After last week's encounter with Baudrillard I thought Emerson's Self-Reliance would
be a nice refreshing wind to sail through. It's been a good few years since I sat down
and read through the whole thing and so when I sat down this week to read through it I
found myself blown away once again by how good this thing is. If you've never read it I
would recommend sitting down for five minutes and reading the first few paragraphs.
I'll put a link to it in the cards or down in the description. It's an absolutely sublime bit
of work and partly I found myself reading it in light of who I am today and who I was
when I first read it and I can see how much it has coloured my worldview and shaped
who I am. And now also knowing how much Emerson was an influence on Nietzsche I
can see that the effect is doubled. Self-Reliance got me totally jazzed up.
Everything that I mean and everything that I feel with the words living philosophy is embodied
in this essay. I can see where the living philosophy came from and
yeah it's just an amazing read. Obviously this time I had another intention
when reading it as well and that was with the eye of a communicator. I was reading
it with an eye to its essence with an eye to
what it is about, how it unfolds, and why it is so amazing. And being quite a floral
rhetorical piece rather than an argument made up by a series of propositions I actually
had a bit of difficulty unearthing the structure.
I could go down a whole rabbit hole on this -it's something I've thought about quite a
lot recently with books and with all reading - like how to read a book well. What are
we reading for and how do you get the most out of what you are reading? This time I
thought I'd play with a lens that I picked up from my recent dabblings in Continental
Philosophy and that is the idea of binary oppositions - essentially pairs of opposites
- something I imagine we'll be exploring in much more depth when we start talking
about Derrida. So I began looking for the binary
oppositions in Emerson's piece and I can only recommend this approach highly enough because
it unlocked the whole essay for me. I could now see the things that Emerson
valued both in their hallowed haloed form and in their shadow vice form. And so I thought that
this might make an interesting way of approaching this essay of all essays:
through the medium of the binary oppositions that show what Emerson truly values. So this
episode is going to be an exploration of Emerson's work through the lens of these binaries:
greatness vs. meanness, the aboriginal self vs society
and self-reliance vs. conformity. Greatness vs. Meanness
A good binary opposition to start with which really sets the scene is Emerson's
dichotomy between greatness and meanness - or to use Nietzsche's preferred term
mediocrity. What the great value of Self-Reliance is seeking to bring about is the state
of greatness. Emerson is concerned with the great people of history and he is
encouraging us loyal readers to rise to above the inertia of
mediocrity and to attain the levels of human greatness.
The kind of people he has in mind aren't just sages but statesmen, generals scientists
and mystics. There's Jesus and Socrates, Napoleon and Scipio, Pythagoras, Newton,
Emmanuel Swedenborg, Diogenes, Zoroaster Washington, and Caesar. These are all
great individuals who left an indelible mark on the world. It wasn't through the force of
pen or sword that they did so but through the force of character. They were all self-
reliant individuals who broke free from the gravity of society and were true to their
inner genius. Emerson calls us to rise to the heights that are possible of humanity and
to count ourselves among the greats rather than succumbing to the inertia of
mediocrity. Self vs Society
The second key binary opposition is between society and what Emerson calls the
aboriginal Self. This aboriginal self is the source of all genius,
it is the source of virtue and of life. This source Emerson tells us can be called Spontaneity,
Instinct or Intuition (after which "all later teachings are tuitions").
So self-reliance then isn't a reliance on a simple ego it's not about becoming selfish. On
the contrary Emerson tells us that the key trait of self-reliance is obedience and faith.
It is following the course of this inner wisdom. He writes that he "Who has more
obedience than I masters me, though he should not raise his finger."
This following the self then isn't about forcing our will on the world but it is to "allow a
passage to its beams." For those who have studied Jung, this immediately brings to
mind his conception of the Self - the centre of consciousness around which our ego is
to orbit and to be obedient to. Over against this noble oversoul is Society.
Society is Emerson's big demon in Self- Reliance. It's everything that the aboriginal
self is not. For all the lightness of the aboriginal self, society is the darkening
cheapening force in human life. "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."
