... southern plainsmen. The proud folks of the south refused at first to accept government help, optimistically believing that better days were ahead. Some moved out of the plains, running from not only drought but from the new machine-controlled agriculture. As John Steinbeck wrote in the bestseller The Grapes of Wrath, "it was not nature that broke the people-they could handle ... ...
... man is the man who can rise above societal pressures, establish an identity of his own where the man lives for himself, and relies only upon a man's self in forging ahead. In addition, this ultimate man, in practicing this selfish identity, takes no account of the advice or aid offered by friends, family or co-workers, nor does he feel the ... "(12). Here, I believe, is potentially the most damaging aspect of the Transcendentalist philosophy of individualism. Where would our country be without the selfless, philanthropic endeavors of such great men as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie...
