Journal for Emerson

"It contains the most solid statement of one of Emerson's repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Reliance

Reading Emerson's 1841 essay, "Self-Reliance", one is struck by how seminal his message was in the shaping of American culture and identity. The idea of individualism as an American ideal is commonplace today, almost a worn out cliche. We live in an age of corporate brands with global reach,celebrity worship and self-help "gurus" to teach us how to approach every situation, yet we adhere to our sense of uniqueness, of being self-made and self-defined.

Often this sought-for sense of a unique and independent self in a homogenized world is expressed in the most trivial and self-indulgent ways, such as customizing our Starbucks coffee order (soy milk, half-decaf!) What Emerson is calling for, however, is the opposite of this kind of delusional self-aggrandizement. He demands a very rigorous and thoughtful dedication to essential truths that we can discover within ourselves. When he says "I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency" (p.1169) he is not urging us to dye our hair pink!

So great is the influence of Emerson's ideas on our culture that everyone is acquainted with certain phrases from this essay - ("To be great is to be misunderstood." "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"). I think the danger of a superficial interpretation of this message is that it can lead to arrogance, irresponsibility and anti-intellectualism. To read him carefully is to realize that what he is preaching is anything but easy and self-indulgent:

"Consider whether you have satisfied your relations to father, mother, cousin, town, cat, and dog; whether any of these can upbraid you. But I may also neglect this reflex standard, and absolve me to myself. I have my own stern claims and perfect circle. It denies the name of duty to many offices that are called duties. But if I can discharge its debts, it enables me to dispense wit the popular code. If any one imagines that this law is lax, let him keep its commandment one day." (p. 1174)