“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of ever one of its members.”
I agree with this quote the most. Society infects the individualism of each person within the society. If we all followed our own truths and entirely expressed those truths, society would be entirely different from what we know it as. I think that Emerson believes that if we all followed our own truths, that we would all be happy and agree because we are all connected through our Universal Soul. This, I disagree with. I believe that we all have different truths, which is why we have wars, disagreements, religions, political parties, and judges to decided what the punishments should be for different circumstances. We all have different morals. However, I think this is good that we are all different but only to some extent. If we did all have the same truths, then everything would be so boring. In everybody’s mind there would be that same good people who followed the Universal Truth and the same bad people who didn’t, but when the truths get so far apart, or not everybody can keep up to living with the truths, then this is when society becomes so diverted from the original truths. A lot of people believe in some of the same truths as other people, but just do not follow them because it is too hard when they believe that society will judge them, which they might, but the people Emerson admires, are those who state their truths even if it seems everyone will reject them. Just as Emerson spoke about friendships, it seems that the people who are the nicest and make the best friends are those who are sweet to everyone to their face and make them feel good for the time being, but those are the worst friends in reality. The best friends are the ones who will be blunt and tell the truth about everything even if it hurtful. Those types of friends are usually not seen as best friends in society, but instead rude, selfish and not caring about the feelings of others. People fear gaining those reputations, so instead they become fake, lying, people-pleasers that don’t care if what they are saying is true and helpful or not, but instead how they are portrayed in society. That is the part where differences in truths can turn into a misleading society, which becomes infectious to each individual. I do agree with Emerson about society causing everyone to not speak as they really are, and although society might disagree with what they have to say, the ones who speak their truth will be at peace with themselves and the burden of society will not matter.
