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This 3 page paper discusses Thoreau's view on philanthropy, a practice he disliked. Bibliography lists 1 source.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVThoPhi.rtf
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about it. Discussion It appears that Thoreaus dislike of philanthropy stems not from any reluctance to help the poor and needy, but from a fear that this is not the
best way to do it. He writes that when persuaded by others to maintain "certain poor persons in all respects as comfortably as I maintain myself, they have one and
all unhesitatingly preferred to remain poor" (Thoreau 54). When he considers that someone may be coming to do him "good," Thoreau runs: "If I knew for a certainty that a
man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life" (Thoreau 55). Thoreau seems to feel this way because doing
good to others, in his experience, is not unselfish or altruistic, but is done by some people to make them feel better about themselves (Thoreau). He says that philanthropy doesnt
make a man a good person just because "he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of
a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much" (Thoreau 55). Philanthropy, he says, is "not love for
ones fellow-man in the broadest sense" (Thoreau 55). Philanthropists, he insists, have never sincerely proposed to do him, or people like him, any good (Thoreau). Presumably, they want to save
their efforts for those who are absolutely destitute, but in doing so they create more of the misery they are trying to overcome. Thoreaus reasoning is somewhat difficult, and he
seems to come perilously close to what we might call today "blaming the victim." For instance, he describes a laborer by saying that "the poor man is not so cold
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