On Sun, 11 Sep 2005, Carl Remick wrote:
> I believe he is merely advising people to occasionally
> try to shut out the destructive, distracting noise of civilization --
> notably, especially today, all the advertising and PR that describe selfish
> materialism as the natural state of human interaction. He's saying, look
> within yourself -- what is it that you *really* want?
That's exactly my point: this is the essential question that people must ask in a capitalist society--"what do I really want?" For some of us, it's a Miata, for others, a Gang of 4 CD, for others, Emerson's collected works, for others, the aspirations you and Emerson share. However, the positioning of individual wants and needs at the core of any worldview is not universal: making a decision based on "what I really want" is not necessary in social life. One good example of this is arranged marriages. For thousands of years, some societies have treated marriage as a family obligation, not a personal choice based on what "I really want". The Emersonian focus on the self and what I as an individual truly want is more or less irrelevant in these more collectivist societies.
So why this common rhetoric about self-reliance, deep reflection about "what I want", and independence in our society? Those qualities are absolutely crucial to the survival of a capitalist society. (Thought experiment: consider the disasterous economic effects of people not reflecting or acting on their individual wants and needs in a capitalist society!) Moreover, Emerson-style personal reflection is not necessary to get to your conclusion that we could structure society to distribute resources more effectively so that everyone could live rich and varied lives. We can get there much more simply by stating "everybody's life matters, we're all in this together". And again, thousands of years of human culture have demonstrated that you don't need to think like Emerson to come to that conclusion.
Miles