Non-conformity in the age of 24-hour news media, talk radio and the internet? Unthinkable.
In seriousness, Self-Reliance is one of my favorite essays. Emerson was on to something there; something that has been lost today. People in our society are almost programed to think one way or another. Read some political threads and you'll see what I mean. When you can predict what the person's argument will be before the argument is made, we come to a point where everyone should read Emerson. What we are left with is not reason or free thought, but the mere caricature of those things.
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