No one embodies the ethos of Americanism better than Ralph Waldo Emerson. The title of the lead essay makes it plain: “Self-Reliance!” Independence! Make something of yourself and don’t rely one anyone else’s beliefs or ideas to do it!

Of course, in reading this as a Christian, his fundamental belief is anathema. We are created by the divine community of Father, Son, and Spirit for a communal existence with God and with each other. Lines like this made me cringe:

As men’s prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect. (24)

Emerson would have us cast off our attachments to everyone else, and recognize our own selves as the chief authority. This proto-existentialist dream crumbles under the criticism of Bordieu and MacIntyre, to name a few. We can never simply extract ourselves from our social environment and relations—nor should we!

With that fundamental criticism out of the way, there is much to admire in Emerson. At times he’s simply inspiring.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. … His note-books impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance-office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost be refinement some energy, by a Christianity intrenched in establishments and forms, some vigor of wild virtue. For every Stoic was a Stoic; But in Christendom where is the Christian? (28)

This indictment of the damaging side-effects of technology was written in 1841. What prescient words! His critique of Christendom (even if his Deism is an equally poor substitute) anticipates Kierkegaard’s searing critique of the institutionalized church.

This collection included other essays: “Love,” “Friendship,” “Circles,” and “Gifts.” None of these approach the significance of “Self-Reliance,” however. If you’re interested in understanding the myth of the self-made-man, this work is essential.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self-Reliance and Other Essays. Barnes & Noble, 1995.