
The Revolutionary Thoreau - mitchbob
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/09/04/the-revolutionary-thoreau/
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content_sesh
I'm certainly out of practice reading more (for lack of a better work)
"philosophical" essays like this, but I'm having a hard time understanding the
author's point in the last 4 paragraphs. Presumably that is the conclusion,
but it seems to just waffle around. It almost makes a good point about the
need for collective action alongside abstract beliefs and individual
convictions when confronting an unjust society. But then it just seems to end
with "neither side has the answer, so maybe better things aren't possible?"

But I'd be happy to hear someone disagree with me on this

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projektfu
The conclusion, to me, is that a comparison can be made between Thoreau’s
isolation and the isolation of the pandemic; his support for radical, violent
individual action and the appearance of radical, sometimes violent movements
during this time.

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fl0wrini
Haha! Using Thoreau's essays to defend rioters and looters plus criminals
being killed by "racist policing..." Welcome to the internet, where the real
problem is. A place where one criminal's death (2.9e-10 of the population) can
be glorified and shared as fuel to spark outrage amongst entire cities to
destroy innocent people's lives and homes.

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projektfu
_”it indicates the grave limitations of a political and philosophical
investment in individual heroism—the danger inherent in the voluntarism of
identifying political efficacy with moral purity and deeply held
convictions.”_

I think the author is explicitly disavowing defenses of rioters and looters.