Under the influence of society, we tow the line of the shoulds and should nots. We
become blinker-eyed members of "communities of opinion". Society tames the genius
of individuals who step out of line with what the mainstream says and greet the genius
with sour faces but Emerson tells us "the sour faces of the multitude, like their sweet
faces, have no deep cause, but are put on and off as the wind blows and a newspaper
directs." Under the influence of society all of
our virtues are impotent. The virtues of those allied to society are "penances" - it's not
something that bubbles up from within, it's not an expression of this soul or spirit but
something that is extorted, something done out of guilt.
This capitulation to society's demands "scatters your force" and we are left muddied
shadows of our selves. The Dead Past and the Eternal Present
Connected to this society/self opposition is the binary opposition between the present
and the past. The past is what society is loyal to.
It wants us to respect the status quo - the way things are, the way the Bible tells us,
or that the various authorities tell us. "But the man in the street, finding no worth
in himself which corresponds to the force which built a tower or
sculptured a marble god, feels poor when he looks on these. To him a palace, a statue,
or a costly book have an alien and forbidding air, much like a gay equipage,
and seem to say like that, "Who are you, Sir?""
But Emerson reminds us that they are nothing without us.
"they all are his, suitors for his notice, petitioners to his faculties that
they will come out and take possession. The picture waits for my verdict;
it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claims to praise."
This is what Emerson encourages most in us. It is being true to the voice of that
aboriginal self and that can only happen in the present because it is not only the
ancient authorities and the status quo that holds us in chains but it is our own past. In
one of the lines from the essay that has stuck with me throughout the years he says
that "A foolish consistency is the
hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you
think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow
thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day."
This encouragement towards truth and integrity ties in with the divine spirit that the
aboriginal self is tied up with. This spirit "shoves Jesus and Judas equally aside". The
great individual "belongs to no other time or place". The roses under his window
"no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they
are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is
simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence."
The truth is not something revealed millennia ago in the Bible or the Upanishads or
any other sacred text. The truth - the divine spirit - disdains time. It is always in the
present it is always here and now. The past is dead. The present
is where life always is: "This one fact the world hates;
that the soul becomes; for that forever degrades the past"
And so Emerson tells us to shun to words in the books, to shun the words of
authorities and to attune ourselves to this inner voice to what our heart tells us to do.
Following the course of this inner star you may appear inconsistent to those around
you. You may appear entirely inconsistent - today you are doing this and the next day
you are onto something else. But, in an image that has been lodged in my mind since I
first read Self-Reliance Emerson writes that:
"The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the
line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average
tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself and will explain your
other genuine actions." Self-Reliance vs Conformity
All of which brings us to the central opposition of the text: Self-Reliance vs
Conformity. Your conformity to Society's demands "explains nothing" "But do your
work, and I shall know you." In yet another story from Self-Reliance
that has stayed with me over the years, and one of my favourite from any book, Emerson
tells the story of a response he gave to an advisor of his who was trying to as he puts it
importune him 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.'"
Which he follows up with the kicker: "No law can be sacred to me but
that of my nature. 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." This is Self-Reliance in a nutshell. It is setting
aside what Society tells you to do. It is to put on a sour face if needs be and to above
all be true to your principles - to honour truth above all things, to esteem what is right
above the principles of those around you and to have "no law above truth's".
This is the way to genius. This is the way to greatness. It is to quieten the voices outside
of you-to disengage from those external voices and to tune in to the inner Muse, to
the aboriginal self, to the drumbeat of your own soul which may guide you hither and
thither but there is a purpose in all the wandering. As Tolkien wrote 'not all who
wander are lost'. In our modern civilised world Emerson
sees that we are "afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each
other." But the greats - the self-reliant individuals embrace "the rugged battle of fate,
where strength is born" and rather than dwelling on the past
they walk abreast with their days. And so Emerson tells us to go swim in the
"internal ocean" and stop going to society to "beg a cup of water."
In summary then Self-Reliance is a call for each of us to embrace our potential and to
live fearlessly in obedience to our highest and deepest nature. It's about setting aside
the voices of the masses and past and to start living according to truth.
It's an amazing essay that again I can't recommend reading enough. For now though
that's everything for this episode of the living philosophy. If you've enjoyed it please
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