Ralph Waldo Emerson

Spencer Lambert
ENGL 48A
Journal for Ralph Waldo Emerson
October 19, 2009

"A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other quite external event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. It can never be so. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

Internet Quotation: "Practically it may be another matter, but Emerson is a bit of an idealist and not terribly practical (we can't all be everything!)" - Ann Woodlief

Summary: The first quotation comes from the end of the essay, when Emerson essential writes off any external event that could potential "raise your spirits" as insignificant and false. Instead, he feels that only the private Self can bring peace to a person. It is a quick encapsulation of his doctrine, which he called the "infinitude of the private man."

The second quotation comes from an introductory essay on "Self-Reliance" by Ann Woodlief. I particularly like this one because it deals with the utter lack of practicality and reality in the essay. Emerson's ideas are fine ones, but they do not make too much sense on a practical, useable level. Where Woodlief laughs this off, however, I don't intend to be so friendly. Hence, this journal.

My Ideas: There is one thing that leapt into my mind immediately upon finishing Emerson's "Self-Reliance": this man is America! Such individualism is a founding ideal of this country, which was built upon anyone being able to do anything they please. Unfortunately, reality makes this kind of thought a big lie.

This essay, part of Emerson's Transcendentalist philosophy, stresses personal happiness through individualism. Man, he says, must "know his worth," accepting his genius as just that: genius. What a man thinks and does may seem odd to those around him, but for his true genius to thrive such societal restraints must be cast off, and nonconformity must be embraced. The greatest men, from Socrates to Newton to Jesus Christ have all gone against the grain, been themselves, and ended up better because of it. Everyman, says Emerson, should follow suit.

It all sounds so wonderful, doesn't it? The ability to be yourself, to thrive, to let your true intellect and genius shrine through from the drab humdrum of conformity and society. "I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me," claims Emerson. "What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think."

Unfortunately, I cannot fully believe in Emerson's message. While individualism is indeed important to a personally fulfilled life, there are obligations we all have that sometimes must take precedence over genius. To talk of unrestrained, nonconformist individuality for everyone is to talk of the breakdown of society, which does many goods, into a worthless, unhelpful entity. As much I as sometimes disdain society, particularly in the consumerist and careerist attitudes most people today are so willing to adopt, I understand that it does so much good for everybody, and that without it humans would fail as a species. We've come too far to shed off society, and the norms that go with it, like so much dead skin. It is irresponsible and foolish.

Again, there are problems with society: the poor, the sick, and the hungry all too easily make that known. So, I feel we must sometimes forsake our own self-interests for those of the whole, for in the end we will find that a happy whole makes the individuals happy as well. Personal happiness can come from collective sources. For proof, see the myriad celebrations that occurred last November when Barack Obama was elected president. There were whole groups of people made joyous from without.



I believe, too, that certain institutions attempting to help people are worthwhile, unlike Emerson. He talks of the "miscellaneous popular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots; and the thousandfold Relief Societies" as being unworthy of the "wicked dollar." Such places help people daily, and the only way of break the the generational poverty of the poor and the "sots" (not his poor though!) is through direct help and education. It isn't some great exercise in genius to withhold help to your fellow man who has been weighed down with the crushing force of poverty, it's selfishness. All of this too, I might add, coming from a man living on an annual stipend from his dead 19 year old wife which allowed him to "no longer need a steady job." I'm sure some of those poor men would have been better off had they such financial security.



This type of independence, while perfect on paper, is incompatible with human society as we know it. If we could start again, wipe both public and private slate clean, then perhaps we could follow Emerson's doctrine. As we stand now, however, such a switch would be disastrous. Genius can still be achieved with obligations to one's society. Pulling into a fully individualist private life does not alone guarantee greatness.