Black Elk Speaks

I guess I don't have that much to say yet about the content of the first 6 chapters of Black Elk Speaks, but it was nice to read something written in a story form for a change. I really like how Neihardt write Black Elk Speaks: ...and tells Black Elk's stories as he would tell them and then says Standing Bear or whoever else speaks: ...as if you're sitting there with them, listening to these men talk and add on to each other's memories. I think the other perspectives that the older men give add a lot to Black Elk's story and provide context and knowledge about things that Black Elk may not have been old enough to understand or observe.

Social Capital in a Virtual World

In my anthropology class, we recently starting reading an ethnography about Second Life, a virtual world where people can get online and do practically anything with an avatar such as go shopping, build a house, attend a wedding, etc.  (For more info- http://secondlife.com/whatis/).  Users say that the most compelling reason they use Second Life is the relationships they make with people who are across the globe.  Even if people have never met each other in the actual world, in Second Life, they can get married, be friends; an adult can even be a child avatar and have another user agree to be their parent in Second Life.  This ability to create relationships and participate in groups in this world made me think about Putnam and social capital.   Could people produce social capital in a virtual world like many of our groups decided in Part II that people can do on Facebook?  This virtual world is like Facebook but better because you can interact with each other through more than just words.  For instance, this picture is of a GreenPeace meeting in Second Life.  It sounds like a stretch, and the concept is somewhat confusing, but I wonder what Putnam would say to this kind of interaction and connectivity between not only Americans, but the global population.

On Civil Disobedience

"Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight." -Thoreau in "On Civil Disobedience"


 I like this quote by Thoreau, how he says not to just fill in a circle at the polls and walk away from this democratic process, but to cast "your whole influence."  I think he means that we should try to see democracy not just as a one time action, but as an ongoing mindset or lifestyle.  He wants people to use all the tools and resources of power they have to work towards what they want to see happen.  Along with this, he also points out the dangers the majority can pose with how much power it is given in American democracy.  He echoes much of what Tocqueville says as well.  I feel like Thoreau, however, looks more at the negative aspects of this while Tocqueville talked more about how the minority can work to combat the majority through voluntary associations.  Thoreau also says "There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom..."  He points out how so many people are idle and don't do anything to change what they don't like while Tocqueville talks about how people, through voluntary associations, do not sit idle and work towards change.

Thoreau's Walden

"The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night...Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself...Morning brings back the heroic ages." -Thoreau in Walden


I liked what Thoreau says about morning.  Like he says, I think there is something special about morning when it's quiet and the world is just how it is, without people or cars or anything we've contributed to it.  This is kind of a simple blog post, but I think that if I were to take something from Thoreau's lessons that he wanted people to learn from and take into their lives, I would try to get up early more often or get up to see the sun rise and go be out in nature in the morning and experience the freshness and silence that's there.  I think it'd be refreshing and a good way to remind myself of the peacefulness of life in the midst of all the busyness and rushing we're constantly a part of.

Emerson's "Nature"

"To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food." -from "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson 

This passage by Emerson and the general tone of "Nature" reminds me of Bellah's argument about paying attention.  Emerson points out how as we get older and learn more, we forget about nature's presence and become less and less aware of it and its beauty, effects, etc.  This contrasts greatly with when we're children and we amazed by every new discovery in the world around us.  It's interesting because Bellah points out the "indifference of the youth to the world around them."  Emerson believes adults are the ones who don't acknowledge nature's presence.  This also reminds me of Thoreau's comparison of people to the railroad ties' nickname, "sleepers."  He also saw people becoming less and less conscious of the world around them, especially the spiritual virtues in life.  I think these men would greatly agree with each other if they were in conversation and Bellah could point out how young people seem less "awake" than the adults that Emerson believed were ignorant of the world they lived in .

The Transcendental Railroad

"Nor is the atmosphere in the coach unfriendly: there is a social spirit, a sort of comradeship. 'New people continually entered.  Old acquaintances-for such they soon grew to be in this rapid current of affairs-continually departed.'" -G. Ferris Cronkhite in "The Transcendental Railroad (pg. 326)

This excerpt made me think about a social change the railroad made that I hadn't thought about before.  Not only did the railroad allow people to assemble that normally would be separated by hundreds of miles, the railroad also created a sense of unity just through the physical coming and going of passengers through the cars when traveling by train.  It produced a sense of being in something together while Americans started using this invention that was unique to the States.  People also could make new connections and relationships with people from completely different places, even if they'd never see them again after getting off the train.  As more and more people became connected, this aspect of railroad travel contributed to the social life in the United States and helped unite Americans.

A Word About Railroads

After listening to the discussion in class (and not really talking due to the fact that I have no voice right now since I've been sick for what seems like forever), I felt like the railroad didn't get all the credit that it was due.  I agree that the major railroad companies were not benevolent and fair, the unions that came out of the solving of this issue were definitely a step in the direction of the democratic horizon.  Like the article "The Iron Horse" points out, the railroad changed the way people think about big business in America and the problems that arise from it, causing unions and regulations that protect people and help enable their participation in democracy.  Plus, the simple fact that trains allowed people to take advantage of their freedom to assemble with people they never would have been able to meet with before was a huge step in making a democratic society and the associations Tocqueville was so fond of.