average joe of our society relies too much on different resources such has previous ideas presented by earlier generations to do anything innovative for society.
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