FREE WILL | INDIVIDUALITY
“To Be Yourself…”
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’ve written frequently about free will and individuality here. Emerson was an American thinker who took on them as well, along with self-reliance.
Can we really be ourselves when we constantly interact with others? When every word we exchange is a little piece of mutual influence?
How much of our worldview is our own and how much derived from others? Unless someone lived completely off the grid, like Emerson’s friend Thoreau did for two years, does ‘our own’ have meaning?
I suppose Emerson considered it “the greatest accomplishment” due to questions like that. What do you think? How much of you is you?