To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all man - that is genius.
This essay is the quintessential statement in support of the individual and the individual's right (and obligation) to think for themselves and to question everything. Emerson holds that you must never give in to the easy momentum of the status quo just because it is pulling you along. Rather you must investigate the world around you, take in the evidence of your senses and experience and use your own powers of reason to determine the correct path your life should follow.
To imitate is to see something and decide you would rather model that you see than value your own self. It is born out of a painful uncertainty and lack of trust in yourself. It is self-immolating. It is you telling yourself “I have seen better than you can ever create, don’t bother.”
There is a lot to be said of originality, i think most people, myself included oftentimes discard intuition and the innate thought. Emerson puts it simply, “Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his”. Of self-doubt he says, “Men are clapped into jail by his consciousness. Internal voices grow faint as we enter the world.” We are taught, unfortunately, at a very young age to tread lightly on others’ egos and we begin the process of losing our intuition and individuality to conform with expectations.
Contradiction is okay. It seems to be a rule to never rely on your memory alone but to bring the past for judgement into the present and live ever in a new day. In other words, if you always try to be consistent, you will block that new creation that is trying to come out of you.
Self-Reliance is an attack on the ego. Spontaneity, instinct, and intuition are the essence of genius. Your mind has to have transcended to a place where you can identify and separate your ego in the everyday interaction among others, and still live, love and work among those who are not in the same mind space as you. The ego serves to protect those most vulnerable parts of our soul, as we interact with each other, but it also, if allowed, will combat our intuition and instinct. And we give it too much space, yes, so like a blanket it covers everything. It has its uses and needs to be used wisely, like any tool.
In short, it is an anthem to the individual and a battle cry to everyone to think for themselves. That doesn’t mean it is necessarily wrong, or right, it is a means to work as a team, as a collective for the good of the whole. Individuality has to be denied in circumstances that demand a collaborative effort. However, it has become the norm to the point we become like sheep and forget who we are.
The balance is the acceptance and love of our peers and yet being true to yourself through that journey of developing your intuition and instinct. Unless you become a hermit and continue alone, it is a journey for the everyday.