Blog Post #1

So first post, we'll have to see how this goes.

What I found upon reading The Blithedale Romance and the idea of Trancendentalism interesting was the similarity between Trancendentalism and other more or less secular communities. The most obvious one that comes to mind would be the Amish of North America. What were the core issues that divided these two styles of community and made one far more successful than the other?

Both the Amish and the Trancendentalist communities, like Blithedale, saw the "modern" community as corrupting of people. Both groups sought to distance themselves from the outside world. Obviously as we all know, the Amish were far more successful for several reasons.

While they did indeed forgo most modern conveniences, their lifestyle seems to have been much more compatible with living apart from the modern world. Not to mention the mindset of the people was far more accepting of their way of life and they had experience with farming and were quite used to that lifestyle. This is in contrast to the Blithedale community that very much relied on one man to do most of the farming.

The people who inhabited the Blithedale community also came from the outside world, rather then having lived traditionally such as the Amish have. The Amish have also adopted some modern conveniences, and do not limit their diets as many Trancendentalist communities have, eating plenty of meat and even some forms of candy.

Also, many Amish communities have begun to mesh with modern society, and do not shun the conveniences provided. Things like movie theatres, soft drinks and other social elements have been incorporated into the community, which takes away the urge some might feel to want to experience them as we saw in the Blithedale Romance with Coverdale escaping to return to modern society.

It is entirely possible that if the Trancendentalist communities had taken its que from the Amish, their communities would have been more successful and far more long lasting than is seen in the Blithdale Romance and even the essay, Trancendental Wild Oats.