Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Dickinson, Emerson, Whitman & Douglass [Freedom Quotes]

Dickinson
"The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind"

I believe this to be an interesting statement Dickinson is trying to make about the overwhelming amount of shocking information we're blissfully unaware of.  We're not ignorant, per say, but if we were to be confronted with all the dramatic truths of the world, we'd be overwhelmed by the enormity of it all.  Freedom, to Dickinson, may be the status of a man who may gradually uncover the truth.  Staying in the dark or being exposed to the blinding light of omniscience each render men blind and thus, shackled.

Emerson
"In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking."
Here, Emerson introduces the interesting concept of intellectual slavery - that is, merely repeating the thoughts of others without adding to, modifying or expanding upon their conclusions.  Emerson defines a "proper" intellectual as "Man Thinking," or progressive.  He defines a degenerate state of pseudo-intellectualism as one in which a man becomes a mere parrot, repeating others thoughts verbatim.

Whitman
"You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself."
Emerson is clearly saying here that he does not wish his readers to take his opinions as their own.  He says he wants his readers to think for themselves, free of his minute involvement in their lives.  Emerson sounds very much like Emerson when he proposes the idea to his readers that their thoughts should neither begin or end with his - that they should think for themselves to truly be free (in thought).

Douglass
"The ties that ordinarily bind children to their homes were all suspended in my case. I found no severe trial in my departure. My home was charmless; it was not home to me; on parting from it, I could not feel that I was leaving any thing which I could have enjoyed by staying."
Frederick Douglass was a slave, so he more than anyone, should know exactly what freedom is and is not.  He writes of leaving his home, where he was raised and worked, and feeling no sadness during his departure.  This is the departure of a slave from an epicenter of slavery - a plantation - and freedom is leaving happily, without regret, even if it is only temporary.  Like a prisoner being transferred from one prison to another, the relative freedom between locations is a breath of fresh air.  Douglass won't know true freedom for quite some time, and until then, this is his silver lining.

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