Thoreau asserts that the mass of people are of the second type, but he does not present any evidence for this bold claim. Other people's non-desperate demeanor may only be a cover-up of their silent desperation. One question that comes to mind is how Thoreau knows that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Many people's non-desperate demeanor may be the result of a real, genuine, contentment in life. However, even when taken in context, the claim Thoreau makes in this sentence is problematic and incorrect. Unfortunately, this is not the way in which many, unfamiliar with the context of this famous sentence, interpret it. The Walden experiment was initiated by the conviction that there is no need to go on living in desperation, quiet or not. Thus, Thoreau in fact suggests in the book that people can stop leading lives of desperation and can improve their condition. Among many other things, the book advocates solitude, self-reliance, contemplation, proximity to nature, and renouncing luxuries as means of overcoming human emotional and cultural difficulties. The book describes an interesting experiment Thoreau made with his own life when he moved to live in a cabin in a forested area by Walden Pond, Massachusetts. Thoreau himself probably did not want this sentence, which appears in the first chapter of his celebrated book Walden or, Life in the Woods to be taken out of its context and be understood so pessimistically. On the contrary, they try to perpetuate and even augment their desperation. I, on the other hand, am not afraid and I will not conceal who I am: I will lead a life of loud desperation." Yet once emphasizing desperation is romanticized as authentic, unconventional, and brave, people do not easily let go of their desperation, fearing that doing this might be interpreted as returning to phoniness. The line of thought seems to go more or less like this: "the mass of people who lead lives of quiet desperation probably do so because they are afraid to be who they are. Third, the claim leads some to feel that emphasizing or even enhancing their desperation would make them be, or seem, more authentic they wear desperation on their sleeve as a status symbol. "If the majority of people lead a life of quiet desperation although they probably do not enjoy it," the reasoning seems to go, "then it's probably unavoidable, and there's no sense in trying to fight it." Of course, accepting that a state of affairs is unalterable diminishes people's readiness to do what can be done to change it. Second, I found that many took this claim to imply that being depressed is a necessary state of affairs-part of the human condition that could perhaps be concealed, but not changed. (Some advertisements use this tendency very efficiently to push us to buy some things that we do not really need, emphasizing that this or that is what most people do or wear today.) Thus, some people who hear that the majority of lives are led in quiet desperation are lured into entering such a state themselves or, if they are already in this state, into not leaving it. We feel uncomfortable at the thought that we are "different." This tendency can be very powerful even when we are not aware of it. It did so in various ways.įirst, there is a part in many of us that wants us to be like others. (Although desperation and depression are not the same I refer here to them both and will use the terms interchangeably in this post.) It seemed to me that many of my interlocutors could have significantly diminished or gotten rid of their desperation, but that this claim decreased their readiness to take the means needed to do so.
Many of those who cited it to me themselves felt quite desperate or depressed. I have some difficulties with this claim.
It is also commonly mentioned in written form as well, it appears in art, as in, for example, Peter Weir's beautiful 1989 film, Dead Poets Society. To my surprise, they have always referred to it approvingly, as a correct and insightful claim that expresses their own view. One of Henry David Thoreau's most frequently quoted sayings is "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Many people have cited this sentence to me.
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