ByWillAtkinson.com

When Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed the Phi Beta Kappa society in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he gave a fire and brimstone sermon on the languid nature of American academia. He assailed the reliance on England, the non-rebelliousness of thought, the notion of a scholar, and the excuses made by academics.

So what if America is a burgeoning fresh economy, thought Emerson. America has a beautiful, immense “howling wilderness” waiting to be mined for thought and stories. Faulkner would later expound upon Emerson’s idea by declaring there is no past since it is evidenced in the present. Emerson believed American scholars need to stop the petulant bemoaning of England’s enviously rich history and background.

Emerson attacked the strict, rigid life an academic was perceived to lead. He urged academics to get out! It was his belief that one cannot write about the world without being in it.

He went on to attack the academic worship of books, the bibliophiles. Books contain excellent ideas that were once revolutionary but are tools, he said.

Emerson also called for American scholars to be self-reliant. Some have incorrectly interpreted this as contradictory to his urge to scholars to be part of the world. In actuality, Emerson is urging academics not to rely on the ideas of others, to be original in thought. Every age is revolutionary and it serves no purpose to rest upon the dusty laurels of yesteryear, thought Emerson.

Flinging aside my Emersonian self-reliance, Emerson’s advice can be applied to modern academia, albeit with several caveats. It would always serve academic life to initiate revolutionary new truth. This seems self-evident. With the extreme compartmentalization of the technological era, it would be supremely beneficial for academics to be versed in a variety of disciplines. This was originally the aim of a liberal arts education. With CLEP tests, high school AP credit, and other means of receiving college credit, this “Renaissance Man” aim has been highly diluted. Even doctors and physicians might discover something by being more worldly.

Although college students are coddled more than ever, a regrettable capitalistic tinge has crept into American education. We don’t learn for learning’s sake but for salaries that will bring future university endowments and Thoreau to turn in his grave. Higher education has become rigid and shallow. Emerson would cry for revolution.