BITE-SIZED PHILOSOPHY
Henry David Thoreau Does Not Respect The Hustle
The Lost Art Of Presence Discovered At Walden Pond
I don’t think Thoreau would respect the hustle. Maybe I don’t either?
In his masterpiece Walden, Thoreau comes to a similar conclusion to Alan Watts regarding the lies we’re told about agency.
He looks at the definition of a person much the same way Watts does, only he focuses his writing on adulthood, when one works at an occupation. He notes that we approach our lives with the aim of working towards freedom — the supposed prize at the end of our toil that was falsely promised.
The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor.
He claims that the work we fill our lives with is not what produces our freedom, but ironically, is what produces our un-freedom — our captivity. A Sisyphean trick, endlessly rolling a large stone uphill only to have it roll back down again. Alan Watts also…
