There must be some internal urge in humans like hunger or horniness that takes over their rational mind and compels them to assign the shameful label of “hypocrite” upon others.
When your insecurity and jealousy is too uncomfortable to deal with you can knock a successful person down below your level by finding a flaw (real or imagined) and call them a hypocrite. This of course negates all of that person’s wisdom and accomplishments because being a hypocrite is the worst thing you can be in this world apparently.
Walden is about simple living and never claimed to be about one man against the world rugged self-sufficiency.
If you don’t know what this post is about go to Google and type in:
“thoreau mom laundry reddit” and read all the posts
typed up with zeal about Thoreau and Walden.
A Sketchy History Of Pencil Lead
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)#Influence
“Walden (/ˈwɔːldən/; first published in 1854 as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author’s simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance.[2]”
It’s his “independence” and “self reliance” parts that make him a hypocrite
This doesn’t invalidate everything he says and does.
But it’s really easy to be “independent” when someone else foots the bill for the land you’re living on and you mom does your laundry for you.
Yeah he was the gentleman billionaire of his time. Telling everyone else how much happier he was when he took a summer off to explore himself.
Sounds like Ayn Rand, and about as credible lol…
I guess if does if you’re just picking your keywords and not actually reading what they wrote.
Is he arguing that he is truly and fully self reliant, or is he just experimenting with self reliance? If it’s the latter then I think it’s unreasonable to complain that he didn’t achieve 100% full self reliance since that’s impossible, but if he’s obnoxiously talking about how he doesn’t need anyone while enjoying all these privileges then I totally get the hypocrisy complaints.