We're all Transcendentalists now

I think we're all Transcendentalists now.


Seriously.

Well, at least we like to think that we are.

For those that are unfamiliar with Transcendentalism, it was the New England movement of the 1830s and 1840s that preached self reliance, independence, and the inherent goodness of man and nature. It railed against political parties and organized religion as toxins to the individual; it was a movement that was a general protest against the state of culture that persisted in the early United States (or, as noted in the Wikipedia entry on Transcendentalism,  a retort against the intellectual state and the clergy at Harvard University).

Transcendentalists included some of the most celebrated literary, philosophical, and educational figures in the history of the United States, such as writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, William Ellery Channing, and Henry David Thoreau, women's rights advocate Margaret Fuller, education pioneer Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, amongst others.  It was notable for the Utopian experiment of Brook Farm, and 1840s communal living community that was founded by George Ripley (not the one that would be later be associated with Ripley's Believe or Not) near present day Boston.  The community didn't pan out due to agricultural issues and most of it is now a cemetery in west Boston. Take what you want from that -- where "utopia" fell victim to reality or take it as an indictment against social liberalism, it's still indeed relevant.

The United States was founded, more or less, on the idea of "utopia" or at least some concept of perpetual great promise and paradise. English Pilgrims and Quakers searched for religious tolerance, the Spanish feigned for a golden paradise, the Dutch wanted a paradise for fur trading -- so did the French.  All an utopia is, more or less, is a place of paradise where something of great promise would be perpetually provided, whether it would be freedom, gold, or, yes, fur.

So what does all of this have to do with saying that Americans are all attempting to be Transcendentalists now?

If you pay attention to a lot of the political discourse in the United states, whether it would be through the forums of the Internet or the soundbites of the political arena in a 24/7 news cycle world, the search for that utopia has never went away:

Conservatives are always looking forward to that day where unilateral American supremacy, family values, a more theological sound government, supply-side economics, lower taxes, and the substantial elimination of the welfare state will exist.

Liberals are still looking for when rights for any all demographics will be secured, where nobody is poor, and where government would finally be the hero that so many have been clamoring for the government to be.

Libertarians are still pushing for a Jeffersonian America, with extremely limited government, a non-interventionist foreign policy, protection of civil rights and liberties thanks to a limited government, a specie standard, and a free-market, lassiez-faire paradise.

Progressives are still looking for that one perfect system that would make everyone happy, where government and society will always be proactive instead of just reactive. 

While in the media conservatives are paired with libertarians and liberals are often paired with progressives, they're four different ideologies pushing for four different things. Beyond that, though, it's a representation of that endless search and aim for their American utopia where their philosophy would hold dominion over this elusive American utopia.

These days, it's not the small, out-post utopian communities being formed -- its the political party platforms, the political action committees, and the think tanks that have taken on that role. The books are still there, the essays have been replaced by blogging, but we would be hard pressed to induct the likes of Ron Paul, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Tavis Smiley, Kirsten Powers, Alan Colmes, amongst others into the pantheon of storied American authors who managed to shape American literary identity in the vein of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman.


The funniest theme, however, of the presidential race is that all of the candidates, in some form or another, are promising to "restore prosperity to the Untied States", even though few bring up the reality that a major catalyst to the "not-as-robust-as-we-would-like" American economy is due to a shift from the blue collar engine to the white collar engine, spearheaded by the American system that preaches efficiency that pushes companies to do more with less resources, rather than the education and training of new workers. The funny part is, the "America" that they're trying to restore is only just the America that fits their utopian vision, not the America that actually existed, because there are far greater realities to the history of the United States than just "freedom", "liberty", "justice", and "prosperity" -- all of which, that thanks to certain points and times in the history of the United States -- can be attached for being hypocritical and ignoring of greater realities.

So we're going to keep on this romantic pursuit. Why?

Because we're all becoming Transcendentalists.  At least, we like to think that we are.