Midterm Paper SEC006 Landscape of American Thought James Wilent III 914447447 10/23/11
To Emerson, conformity is the death of the individual, a single file line in which one follows directly behind the other to continuously imitate a sense of superficial perfection. Conformity is an enabler to society, a tool for the powerful perhaps, used to control the masses. It allows for rules, regulations, and restrictions to be placed on individuals for what is and is not accepted among the majority. And as we all know, majority rules. Or does it? Emersons idea of nonconformity demonstrates that one should reflect on ones own mind in order to determine what is best for ones self. This reflection is done knowing that your peers are acting in a similar individualistically driven manner. His message is to take pride in your own individuality and to express your own ideas as you encounter experiences in your life, while keeping your thoughts personal and in solitude. The point is not to leave your self behind but to find your self within. The question of whether or not everyone acting in a manner of nonconformity makes the concept one of conformity is irrelevant in the eye of the individual. This is due to the unconcern that the individual has with what another believes. The fact that you have nothing in common with a group of people cannot be what you have in common with them, but only knowledge of their individual actions. Emerson believed that through education, man would become aware of the individuals in his surroundings, but because of his education would know that the principles on which they act and the principles of
his own actions as being completely separate. This is his idea that envy is ignorance (Emerson 20), that to imitate the ideas of another is cheating yourself of your own intellectual greatness. To attain this greatness we must heed the call of our own genius. That is the challenge that Emerson leaves for us. To respect your own genius is to accept only your personal prospective on the world as being of importance and everyone elses as subordinate, if not meaningless. As Emerson says in Self Reliance, Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side.(Emerson 19,20) The raw aspect of your genius is to make your own decisions and to stay faithfully with those decisions. To accomplish this with truth in all matters daily will lead you to an exploration of the goodness of self on an extremely personal level, unrelated to any other person. The question of good vs. bad behavior are controversial in concept. If you are acting by your own nature, what you might conceive as being right or wrong may be different from what another conceives as being right or wrong. So does the genius also encourage the psycho? Emerson explains that this is not relevant because relying on the self does not justify claims in a matter of science but in a matter of ones own mind. In Self Reliance Emerson tells a story of a friend suggesting that his actions might be influenced from below, not from above, to this he replied They do not seem to me to
be such; but if I am the Devils child, I will live then from the Devil. (Emerson 21) He expresses that to find your genius you cannot be held up by the good vs. bad mentality of society, but only to act what you know to be right for your self. Emerson tells us Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. (Emerson 22) Societys opinion on your actions is not meaningful to the morality of those actions but only useful words meant to disdain your personal growth or favor your conformity to society. Society will place titles, labels, and stereotypes on and around whatever the selfrelying individual is attempting in order to place pressure on them to conform. It is due to the nature of society itself that it cannot be trusted. That Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. (Emerson 21) Still, is society needed? Dependencies on society must be accounted for as well. For example the language used in a society is a direct tool of conformity that all people must use to communicate. So there is a collateral element of society that must remain in order for life itself to persist? No, a man must understand this through his education. Emerson demonstrates that men continuously sacrifice for the improvement of the society however there is never improvement, only change, in society. For every new idea that comes forth an old one is cast out. His solution to this cyclical turnover is to be unique in your own life, to Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. (Emerson 35) He wants us to speak with the authority of our own voice, of our
own genius, for it is equal to that of your fellow man but is not to be used to influence him. Every man has the same opportunity to live a life, not to look back on what could have been or to foresee what might have been, but to recognize what is in the present to become good and strong. For the integrity of your own mind is the most sacred aspect of your self-reliance. In 1841, when Emerson wrote Self Reliance, there was a major expansion of enterprise and industry on American soil. The country was booming with opportunity as more immigrants arrived daily to challenge the new world. These young advantageous men and women had a choice; to be consumed by the early corrupt societies of the Northeast or to self-rely. As easy as words are put on paper, the acting out of those words can be much more difficult. Media devices like cellular telephones, television and the Internet inhibit the selfreliance of modern people. In Emersons time religion, education, and property had the most influence among people. He encouraged us to not follow these customs but to find our own truth. However, have we become so enveloped in the technological age that our own personal thought has become generic? A new norm has been presented where every aspect of the human experience is dominated by a technological advancement. We see, as Emerson saw, that new ideas are conquering old ones and leaving them by the wayside. Yet, can nonconformity succeed in the society that we live in today? Emerson explains, The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. (Emerson
36). So to have we lost the use of our feet, and as society becomes more digitally conformed our connections and authorities with others grow exponentially. However, to break from this norm of social media influence and trending fashions that consume are lives, we must choose to live our lives fully for ourselves. Emerson states that Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought, and quaint expression are as near to us as to any, and if the American artist will study with hope and love the precise thing to be done by him, considering the climate, the soil, the length of the day, the wants of the people, the habit and form of the government, he will create a house in which all these will find themselves fitted, and taste and sentiment will be satisfied also. (Emerson 35) Ralph Waldo wants us to create our own America, not to imitate customs from foreign lands and times but to embody the sense of our own country and create. I do not see America being any closer to a civilization of self-reliance now compared to Emersons own time. He begs us to search our own souls, to act in our own nature. He explains that all men are equal in the deviation of the moral standard, but could this moral standard hold ideals in rank? I believe all individuals self rely to a degree but their priorities become lost and their wants and needs become confused. Contemporary people hold luxury and possession above the right of their minds, allowing them to be swayed by the majority opinion of what is and is not acceptable. I feel as though it will take all people to realize their individual faults in order for them to recognize their own potential as human beings.
Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self Reliance and Other Essays . Dover Thrift. New York: Dover Publications, 1993. 19 -38.
