Emerson's Transcendentalist Compromise
Emerson's Transcendentalist Compromise
Within the Western liberal tradition, the most frequent way of moderating excessive bearings of national law has been to beef up individualism. Liberal ideology has been said to originate from a celebration of laissez-faire government, stressing the right of the individual, including what he says and what he owns, to be free of outside, governmental interference. Emerson, in this view, is most often read as a laissez-faire individualist, and radical individualism is usually thought to be his distinctive contribution to American culture. According to his personal doctrine of rejecting the authority of “society” or “custom” and lauding the superior merits of self-reliance, truth and power depend on adhering to one’s own instincts first, making sure those governed must be able to accept outside legislation. From this theory one can infer that Emerson does not reject submission to American governance as a limit of personal liberty, but instead allows for it as long as reliance on the self is not compromised.
Liberal tensions are extremely apparent in contemporary American society, as established political institutions commit themselves to large state programs while keeping a hand private interests’ teakettle, making sure one does not boil over into the other. However, Americans believe in the traditional democratic value of a rapport between the individual and the community, or, in this case, the individual and the government; despite problems that shake citzens’ trust in our legislative bodies, Americans still expect the government to provide for them while maintaining a great deal of slack on connective puppet strings. Essentially, Emerson believes the liberal balance of individualism and Western democracy will function properly only if both exist in equilibrium; American government must guarantee the right of the person is greater than the right of the state to insure voluntary submission to the state. However, Emerson does not repudiate democracy in favor of radical individualism (as is often suggested), and his viewpoints and opinions of the aforementioned theory are often crisscrossed and contradictory. Emerson’s detailed descriptions of self-reliance contain several anomalies; he repeatedly states the necessity of personal emancipation and exploration of one’s own uniqueness – revolutionary statements normally associated with his mode of thought. However, he immediately pulls a 180-degree turn and redefines individual freedom in terms of a give-and-take relationship with the governing body. For example, in “Self-Reliance,” his transcendentalist prototype, Emerson begins the third paragraph...