Emerson Preaches Against Conformity And Consistency

Ralph Waldo Emerson is a critically acclaimed writer and has written numerous well-received works in his time. “Self-Reliance” is an essay that he wrote in 1841. The essay is about the dangers of conformity and being erroneously consistent. Emerson is a firm believer in the notion that being one’s own person and taking care of one’s self is the correct way to life one’s life. Emerson preaches against conformity and consistency in his essay “Self-Reliance,” and instead, instills the belief in his readers that individuality will make them much happier. In the end, Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” proves that conformity and consistency are major detriments to the generalized society; and that society should endeavor to adopt the ideals of individualism and of being self-reliant people. One of the many problems concerning conformity is that it leads people to distrust themselves. Emerson

In other words, he does not agree with people who remain consistent in a belief simply because they do not wish to go against something they once said, did, or believed. This is certainly quite evident when Emerson writes that, “the other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them” (554). Thus, Emerson shows his readers that untrue consistency, similar to conformity, causes people to not place trust in themselves, which can lead to profound unhappiness. In addition to this, Emerson also writes, “With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall” (554). Here, Emerson is stating that by being consistent with things that one no longer believes in, one regrettably stifles their very soul with boredom. Overall, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems concerning false