Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
There was a time, not so very long ago, when every school boy read Emerson’s essay on Self Reliance. That particular essay was looked upon as as a fundamental expression of our national ethos, as vital instruction on how an American ought to approach life.
There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark. …
These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser, who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, — “But these impulses may be from below, not from above.” I replied, “They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil’s child, I will live then from the Devil.” No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.
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Today, we live not in the age of Emerson, but of Obama, and for many Americans, including the current president, the American ideal consists of statism, regulatory protection, and dependence on government.
ABC:
At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America.
“The one thing that we absolutely know for sure is that if we don’t work even harder than we did in 2008, then we’re going to have a government that tells the American people, ‘you are on your own,’†Obama told a crowd of 200 donors over lunch at the W Hotel.
Dan Riehl called Obama “the first truly un-American president.” via Bird Dog.
I think the seedy, crooked detective who delivers the 1:17 opening monologue of the Coen Brothers’ “Blood Simple” (1984) speaks for a lot of us:
LANDSCAPES
An opening voice-over plays against dissolving Texas
landscapes–broad, bare, and lifeless.
VOICE-OVER
The world is full of complainers.
But the fact is, nothing comes with
a guarantee. I don’t care if you’re
the Pope of Rome, President of the
United States, or even Man of the
Year–something can always go wrong.
And go ahead, complain, tell your
problems to your neighbor, ask for
help–watch him fly. Now in Russia,
they got it mapped out so that
everyone pulls for everyone else–
that’s the theory, anyway. But what
I know about is Texas…
CUT TO
ROAD NIGHT
We are rushing down a rain-swept country road, listening to
the rhythmic swish of tires on wet asphalt.
VOICE-OVER
And down here… you’re on your own.
13 months from now, Barack Obama is going to find out that the whole country is a lot more like Texas than he’d like.
SDD
It’s always hard to judge whether Obama is really as ignorant as he sometimes acts, or whether he’s simply grasping.
He continues to treat government dependency as though it were a real economic option. It’s not. You cannot have a healthy, growing economy with only half of the people producing and the other half consuming their produce. Whether it would be a good thing if you could, is irrelevant.
In a perverse way, one wishes the Clintons had been elected in 2008. They would understand that the REAL opportunity for reelection is to proactively lead REAL tax reform — broadening the tax base with far lower marginal rates.
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