Everyday in life people have to make choices between doing what is right and doing what is wrong. It would be nice if those choices were easy, but they often are not. People are stuck battling with themselves, and stuck battling with what others will think. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance," people intuitively understand the difference between right and wrong and society only prevents them from listening to their inner voice. Although Emerson feels this way, the true statement would be that people learn right and wrong because of society, and then they are left to make choices for themselves.
All over the world there are many kids that reside in crime infested neighborhoods. There are kids who hear their parents, and the other individuals in the community use profanity in everyday conversations. These kids do not intuitively know that it is wrong to use profanity. In fact, these kids go out into the broader areas of society, such as school, and use profanity themselves. Emerson's "Self Reliance" suggests that people intuitively know the difference between right and wrong, but these children actually support the contrary. Emerson says "No law can be sacred to me than that of my nature" (p. 1165), and the law of these kids nature teaches them that profane language is acceptable. People do not intuitively know right and wrong, but they are taught by what they see and hear indirectly through society, and what they are told directly from society.
Emerson's idea that society only prevents people from listening to their inner voice is incorrect. If anything, society begins at the earliest ages of kids lives telling them that it is fine to listen to that inner voice. After society teaches the child that there are actions that are right and that there are actions that are wrong, then society encourages them to use their better judgement between the two. When kids today make choices because it is what they saw the majority doing our society has sayings such as "if they jumped off of a bridge would you do it?" This very saying is to prevent the youth from making decisions on the sole basis of conformity, although Emerson says that " for non-conformity the world whips you with its displeasure" (p. 1167). The society that the kids live in actually encourages them to maintain high levels of individuality.
In conclusion people do not intuitively know the difference between right and wrong, but they are taught the difference. Society does not force upon the individual its ideals and tell he or she that conformity is a must. Society leaves the individual to make the choices he or she makes on their own, but society only hopes that the choice is made by the inner voice suggesting to do what is right. Emerson says that "no man can violate his nature" (p. 1168), but through the kids that have grown up in the midst of poverty and crime to be successful, law abiding citizens that belief is proven incorrect. Society takes one's natural inclination to do wrong and informs he or she what is right until the inclination becomes to do right.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 7th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2007. 1163-80.
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"After society teaches the child that there are actions that are right and that there are actions that are wrong, then society encourages them to use their better judgement between the two. "
ReplyDeleteI think part of what Emerson is saying is that, ultimately, a person is accountable to themselves before anyone or anything else. We prejudge our own actions, and many actions are put to death by that judgement. What a slaughterhouse a reserved person's mind is!
To some extent that restraint is neccessary; I think, as you've pointed out, that people are at least who they are because of where they find themselves. The question is what kind of lessons is society teaching? Will those lessons lead to greater harmony, greater industry, and greater happiness? Or does it teach lessons that lead our people, our nation, and our species down the well-paved road to extinction?
Who can answer such questions?