Post by duff on Aug 9, 2011 23:33:20 GMT -5
Isolating yourself from other humans can have a positive effect. Being “bored,” as Deresiewicz describes, has lead our society to lean onto the internet and cellular devices. The author wrote about a particular female who had sent over 3,000 text messages in one month. Honestly, how can an individual be so lonely or suppressed from life that he or she sends that many messages? That fact just makes me feel happy I do not know this person. As I was growing up all I really had was my instruments or a book, and every day during my leisure time from school I worked odd jobs. The free time I had was always spent in my room either creating music or asking questions about my existence. Personally I feel like the majority of my peers have no life and resort to the constant contact with there friends, on social networks or through text, because they have had there creativity stolen from them. Society follows a certain group that has standards that fit pop culture or moralls that are accepted by a brainwashed community. Even political ideology is separated into two major factions that the majority accepts, and this is also advertised over social networks and television.
Deresiewicz writes “Man may be a social animal, but solitude has traditionally been a societal value. In particular, the act of being alone has been understood as an essential dimension of religious experience, albeit one restricted to a self-selected few. Through the solitude of rare spirits, the collective renews its relationship with divinity. The prophet and the hermit, the sadhu and the yogi, pursue their vision quests, invite their trances, in desert or forest or cave. For the still, small voice speaks only in silence.” Solitude does produce that inner voice that dwells in us that can be achieved through meditation, yoga, prayer, and even critical thinking. Importantly though, it does not matter how one achieves this, but I guarantee that recreation is not the spark that ignites the fire. Did Mozart write
The Marriage of Figaro while spending time with his friends playing the 360? I believe he did not. My
point is not to bash being social. I am only trying to say, think of the last time you had done something
truly productive with your friends. To find inner peace or flare creativity you must be able to think clearly. To think clearly and for yourself, one can not be influenced by the outsider.
“But it is with Romanticism that solitude achieved its greatest cultural salience, becoming both literal and literary. Protestant solitude is still only figurative. Rousseau and Wordsworth made it physical. The self was now encountered not in God but in Nature, and to encounter Nature one had to go to it.”
This was a great statement made by the author. It shows how culture has evolved. In the present if a kid is a little anti social he is said to be weird. Honestly, I don't blame him because lets face it, being around groups all the time is irritating. I honestly do not want to hear peoples opinions all the time. I want to go to nature and form my own. The author is right, in today's age people can not be alone, and refuse to be alone. The internet is not a total waste though, I personally have been teaching myself music theory watching youtube in my room. I can read anything ever published with the click of the mouse. The author is right though, solitude is ending, and in my opinion is crippling authentic creativity. Authentic creativity can only be seen through your own imagination. Einstein once said, “imagination is more powerful than knowledge.” Authentic creativity can be achieved through isolation, but your imagination has to roam. How else would our knowledge progress if you didn't have the individuals who ask themselves questions such as, why does this apple fall from a tree, or how do I create extra dimension on the canvas. To truly think you have to be alone.
Deresiewicz writes “Man may be a social animal, but solitude has traditionally been a societal value. In particular, the act of being alone has been understood as an essential dimension of religious experience, albeit one restricted to a self-selected few. Through the solitude of rare spirits, the collective renews its relationship with divinity. The prophet and the hermit, the sadhu and the yogi, pursue their vision quests, invite their trances, in desert or forest or cave. For the still, small voice speaks only in silence.” Solitude does produce that inner voice that dwells in us that can be achieved through meditation, yoga, prayer, and even critical thinking. Importantly though, it does not matter how one achieves this, but I guarantee that recreation is not the spark that ignites the fire. Did Mozart write
The Marriage of Figaro while spending time with his friends playing the 360? I believe he did not. My
point is not to bash being social. I am only trying to say, think of the last time you had done something
truly productive with your friends. To find inner peace or flare creativity you must be able to think clearly. To think clearly and for yourself, one can not be influenced by the outsider.
“But it is with Romanticism that solitude achieved its greatest cultural salience, becoming both literal and literary. Protestant solitude is still only figurative. Rousseau and Wordsworth made it physical. The self was now encountered not in God but in Nature, and to encounter Nature one had to go to it.”
This was a great statement made by the author. It shows how culture has evolved. In the present if a kid is a little anti social he is said to be weird. Honestly, I don't blame him because lets face it, being around groups all the time is irritating. I honestly do not want to hear peoples opinions all the time. I want to go to nature and form my own. The author is right, in today's age people can not be alone, and refuse to be alone. The internet is not a total waste though, I personally have been teaching myself music theory watching youtube in my room. I can read anything ever published with the click of the mouse. The author is right though, solitude is ending, and in my opinion is crippling authentic creativity. Authentic creativity can only be seen through your own imagination. Einstein once said, “imagination is more powerful than knowledge.” Authentic creativity can be achieved through isolation, but your imagination has to roam. How else would our knowledge progress if you didn't have the individuals who ask themselves questions such as, why does this apple fall from a tree, or how do I create extra dimension on the canvas. To truly think you have to be alone.