Conformity and Fear in Self-Reliance :: Self Reliance Essays

 Conformity and Fear in Self-Reliance     The quote that most provoked legal opinion and emotion from within me comes from the hit Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. To be great is to be misunderstood was used by Emerson to explain the lagging growth of the conception of ideas and thoughts of his  generation. Original and novel ideas were detested by conservatives  who believed the best method for learning was by repetition and  memorization of proven classics written by previous generations.  The continuing timelessness of his quote is legato in effect today  as the scientific community has evolved to accept unaccustomed  theories, yet encounters difficulty when relating to the public new and extreme ideas that rebut the system.          In history, the results of individualism has been spread sphere wide. Important leaders, thinkers, and philosophers with radical  ideas in virgin areas of research were making significant finds  rapidly. Yet progress was slowed by short-sighted men who failed to see greatness.          Aberham Lincoln was a revolutionary in his time with his views on slavery and forgiveness of the South. Yet his death was the  result of one mans refusal to accept what was once a proud and  rich land reduced to tatters- left to ruin because of her failure  to accept civil reform.          Herman Melvilles work in Moby Dick was considered a classic,  yet Melville died a figure with lost prestige, poor and unaccepted. When he was laid to rest in 1891, he was remembered only as the  author of entertaining novels of the South Seas. It was not until   mid-twenties when his place in Americas foremost writers was assured. His works are now great masterpieces of emotion that were misunderstood while he was still alive.       &nb sp  Another important usage is democracy. In medieval times,  monarchies and kingdoms ruled the land. Today, the monarch is  merely a figurehead behind the power of democracy. At the birth of  the democratic rise of the United States of America, the colonists  were thought of as upstart fools- dreamers believing the  impossible. English royalists were aghast at the indignation of the colonies to separate from England and form their own country. In  present day, the United States is the sole world power, a great