Modern Man’s Greatest Struggle

And the introduction of an important philosophy for our time.

“I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.” - John Muir

July 13, 1833, is perhaps the most important date in the history of American philosophy, for on that day, 30-year-old Ralph Waldo Emerson took his first steps into the grand Jardin des Plantes, a botanical and zoological garden in Paris. Emerson, breathing in the crisp morning air, examined the garden’s huge collection of flora and fauna, noting it as a peaceful oasis within the “loud, modern, New York of a place,” Paris. There he had an epiphany, writing in his journal:

“I feel the centipede in me,— cayman, carp, eagle, and fox. I am moved by strange sympathies; I say continually 'I will be a naturalist.'"

Emerson’s insight from this trip to the Jardin des Plantes was that nature is in us, a part of us, and not just in its beauty, but also in its ugliness and wildness. It was in the peace of these gardens that Emerson first formulated an entirely new, uniquely American philosophy: Transcendentalism.

Albert Bierstadt - Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley, circa 1872, at the peak of the American Transcendentalism movement in both literature and art.

Our Struggle: We must be ourselves—not someone else

Transcendentalism was birthed as a series of observations made by Emerson, who first noticed that everywhere he looked, people were leading lives that were based on tradition—that is, working some unfulfilling job and living a boring, but stable life. How limited people are by religious forms and social structures! No one could truly be themselves, thought Emerson, because they were all too busy being what they were supposed to be! 

“[Man] either wishes to do what other people do or he does what other people tell him to do”—Viktor Frankl

Emerson wanted to get rid of these burdens entirely—that is, the past, the future, organized religion, standardized schooling—so that each person could find out who they truly were, saying:

“History is an impertinence and an injury; Our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. And society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.”

Emerson, the

father of American literature and leader of Transcendalism in 19th century America.

But then how does one live? How does one truly find happiness? How does one find who he truly is? These are difficult questions, after all! Emerson’s solution lies in a simple two word phrase:

Trust Thyself

By trust thyself, Emerson does not tell us to simply give in to all of our deepest, darkest desires. No, no, no. Trusting thyself is, according to Emerson, embracing the fluidity of life; it is the rejection of extreme artifical consistency which religion and society has framed as “discipline”; it is the stubborn belief in one’s intuition over anything else. Life is the most unpredictable, gnarly river in existence; it goes this way then that way, fast then slow, up then down, so why force it to be rigid and structured? That is not how rivers work, and in the end, nature trumps everything.

To me, it seems that we pursue rigidity, even if we deny it, for the sake of false comfort and a feeling of safety, because if we were to escape the philosophical barriers that we are trapped in, we would have to deal with the internal conflict between what we have known for our whole lives and something that is new, unknown, and threatening. This leads to confusion and sometimes, despair.

The consequences of not ridding ourselves of these societal limitations, however, are even more frightening. Even when given the choice, we choose to anchor ourselves to the philosophies of our forefathers, of our parents, of our society because we are scared. We conform to the expectations that have been set in place for us, and thus we end up unsure, lost, and in the exact same dilemma we would have experienced if we were to just follow our real dreams in the first place! 

In other words, instead of pursuing our individuality and manifesting our unique beauty, we lose sight of ourselves and pursue what others wish for us, whether directly through family or indirectly through the promise of money or fame. And then, after following through with this expectation, we realize how foolish we were to do so, and back to the drawing board we go.

The Transcendental Solution

The second part of trust thyself is an acceptance of our true place in the world. And, according to Emerson, that lies in the sublime—an experience that surpasses all logic and rationality; an experience that is so spiritual and powerful that we have no choice but to realize that we, as man, do not look at nature; nature is man looking back on itself.

On a walk in his neighborhood, Emerson experienced the sublime, passionately stating:

“Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”

The transparent eyeball that Emerson describes in his seminal Transcendental work, Nature.

We must all strive to experience this kind of enlightenment, if you will, to not only appreciate the beauty and wildness of nature, but to truly understand that we are indeed simply a product of a vast and powerful nature that will eventually consume us again to make way for the new. This realization urges us to do what we want even if it is scary and the outcome is uncertain.

The Practical Antidote

If confusion and doubt are inevitable, why not choose the path that speaks to you first, rather than settling for someone else’s vision for you? Why spend years climbing a ladder only to realize it was leaning against the completely wrong wall?

Ask yourself, dear reader, by whose standards is it considered “prestigious” and “worth pursuing”? If those standards are not wholeheartedly yours, then why waste your life pursuing someone else’s dream for you? It is your life, not your parents’, not the government’s, and definitely not society’s.

The world does not need another person blindly following convention, and it will show this to you through a boring, stable, uneventful job and life; it needs individuals who are willing to trust themselves, to follow their own paths, and to embrace the wild, uncertain beauty of life. If this means majoring in the history of Mesopotamia, then by all means, go for it.

I urge everyone, and myself especially, to follow what excites you, what moves you, what feels right. Remember: Trust thyself.