1. Purpose
Discover transcendentalism in art and music

2. Output: choose one of two
Create a transcendentalist playlist.
Make a playlist of 5 songs for each of the major beliefs of transcendentalism. Write “liner notes” that include detailed descriptions of how each song reflects the belief. Reference specific lyrics.
Curate a transcendentalist art collection.
Curate 5 pieces of art (painting, photography, sculpture, graffiti) that incorporate the beliefs of transcendentalism. For each piece of art, explain how it relates to the belief. Reference details of the piece.

3. Individuality and self-reliance are more important than following the majority or traditions

4. Green Day establishes the main idea of the song, not adhering to the dictates of society or living under someone else’s rule, in the first four lines of the song. They contrast the final words in each couplet: minority vs. authority and majority vs. minority. This echoes the idea that one must not conform, but rather, become part of the few, the brave, who do not bend their will to please others. Billy Joe Armstrong’s lyrics reflect the idea that Emerson instills in his essay “Self-Reliance”; one must find their own path, free from other’s influence in order to attain truth and liberation.

5. Here Green Day plays with the language of patriotism, using the Pledge of Allegiance and the reversal of the word God in “one nation underdog” to convey that blind adherence to nationalistic ideas hinders true individuality. It is preferable to “stand alone...against the mold.” Like Emerson, Green Day espouses that “whoso should be a man must be a noncomformist”

6. Green Day speaks to the power of the genius in the same manner that Emerson does. He states that one must learn to notice “that gleam of light” that flashes across our minds: that which he defines as genius. In a similar way, Green Day’s anaphoric use of “one” suggests that in order to find one’s way to genius, one must enter solitude and find unity within, not from without. Thoreau would agree, and would connect this idea of finding one’s own genius and individuality to one’s connection to nature.

7. Banksy “Destroy Capitalism”
Individuality and self-reliance are more important than following the majority or traditions
Banksy
“Destroy Capitalism”

8. Imagery of Individuality
Banksy creates a line of individuals who adhere to the punk tradition, a tradition that is born of the quest to be a unique individual as expressed through art, music, and clothing. The punk movement also directly rejected the hierarchy of British society, and the rules of social conformity. They are like Thoreau, who unwilling to pay taxes to support a war he didn’t support, spent a night in jail to stay true to his principles.

9. Juxtaposition
Banksy juxtaposes the black and white images of the people with the red flag with the message of the piece: “destroy capitalism”. The red color is associated with communism, an ideology in direct opposition to capitalism. The black and white imagery of the people suggests a tiredness, however, the two men at the front are also carrying red towels creating an irony, because the man behind the counter is selling this idea through shirts, therefore using the system he also decries. This shows the paradoxical nature of opposition, especially in a society as controlled by wealth as our own.