What Can We Learn from Emerson?

Many of us have come across this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, but have we really thought about it? I hadn’t until just now.

I’ll admit that I have a lower opinion of the world and the people living on it than I did a decade ago, and I’m now compelled to wonder what that says about me.

Actually, it’s hard to know if I’m becoming more cynical, or if the world is simply becoming more disappointing.

Most people feel a deep sadness about a population in which a tiny number of people have far more money than they could possibly spend in a thousand lifetimes, when so much of the rest of the world suffers in hunger, in disease and impoverishment.

Moreover, the entire planet is becoming uninhabitable due to our indifference. The United States, with its handful of multi-billionaires, is in a position to arrest the implosion of the environment.  But what do the top 0.001% choose to do?  Donate uncountable fortunes so that Donald Trump, clearly a criminal sociopath, can rule this country–and as much of the rest of the world as possible.  Some of them become ambassadors to France.  Others run the Pentagon.

Again, I don’t doubt that all this says something about me.  As I age my energy level is starting to flag, and so is my spirit to awaken my fellows to fight against what just may be the inevitable.