Been there, discussed that. Emerson's supposed complacence and indifference to the poor came up on the list 12/15/01, at which time I posted: "Emerson ... thought that no meaningful social revolution could occur without a change in the consciousness of individuals. He was revulsed by the urban poverty he saw in England during an 1847-48 visit -- e.g., 'beggary is only the beginning and the sign of sorrow and evil here' -- but he was dubious about the revolutionary ferment he saw in London in 1848: 'People here expect a revolution. There will be no revolution, none that deserves to be called so. There may be a scramble for money. But as all the people we see want the things we now have, and not better things, it is very certain that they will, under whatever change of forms, keep the old system. When I see changed men, I shall look for a changed world. Whoever is skilful in heaping money now will be skilful in heaping money again.'"
Emerson was much aware that the individual human being was frail and subject to all sorts of cruel vicissitudes. As he says in his essay "Fate": "Our America has a bad name for superficialness. Great men, great nations, have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it. ... Nature is no sentimentalist, -- does not cosset or pamper us. We must see that the world is rough and surly, and will not mind drowning a man or woman, but swallows your ship like a grain of dust. ... The habit of snake and spider, the snap of the tiger and other leapers and bloody jumpers, the crackle of the bones of his prey in the coil of the anaconda, -- these are in the system, and our habits are like theirs."
Carl
"People hate me because I am a multifaceted, talented, wealthy, internationally famous genius."
-- Jerry Lewis
"I've had great success being a total idiot."
-- Jerry Lewis