3005WSP09

Self reliance by Emerson would have been an interesting starting point for the self help movement. He loads a bunch of meaningful advice on the reader, the most important I feel is that people should be unique and be non-conformists. The non-conformist advice pretty much insures that very few self-help authors have ever taken it. Every self help book whether it is for dieting or relationships has steps. These steps get you from point A to point B and so on. You have to complete a step in the process in order to learn the next part of the process. There is little room for free thought. Self help allows you to have break throughs, but they are preprogrammed into the text. The ideas you are coming up with are anticipated not original. Emerson wanted people to think about the world in ways that other people didn’t. The exchange of these ideas would lead to more ideas. It was important to him that people shared what they were thinking. To remain silent was to deprive the rest of the world an idea. An idea that could lead you or someone else into greatness and advance the society as a whole.