bradsaptblog

My favorite piece of this writing by Emerson is as follows:

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something is taken. Society aquires new arts, and loses old instincts. What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat, and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under! But compare the health of the two men, and you shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength. If the traveller tell us truly, strike the savage with a broad axe, and in a day or two the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch, and the same blow shall send the white to his grave.

Ive never really looked at society through a zero-sum lens. I have always thought that we advance as a people, without having to give something back. Im not sure I agree with Emerson here, but his argument is certainly intriging. I also like this essay as a whole. The idea of self-reliance is one that I completely believe in. When he says, "Insist on yourself, never imitate," I take those words to heart, and If more people thought like that, especially today, I believe we wouldnt have such an image problem in our culture. That entire paragraph was very well written and very uplifting in my opinion.

Finally, I like the fact that Emerson uses God in this essay. I understand that he was a religious man, and he uses our Creator throughout his works, but I believe it is especially special on this level because of the emphasis on the individual. This is one of his best writing.

-Brad