Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson in his poem self-reliance faults others for failing to live up to and appreciate the

importance of their own ideals urges the reader to trust their own intuition and common sense rather
than automatically following popular opinion and conforming to the will of the majority. According

to him, being genius is to believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your
private heart is true for all men. In the whole of the essay self-reliance, Emerson is trying to make the reader look within himself and believe in himself more than he should look for solutions from other people. According to him, A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. He further urges his readers to retain the outspokenness of a small child who freely speaks his mind because he has not yet been corrupted by adults who tell him to do otherwise. Emerson considers self-reliance, as the

triumph of a principle. He urges the individual to be a risk taker, as no external event, good or bad, will change the individual's basic self-regard. "Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."
Emerson urges readers to avoid envying or imitating others viewed as models of perfection; instead, he says, readers should take pride in their own individuality and never be afraid to express their own original ideas. In addition, he says, they should refuse to conform to the ways of the popular culture and its shallow ideals; rather they should live up to their own ideals, even if doing so reaps them criticism and denunciation. Emerson is of the opinion that one should avoid consistency. Consistency scares us from trusting ourselves and makes the individual a slave of trying not to contradict himself. He goes as far as to refer to consistency as a monstrous corpse.

Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson in his work viewed the society to be in a conspiracy against the proper development of the human personality. He defends the personality traits that every creative human being must

possess. In his view, the two barriers to self-reliance are noted to be conformity and consistency.

He discourages conformity, as a conformist merely repeats techniques developed by others as opposed to a creator who doubts and challenges the status quo, and has courage to think for himself. The most vital members of society are precisely those who question, undermine, or resist its influence, thus recreating (and renewing) society. Emerson in this sense is seen to believe in the divinity of man. In Religion, Emerson sees religion a hindrance to the attainment of self-realization. He goes further to say that religion fears individual creativity thereby opting for mimicry. He equates culture to religion, terming both as external sources of wisdom for an individual's inner wisdom. Emerson's criticizes the society, and especially its ill-conceived notion of improvement of changes as a sign of progress. He notes that changes occur in society, but "society never advances." The view of non-conformity has been the driving force that has enabled a free market and placed America to be the super power and economic giant it is, as it promotes creative entrepreneurs who challenge the status quo with new ideas. While it might seem that Emerson was against society, he is rooting for the establishment of a free society that does not hinder individualism but rather promotes self-reliance as the most necessary of all virtues of creative society. He wants everyone to trust their instincts and believe that what is true for them is going to be true for everyone. Think for yourself, be original, follow what is in your heart, and look to no one outside yourself. Emerson goes ahead to give examples of Plato, Moses and

Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Milton as some of the people who did not conform to what people said but spoke what they thought. The transcendental thoughts generated by Emerson, signify the means by which the individual can liberate oneself from the spiritual disease that resides in conformity.

Individualism as prescribed by Emerson in the mentioned essay can be a great thing to both the individual and to the society as we have seen earlier. However, it has been noted to have the negative aspect where one tends to abandon the wider society to its own devices. Tocqueville who was a severe critic of individualism observed that At first Individualism pollutes only the source of the public virtues; but, in the long term, it attacks and destroys all the others and finally shrivels into egoism (Tocqueville 1838) He further noted individualism as the evil that led to the degradation of the social and political order. His greatest fear was that excessive pursuit of personal independence would eventually undermine the democratic participation in the governance of society, as the individualist is more concerned with the protection of his own independence from the state rather than in working to build a virtuous and effective state. This view can be construed to many as the promotion of anarchy. Emerson dwelt on the illusion that an individual can live without society. By individualism insisting that every person must live by his own effort independent of others, it takes no regard for the interdependence and the solidarity of people. It does not take account the vast inequalities among men that are likely to produce vast differences in personal situations. By accepting the consequences of these differences, we are most definitely creating a society with glaring inequalities and a fractured one at that.
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Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Works Cited Ralf Waldo Emerson(1841)

Gura F. Philip (2007).

Essays first Series

American Transcendentalism Democracy in America New york Hill and Wang Adlard and Saunders:

Alexis De Tocqueville (1838) George Dearborn & Co