Question

Describe at least three behaviors your society would deem inappropriate or criminal. Then explain how your society would deal with citizens who violate these rules. Provide direct quote evidence from Emerson or Thoreau to support your ideas and explain.

Answer 1

I'll assume a society shaped by the Transcendentalist values of Emerson and Thoreau (individual conscience, self-reliance, simplicity, and reverence for nature). Below are three behaviors that society would deem inappropriate or criminal, how the society would handle violators, and direct quotations (with brief explanation) showing how Emerson or Thoreau support those judgments.

1) Participating in or enforcing unjust institutions (e.g., carrying out laws or practices that violate conscience and human dignity)
- Why it’s criminal: A society that prizes individual conscience and moral autonomy treats active cooperation with institutionalized injustice (for example, slave-catching, rounding up political prisoners for immoral laws) as a serious crime.
- How the society deals with violators: Criminal prosecution and loss of civil privileges for those who enforce oppression; public accountability and reparations to victims; at the same time the society honors and protects nonviolent conscience-driven resistance (even when it leads citizens into punishment) as morally legitimate.
- Supporting quotes:
- Thoreau, Civil Disobedience: “That government is best which governs least.” — This expresses skepticism of government authority and supports limiting state power when it violates conscience.
- Thoreau, Civil Disobedience: “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” — Thoreau endorses accepting legal penalty rather than cooperating with injustice; a society that takes him seriously will both punish active enforcers of oppression and respect conscientious resisters.
- Emerson, Self-Reliance: “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” — Emerson’s call to resist blind obedience undergirds the society’s view that moral duty to others can trump legal commands.

2) Wanton destruction or commodification of the natural world (large-scale pollution, reckless clear-cutting, permanent ecosystem damage for private profit)
- Why it’s criminal: Nature is held as morally and spiritually important. Wanton ecological harm is an attack on the common good and on the conditions that enable thoughtful, deliberate life.
- How the society deals with violators: Strong environmental laws, mandatory restoration and remediation, heavy penalties for reckless ecological damage, public revocation of permits or licenses, and in severe cases temporary suspension of business operations or citizenship rights until restoration is completed. Community-led restoration and re-education programs emphasize living more simply and responsibly.
- Supporting quotes:
- Thoreau, “Walking” (and Walden themes): “I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil.” — Thoreau’s defense of wildness supports treating destructive exploitation as morally unacceptable.
- Thoreau, Walden: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life…” — The ideal of deliberate, simple living implies laws that discourage rapacious exploitation of the environment.
- Emerson, Nature: “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” — Emerson’s regard for nature’s intrinsic value supports protecting it from reduction to mere resource-value.

3) Deceptive, exploitative commerce and the unexamined pursuit of wealth at the expense of moral life (fraud, predatory lending, hoarding that damages community well‑being)
- Why it’s criminal: When commerce or private gain undermines human flourishing, it violates the society’s ethic of integrity, self-reliance, and simplicity.
- How the society deals with violators: Enforcement against fraud and exploitation (fines, restitution, criminal charges where appropriate); regulation to prevent predatory business structures; progressive penalties and reparation programs that restore economic balance; educational and vocational programs to encourage simpler, honest livelihoods; social sanction for ostentatious accumulation that harms the community.
- Supporting quotes:
- Thoreau, Walden: “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” — This reminds citizens that the cost of wealth often equals lost moral or spiritual life; the society treats exploitative enrichment as ethically suspect and legally constrained.
- Thoreau, Walden: “Simplify, simplify.” — A cultural command to avoid needless accumulation supports laws and norms discouraging predatory profiteering.
- Emerson, Self-Reliance: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” — Emerson’s insistence on integrity and authentic action underwrites legal and social measures against hypocrisy (public virtue paired with private exploitation).

Summary of enforcement philosophy
- Criminal sanctions exist for actions that directly harm others, the commons, or basic moral agency (violence, fraud, ecological destruction, enforcing oppression).
- Punishments emphasize restitution, restoration, and moral rehabilitation over purely retributive measures. Severe, repeat offenses may bring harsher penalties (loss of business licenses, imprisonment).
- The society also valorizes principled civil disobedience: citizens who break unjust laws for the sake of conscience are likely to be legally punished yet morally honored, in line with Thoreau’s and Emerson’s writings. The citations above show why resisting unjust law, preserving nature, and simplifying life are core moral commitments in such a society.