With or Without Technology, by Brian

In Henry David Thoreau’s, “Walden,” the experience one gains from living in solidarity or by natural means, helped Thoreau understand what it was to live without technology. Thoreau believes that technology corrupts work ethic and that to prove it he puts himself in the forefront of his own experiment living alone in a cabin he built alongside the Walden Lake in Concord, Massachusetts. Through his writing of “Walden” we see Thoreau’s views of technology as unnecessary. He felt as if we as humans can live without it, but those who want to escape reality will use it to make their life a whole lot easier. He simply would not agree with technology today simply because it takes away from the pride one would feel by being self sufficient. This type of idea is shared along with his friend Emerson in his essay “Self-Reliance.”

Thoreau’s vision of humans is that we were first put here to live and strive the best way we can, through honest means. Technology takes away from that in that it makes labor easier and does not make the do-er feel as if they accomplished something. If they had labored hours through it they would feel a greater sense of accomplishment which is taken away by technology. We can see this with the quote idea for this blog topics, “We do not ride on the railroads, it rides upon us” (1921), this is perfect to describe Thoreau’s views about technology from his own words. This quote suggests that after the railroad was built, we rely more on the railroads then they rely on us. Obviously a railroad cannot depend on us but without using it and keeping it up it would not matter, so, we use it and rely on it to get our economy going. A reality, that through Thoreau’s views, people do not have to worry about if they did thing for themselves.

Thoreau does not say he does not use new technology, but suggest only that it does not make people realize what they have accomplished to make a living. He does not live the rest of his life in a cabin by the lake, of course, but it was simply an experiment of how one would feel by making a living on his own with the new technologies that make things easier. He reflects in, “Walden,” an account on the lake in which his landlord is selling ice during water from the lake. He mentions that a group of men came carrying the tools needed exactly for extracting the ice from the lake (2025). He was simply mentioning that there were other means by which it could be accomplished, but that the tools make it easier and take away from the labor it would take by doing by hands. So he simply ignores it and goes back to his experiment on the lake.

Thoreau, through “Walden,” showed us that things do not have to be accomplished by new technologies that make it easier, but by simply taking the time to see how you can labor through it. This way one can feel a sense of self worth and had some kind of accomplishment for the day. Even though for a civilization to move forward, it needs new technologies as it become more complex, one can accomplish the same means by simply doing your own thing, but doing it to feel proud and accomplished. “Walden” really helps us to understand ourselves and self-worth. He feels that we can do on our own, or live in a reality that does not have to exist we simply make it exist. This is a strong point which touches a lot of people. We would make it as a society without technological help to make things easier, but we simply enjoy the easy life and this is when we enter a reality in which Thoreau suggest, we do not have to encounter, we simply cannot see it.

Works Cited
Thoreau, Henry David. “Walden, or Life in the Woods.” Ed. Nina Baym 7th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 1872-2046.