HDT (sighing): Look" some people think my life ended when I left Walden. Jesus H. Christ--I was 30 years old! I'd learned plenty at Walden--by going into myself, by reading the great works, by thinking, walking, by being quiet and observant. But, it can't end with that.
GC: I get that! To be truly free is to participate in freedom. Frankly, that's why I can't stand spectator sports! Spectator sports is like spectator politics! Participatory sports are fine. Participatory politics is essential. I want participatory freedom! To amend Socrates a bit: A non-participatory life is not worth living!
HDT: I didn't disappear into myself after Walden! I didn't disappear into the Maine woods! I lectured, I wrote, argued. One great lesson from Walden was to focus. "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify!" I tried to spread that idea--the need to wash out trivia from our minds. The world you describe" and I've observed this "modern" world! It's mostly--in the so-called "advanced" countries--a world of trivia. From their waking hour to the moment they collapse into bed, "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
GC: And collapse into their graves that way!
HDT: But" they don't have to! Yes, I learned some things at Walden--about "timelessness," the perennial Self--many great lessons. But I did not disappear. I wrote, I spoke out--endured the scorn and ridicule and got stronger because of it!
GC: What does not kill me makes me stronger!
HDT: I know this: "We do not worship truth, but the reflection of truth" we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive devotion to trade and manufactures and the like, which are but means, and not the end."
GC: We're drowning in our "means"!
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