Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage.
I picked this quote by Ralph Waldo Emmerson because I feel like it is a focal point of his arguement. In these few words, Emmerson has called out man, saying that he is weak and no longer believes in himself. Rather than meditate on a subject and come up with a new view, man is content to 'quote some saint or sage,' aka an academ of the past.
Later in the paragraph Emmerson says that man needs to live in the present, not the past. Only then will he be able to advance.
As a side note, this essay reminded me of the Old Spice Commercial "I'm on a Horse." It just seemed like Emmerson jumped around topics just like the commercial does.
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That was a random connection to an old spice commercial, but it would make more sense if I knew which one you were talking about. I thought this quote relates to the essay as well. Man needs to gain more confidence in himself and then break away from society.
ReplyDeleteJoe, this message of a lack of self-confidence affecting our progression is the one I took away from the reading too. I found the quote about how a man dismisses his own ideas simply because they are his own--because he does not have faith in his own thoughts--which relates pretty closely to this one in that it points out how man does not stand behind his own ideas as readily as he might someone else's. As I'm assuming you did, I liked that Emerson pointed this out, and I agree with him that this issue is hindering advancement and originality.
ReplyDeleteOld Spice was strange, but I agree with that point completely. So much that most of my blog post on this matter deals with that. Otherwise, I liked Emerson's points. Man does need greater confidence in himself, which requires a greater amount of independence. However, Emerson seemed to make a characature of the argument, which made it hard for me to take the essay completely seriously.
ReplyDeleteOh Joe. I do know which old spice commercial you're talking about, and it's super bizarre so I think you related this well to that. I also agree with what you said here about how people would rather take past views and ideas instead of coming up with their own. Basically what it comes down to is that people are incredibly lazy.
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