Emersonian thought

So on Thursday I woke up reluctantly at 7:20 to walk over to the doctors office. My ear problems have not subsided, and once again I had to walk the mile to the doctors office. I ended up talking about the pain in my wrists, and through x-rays, confirmed I have tendinitis in both arms.... hurray for potentially career ending injuries!

I missed my morning classes because of the waiting, but in exchange I was able to read through several of Emerson's essays, especially enjoyable was his perception of politics and law. A more timeless, pragmatic, universal approach to understanding our system. I thought that our time and our circumstances are our own, that the challenges against corruption and unmotivated politicians was a condition unknown to our country. But nothing is new. The mindset is the same as it was 150 years ago, the young idealists pitting a shitfit of discontent against the more jaded deaf older rulers. We are self perpetuating our own tragedy. So great a body of people, with a few small issues that threaten us at any moment to ruin the work of 10 generations.
Emerson is not known for his confounding wisdom, but by his ability to assimilate so many different opinions, philosophy, emotion and to thus build a world of perspective unimaginable by most. While certainly i cannot agree with all that he says, his works shine light into my life, showing a better way to walk and to perceive.

and so in this time of political transition, globalization of economies and religion and culture, here are some words from the past, not so different from what our own scholars may soon observe.

"...The state must follow, and not lead the character and progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they only who build on Ideas, build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that the form of government which prevails is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits it. "

"..That truly the only interest for the consideration of the State is persons; that property will always follow persons; that the highest end of government is the culture of men; and if men can be educated the institutions will share their improvement, and the moral sentiment will write the law of the land"

"Democracy is better for us because the religious sentiment of the present time accords better with it. Born democrats, WE ARE NOWISE QUALIFIED TO JUDGE OF MONARCHY, WHICH TO OUR FATHERS LIVING IN THE MONARCHICAL IDEA, WAS ALSO RELATIVELY RIGHT.... Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well. What satire on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed in the word politic, which now for ages has signified cunning, intimating that the State is a trick? "

"The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness. On the other side, the conservative party ( and i like this part too much), composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no generous policy, it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science, nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant. From neither party, when in power, has the world any benefit to expect in science, art or humanity at all commensurate with the resources of the nation. "

"Wild liberty develops iron conscience. Want of liberty, by strengthening law and decorum, stupefies conscience."

"We are haunted by a conscience of this right to grandeur of character, and are false to it....We do penance as we go."

"Surely nobody would be a charlatan who could afford to be sincere."

"the power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried."

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Reading from over a century past of all the fervor to eradicate corrupt power, to provide a more stable government, assures me that all those spending time ringing hells bells against a certain party and its leaders, do so because they are ineffective themselves to cause any change.
I rest easier understanding that these problems we face today are only reincarnations of past mistakes, complicated by weak minded and ill will personality.

Emerson understood well the power of a strong individual to impact every facet of his existence, and that as a whole mankind must work towards bringing that out in every individual. His works I suppose only scratch the surface of his understanding of mankind, as individual, as whole, both future and past.

"I can do that by another which I cannot do alone. I can say to you what I cannot first say to myself. Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds"