Society 

everywhere is in conspiracy
against the manhood (womanhood) of every one of its members.

Society is a joint-stock company,
in which the members agree,
for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder,
to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.

The virtue in most request is
conformity.
Self-reliance is its aversion.
It loves not reality, and creators,
but names and customs.

-excerpt Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson paragraph 6

---

I anticipate joining a small group of friends tonight at Starbucks to share responses to Self-Reliance, published in 1841 by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  I am eager to hear the ideas prompted by Emerson’s anthem in favor of self-definition.  Emerson holds forth the possibility of claiming one’s agency, to resist and to subvert the conformity that membership in society demands.

Is Emerson asking too much?  Is it possible to hold membership in society, and be a gadfly, to “follow one’s own star” at the same time?

---

Somehow I am inclined to view The Big Lebowsky film once again!  That’s the 1998 Joel and Ethan Coen film starring Jeff Bridges and John Goodman.  The plot asserts that life may be a shit storm yet: “the Dude abides.”

“I’m The Dude, So That’s What You Call Me. That Or, Uh His Dudeness, Or Uh Duder, Or El Duderino, If You’re Not Into The Whole Brevity Thing.”