The American Scholar

Emerson’s argument in “The American Scholar” about American society still holds true today.
One reason Emerson’s argument still holds true today is that the people in America are all doing their own thing and when we come together, we fail to understand other people’s opinions because we cannot see from their point of view. If we as a country had to make a decision on an important issue, we would never in a million years be able to agree on one way to go about it. A soldier and a priest may not see eye to eye. A farmer and a mechanic might not agree on anything. It proves that we cannot see from another point of view because we are not diverse in our skills. We see it from our own point of view and that’s it.
Emerson’s says “It is one of those fables which out of an unknown antiquity convey an unlooked for wisdom, that the gods, in the beginning, divided man into men, that he might be more helpful to himself; just as the hand was divided into fingers, the better to answer its end.” What I think of when I hear that makes me think that it’s a good thing to have some diversity and for there to be different jobs and what not but the fact that there is diversity should help us all come together and get different opinions and points of view. Similar to how a hand and its many fingers help it to grasp something, our different skills should help us grasp ideas and conclusions. But what’s happening is that people are so involved in their jobs and how it makes them who they are, they can’t see how other people feel and they don’t have the skills to be more than just the one thing. It prevents us from coming together and helping each other out with our diverse skills and being a stronger country.