Self Reliance

On several occasions i have heard people quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's article Self Reliance.  typically, when listening to the quotes taken from his essay i have have found myself agreeing and extremely intrigued with what Emerson had written and what his thoughts and opinions were.  initially i had assumed that Self Reliance was a political statement and expressed the importance of the citizen's responsibility to be "self reliant", free and independent of government.  this is a political belief that i hold to be true and of great importance, but as i took the time this week to sit down with Emerson and read through the article i found that it wasn't a political statement at all but a statement given to each individual to internalize and apply personally.  his writing is very thought provoking and i wanted to quote some of the parts that i think sum up his ideas the best.

       "Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what they thought.  A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of the light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.  yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.  in every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with certain alienated majesty.  great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this.  they teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when whole cry of voices is on the other side... Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.  accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.  great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being.  And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort and advancing on Chaos and the Dark."

i openly admit that i do not understand all that Emerson was trying to say, but it is obvious that he believed deeply in independent thinking and that each should express himself as his inner soul so desires.  i think he points out some great principles that have great personal application to them, but his ideas are also written with relativistic overtones that contradict objective/universal moral and LDS doctrinal truths (at least in my opinion).  although i don't agree with everything Emerson wrote here, i still think it's worth reading.