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freedom
November 2008 
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posted on Dec 29th, 2006
by 
Vivek
Vivek
There is a passage from Ralph Waldo Emerson that I have been pondering lately:
"I will not live out of me
I will not see with others eyes
My good is good, my evil ill
I would be free - I cannot be
While I take things as others please to rate them
I dare attempt to lay out my own road
That which myself delights in shall be Good
That which I do not want -indifferent,
That which I hate is Bad."
Is this the way to live? I believe quite strongly that we must forge our own path in this life.
But how far should this be taken? At what point does being your own individual turn toward arrogance? At what point does it turn into indifference to the needs and suffering of others? Harold Bloom in Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? claimed that Emerson in many ways defined the philosophical outlook we now associate with America... I do find in Emersons' works much of what I love about America and what troubles me about America.
At the same time if we do not see with our own eyes, who's eyes are we to see with? How do we temper our desire for freedom and individualism with compassion and humility?
"I will not live out of me
I will not see with others eyes
My good is good, my evil ill
I would be free - I cannot be
While I take things as others please to rate them
I dare attempt to lay out my own road
That which myself delights in shall be Good
That which I do not want -indifferent,
That which I hate is Bad."
Is this the way to live? I believe quite strongly that we must forge our own path in this life.
But how far should this be taken? At what point does being your own individual turn toward arrogance? At what point does it turn into indifference to the needs and suffering of others? Harold Bloom in Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? claimed that Emerson in many ways defined the philosophical outlook we now associate with America... I do find in Emersons' works much of what I love about America and what troubles me about America.
At the same time if we do not see with our own eyes, who's eyes are we to see with? How do we temper our desire for freedom and individualism with compassion and humility?
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