What defines a man? What is it that we call “strength” or “superiority” or “advancement”?

In today’s culture it would surely be the one who is most successful in an area of work which has plenty of people competing against one other. The one who emerges victorious from this crowd is “successful”. And we say that “advancement” is the technological prowess we have which benefits society as a whole. The way we band together and collectively “move forward” as a species.

However, Ralph Waldo Emerson seems to disagree with these definitions. He postulates that being a conformist in a single group is the opposite of being a man! You must “absolve you to yourself” and preserve the “integrity of your mind” in order to be a true man, even if the world will not be pleased with you.

Now, while Emerson carries on this vein for a long while, I am most drawn to the end of his essay where he gives 4 examples towards a need for greater self-reliance. Firstly how prayer is simply calling out for foreign assistance due to a lack of individual will. This is a premise that I have always believed in, yet it is one which today’s society would scold you for saying aloud. His second and third point about traveling actually don’t speak to me that much, but his fourth point regarding societal advancement is what really captivated me.

“All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves. Society never advances.”

Yes! Finally the problem plaguing our society put into words! There is a pervasive notion in our culture that all we must do is help one another, and that by doing this society will spring forward. That by being fair and just to everyone and working on our “political correctness” and our “cultural interactions” will somehow make our world leap forward. But that is absurd! Society is not an entity in of itself! Society is the amalgamation of every individual that exists within it! Society as a whole will never spring forward unless each individual advances. It is not enough to build new devices and hope that our culture and tolerance will advance along with it. Nor is it enough for us to put boundaries on our society as a whole by limiting what can and cannot be said. Instead we must stop focusing on the concept of society as a whole, and we must first have individual advancement. Man must stop relying on personal “Property”, rather we must have self-reliance! For as Emerson says, “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”