Walden Island would be an ideal transcendentalist society. Everyone would be a unique cog on Walden Island while being surrounded by the acceptance of others, freedom, and peaceful nature. These words have never been used to describe a society in the history of mankind and never will be. The truth is Walden Island would just be too perfect for the tainted minds of humans. Many would state that they would gladly be part of a transcendentalist society like Walden without losing sanity but Walden’s isolationist ideas and government would cause everyone to swim away within a day.
In this modern day and age a society structured off isolationist ideas would fail every time. One of Walden Island’s key features is a no foreign trade policy. All tangible items on the island would be built there. Walden has a vast amount of natural resources and would support human life just fine. Citizens would want conformist items like certain types of technology; such as cell phones and I pads. One, a transcendentalist society does not allow conformity and two, producing these things would require materials from many different parts of the world. The only problem is that Walden is a transcendentalist society and does not allow foreign trade. With isolationist ideas Walden Island would be hated by both its citizens and the rest of the world. Without sympathy from anyone a society will never flourish.
The only possible way this society may be able to function would be to have a select group of people placed on Walden to maintain the island and live there. These people would need to be extremely self sufficient, care about nature, have a very accepting thought process, and be able to live in pure simplicity. Overall, they must be untouched by this poisonous world. This may seem like a fictitious thought but could be possible. The island itself would supply them with all necessities. There would then be no reason to fall into the clutches of conformity. Humans were but on this world to live off the bear minimum and that is what the citizens of Walden Island intend to do. With this handpicked population a transcendentalist society would emerge naturally.
Every society needs some form of government. Walden features an advanced form of direct democracy. It will not put any group or select person in charge of the society. All meaningful topics will be voted on with the help of civil servants who would set up elections. This form of government would never be achieved due to the one thing that humans can never pass up. Power. When power is dangled from a thread in front of people it is pounced upon like ravenous animals on wounded prey. If one does not strive for power another person will. This is just how we are raised in this modern world. You are a better person if your paycheck is higher than the man standing next to you. This is quite pitiful but it is the truth. This is why a direct democracy would never work in any society.
Walden Island would be classified more as a myth than an achievable feat. The transcendentalist views of society would prove to be too demanding of the world’s population. In order for this type of society to function there would be too many hoops to jump through and in the long run the island would ultimately fail. The human mind is both interesting and disgraceful at the same time. Depending on which type of person possesses it and what he or she does with it. In the end human evolution would be the catalyst of destruction on Walden Island. In all, Walden Island requests too much of humans and would never work as a functional and efficient society.
