trust thyself.
"it is harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. it is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who is in the midst of the crowd who keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
in today's world, we feel that we must conform to the thoughts of others. we let other people make extreme decisions in our life that might in fact not be the ones that we would have made had we been thinking for ourselves. we seem to have no problem whatsoever living for ourselves when we are alone, though. in solitude, we will listen to the types of music we want, watch the movies we want, and talk to the people we want. however, once back into the world with lack of solitude, we conform to the popular music, the popular movies, and the popular people. the difference between two people in solitude and two people in the world can very well be the difference between a great friendship and straight up backstabbing. for example, in the movie a walk to remember, mandy moore's character is rather unpopular. shane west's character is the hot shot of the town, and always takes every chance to put down moore's character while around his friends. moore and west are friends in private (or solitude), as she helps him learn his lines for the spring play, a consequence for his reckless behavior prom night. when moore approaches him at school, however, he acts disgusted and completely shies her away. in the world's view, these two characters should not be friends, and for that reason, west declines her public offer of friendship, and in the next scene, loses a friend. if we can not learn to think for ourselves while outside of our desired solitude, we will grow into mindless drones who, at some point, won't be able to come back.
"for unconformity the world whips you with its displeasure."
this is as simple as it gets: if you fail to conform with the world and it's requirements, you WILL be shunned. moreover, you will be looked down upon with distaste and disgust. simply, you must conform if you wish to get anywhere in your life.. according to emerson at least.
"they measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is."
the measure of a man is not by his personality or characteristics. the measure of a man is by his salary or wealth. his actions towards another man aren't accounted for. only the size of his checkbook and the number of zeros in his salary matter.
in today's world, we feel that we must conform to the thoughts of others. we let other people make extreme decisions in our life that might in fact not be the ones that we would have made had we been thinking for ourselves. we seem to have no problem whatsoever living for ourselves when we are alone, though. in solitude, we will listen to the types of music we want, watch the movies we want, and talk to the people we want. however, once back into the world with lack of solitude, we conform to the popular music, the popular movies, and the popular people. the difference between two people in solitude and two people in the world can very well be the difference between a great friendship and straight up backstabbing. for example, in the movie a walk to remember, mandy moore's character is rather unpopular. shane west's character is the hot shot of the town, and always takes every chance to put down moore's character while around his friends. moore and west are friends in private (or solitude), as she helps him learn his lines for the spring play, a consequence for his reckless behavior prom night. when moore approaches him at school, however, he acts disgusted and completely shies her away. in the world's view, these two characters should not be friends, and for that reason, west declines her public offer of friendship, and in the next scene, loses a friend. if we can not learn to think for ourselves while outside of our desired solitude, we will grow into mindless drones who, at some point, won't be able to come back.
"for unconformity the world whips you with its displeasure."
this is as simple as it gets: if you fail to conform with the world and it's requirements, you WILL be shunned. moreover, you will be looked down upon with distaste and disgust. simply, you must conform if you wish to get anywhere in your life.. according to emerson at least.
"they measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is."
the measure of a man is not by his personality or characteristics. the measure of a man is by his salary or wealth. his actions towards another man aren't accounted for. only the size of his checkbook and the number of zeros in his salary matter.
posted by Katie @ 9:44 AM
1 Comments:
First quote/reaction:
It's interesting how, in solitude, our preferences come so easily--which music we listen to, which television we watch, which books we read--but when others' preferences are a factor, we become strangers to ourselves.
Second quote/rection:
The world whips us for our non-conformity, yes, but is that always a bad thing?
Good post, Katie.
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