Walt Whitman

[koky]

Walt Whitman "Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches
give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid
and crazy, devote your income and labor to others...
re-examine all you have been told at school and church
or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul..."

 

[Lollipop2]

Lovely. Inspiring.

 

[Christopher R.]

Good advice. Working with autistic adults, I habitually "stand up for the stupid and crazy" though I often wonder who will stand up for me, as I am stupid and crazy too. I give "alms" to a canine charity on a monthly basis, I have donated to Roddy and Peat for the value they provide to my life. I am still working on dismissing whatever insults my soul. The advice resonates with me, though.

 

[Grapelander]

Henry David THOREAU On The Duty of Civil Disobedience
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt.
They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," but leave that office to his dust at least: --

"I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world."

He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.

How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also.

 

[akgrrrl]

Henry David THOREAU On The Duty of Civil Disobedience
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt.
They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," but leave that office to his dust at least: --

"I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world."

He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.

How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also.

After being raised up in America reading Thoreau and Whitman et al, it mostly makes me sad to know that 90% of America cannot read to comprehend such words. The 4th grade vocabularies of the many have never the joy of words nuance, nor thrill an exacting turn of phrase, nor the fullness of the power of words in general.

 

[Kayaker]

After being raised up in America reading Thoreau and Whitman et al, it mostly makes me sad to know that 90% of America cannot read to comprehend such words. The 4th grade vocabularies of the many have never the joy of words nuance, nor thrill an exacting turn of phrase, nor the fullness of the power of words in general.

When he says "made of clay", he means people who bend the knee and get molded, instead of standing up (such as to the vaxx)?

 

[akgrrrl]

When he says "made of clay", he means people who bend the knee and get molded, instead of standing up (such as to the vaxx)?

Aye.

 

[Sefton10]

 

[Peatful]

View attachment 30891

Spoken like a true freemason. And a hater of Christians....

 

[Christopher R.]

Lord Summerisle quoted that exact passage in a deleted scene from The Wicker Man.

 

[Grapelander]

Interesting Similar Thread on the forum:
Walt Whitman's "Leaves Of Grass" Is Based Around Serotonin-Lowering Grass Acorus Calamus

http://www.whitmanarchive.org/published ... lusters/76

Anticonvulsant activity of raw and classically processed Vacha (Acorus calamus Linn.) rhizomes - PubMed

Experimental evaluation of antidepressant effect of Vacha (Acorus calamus) in animal models of depression