Thoreauvian Radicalism: A Continuation Of The Prophetic Tradition In The American Grain

H. D. Thoreau is rightly considered to be a "proto-ecologist" or environmentalist. And yet, the fairly recent "discovery" of this aspect of the multi-dimensional HDT makes me wince. Not because it is not true; not because it is not valuable; certainly not because it is not timely--it is that.

I wince because I fear that Thoreau the proto-ecologist is yet another way of domesticating or taming Thoreau the political radical. What? How could an exploration of an early 19th century Naturalist be a mode of domestication? Is this not a discovery of his dedication to the wild?

It is, indeed. But it is also a way to lump Henry in with a motley crew of tree huggers and animal rights activists whose voices are politically marginalized in our anemic democracy. Which is not to say that Thoreau does not belong in that motley crew--I would suggest that he does. Nor is it to suggest that those voices are rightly marginalized--I think they are wrongly marginalized. Moreover, pushed to the margins, I think that, for the most part, they are de-clawed.

I witnessed a de-clawed HDT in High School English class: an irascible eccentric who engaged in a little Romantic experiment of primitive living by the side of a lake, not far from town so he could take his shirts home on the weekends to be laundered. A queer sort with a flair for the English language. An icon of American individualism.

Again, I do not deny the appropriateness of any of these descriptions. I fear their soporific effect.

Thoreau was all of those things, yes, but he was also this:

Because he was this:

Which is why he threatens people like Kathryn Schulz who want to see him forgotten. Mis-remembered and forgotten.

But though he is gone, he is not forgotten and will never be forgotten by those of us who read him and love him and see in him a continuation of the Prophetic Tradition in the American grain.

In the Prophetic Tradition, the Resurrection is not for the conformists, the Goody-Two-Shoes among us who go along to get along. In the Prophetic Tradition, the Resurrection is for those who have the courage to Rise Up!