Public Opinion in Thoreau's "Walden"

“Public opinion is a wake tyrant compared with our own private opinion.  What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”

~ Henry David Thoreau, "Economy," Walden

A lot of what Thoreau talks about in this chapter is similar—and perhaps even directly influenced by—Emerson and his ideals of self-reliance.  As Emerson wrote and philosophize on that theme, Thoreau lived it. 

To provide a comparison with the self-reliant life he led at Walden Pond, Thoreau begins his book with a description of life in Concordian society, culminating in a sort of explanation of why he chose to go off into the woods in the first place.

Lest we be overly impressed by Thoreau’s resolution to turn hermit, it might be worth pointing out that forsaking civilization to live in communes was not unheard-of at this juncture in American history.  Books like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Blithedale Romance recount intellectual idealists thinking that by getting back to nature would eliminate all of humanity’s foibles. The Transcendentalist movement of philosophy was a huge influence, as the works of not only Emerson and Thoreau, but Bronson and Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson.  So this isn’t just some random whim on Thoreau’s part: it’s putting his philosophy into practice.  (Something we all should do in our lives.  If we say we believe something, our actions should back it up.)

What Emerson said about being self-reliant and therefore accountable only to oneself is here shown to be a two-edged sword.  I may shirk the chains of social conformity and outside influences, only to find myself enslaved by my own high expectations of myself.  There is safety in conformity, since success in society is graded on a curve…a curve that self-reliance tears away.

Many individuals of genius illustrate this point throughout history.  Leonardo da Vinci never ceased working on the Mona Lisa.  Tchaikovsky always held a terrible opinion of his music.  If such people had listened to society telling them they fit the status quo, they might never have pushed themselves to create the masterpieces for which they are so famous.  They might have been content to produce mediocre, passingly-interesting works, which would have been quickly forgotten rather than gaining the renown they maintain to this day.