Self Reliance

I personally believe that Emerson is not considering the whole picture when he says "The centuries are conspirators against the sanity of the soul." In other words, "Emerson is claiming that history should be considered the enemy of the idealistic self-relying person. One must always consider failures and successes of the past in order to make informed decisions about the future.

As we suffer from an enormous economic depression, we must realize that it could have been either avoided of decreased in magnitude by preventing the wildly high amounts of speculation and the unregulated amount of credit. We, as a nation, should have realized that these factors have caused almost every economic depression in American history in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially in 1929. However, learning from history is not just beneficial in economics. After World War I, France, Europe, and the US failed to consider the benefits of bargaining for a conciliatory peace with Germany, in disagreement with the diplomatic approach that the victorious countries in the Napoleonic Wars had taken towards defeated France. Due to the victorious powers' ignorance, an angered Germany was guided towards hostility in the form of another world war. The ignorance in history has led to social disasters, including numerous genocides in Darfur, Cambodia, Uganda, Rwanda, and Bosnia since the Holocaust. From the perspective of a national leader, history has consistently proven to be a helpful advisor, not a conspirator, that has been ignored too often. The "soul" of a country can only be helped by remembering past centuries.

On a personal level, Emerson's point still has many flaws. A person should not forget the bad relationships that they have had with someone. After failing in an endeavor, including an attempt to get a job, one should not forget about the event, as they probably will not succeed in attaining employment if they try again with the exact same application and resume as before. A potential employee should first think about the parts of his or her application that he or she can improve from the past and only then submit it to another company. A person should not only learn from his or her own history, but should also learn from the perspective of other people. Without considering the perspective of interest groups, socioeconomic classes, or historical figures who do not agree with a person, that person cannot formulate a well informed decision that will support his or her goals. Therefore, ignorance in past centuries on a personal level can lead to disastrous personal consequences.

There are times, however, when Emerson is correct to imply that the ideal representative of transcendentalism should not dwell on the past. Focusing on one's failures can lead to a leak of confidence in oneself, which leads to a lack determination and can ruin one's prospects in life. On the contrary, it is also inadvisable to think solely about successes in one's past. One should apply the happiness that they receive from a victory to success in another endeavor. Time that is used to dwell on either successes or failures can lead to distraction from "authority of the soul." In this sense, Emerson is justified in stating that a person's past can damage one's work ethic and therefore one's self-efficiency and self-reliance.

Although Emerson does have some validity with his statement, I disagree with the notion that history or one's past can be an enemy to personal development.