Emerson's Impersonality & Why I Dislike It
Apr. 9th, 2007 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaI've spoken time and again about the concept of impersonality in R. W. Emerson's writings to my professor, who finds the concept fascinating, and he has tried time and again to impress on us the importance of impersonality, coupled with the risks of getting too involved. Essentially, the key of impersonality is to become so selfless that the self can encompass anything - everything can be appreciated and loved equally because it all has inherent goodness.
There're, of course, several points where this simply is incommensurable - if you want to be impersonal, then how alive are you? The contemplative life has always been comparable to death - a state of complete stillness to comprehend the cosmos. It's an extremely Buddhistic concept, which I never reconciled myself with.
I don't believe the concept of impersonality helps make a person become a human being - if anything, it lends itself to the concepts of post-humanism with its question of "what is human? Can we be completely impersonal and still be human?" My simple answer is no. Human nature likes to find out about things, it likes to change things in its environment, it likes to experiment, and it doesn't just "let things be", because if we did that, we wouldn't really be any much different than animals.
Impersonality, I believe, also leads to the huge post-modern problem of alienation. We see this all the time, especially with the burgeoning technological advances we make. We don't have to go to the bank and see a real bank teller anymore, because we can do it online. We don't babysit our own kids, we make them sit in front of the television. We don't go out and make friends, we make them online.
Don't get me wrong, the Internet is wonderful. It helped me grow up as a person because I met so many types of people that I never would have met otherwise. But for some, it becomes a dependency because they become too afraid to go out and see who's in their immediate vicinity, and partake of emotional bonds safely behind a screen. (This doesn't include people who become very emotionally bonded to their online friends.) But do we really partake of life if we remain faceless beings behind a screen?
That, in itself, is a form of impersonality - we don't necessarily participate in other people's lives, we just sit back and observe. We oftimes don't pass judgement, because we're not there.
Simply put, impersonality can lead to alienation, a highly uncomfortable human state. There're people who achieve impersonality and are perfectly content with it (I won't say happy, because the word "happy" implies a certain extreme). They're content to just sit back and do nothing, and let the world unfold itself. But I don't think, for most part, that all humans are capable of this.
Alienation is a problem of mine and I know a lot of other people share this too. That is why, I think, it's a dangerous thing to tout impersonality as a good thing. So here's a song that depicts my sense of alienation - David Bowie's Space Oddity.
Ground control to Major Tom
Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown, engines on
Check ignition and may God's love be with you
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five,
Four, three, two, one, liftoff
This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell me wife I love her very much, she knows
Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you....
Here am I floating round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do.
There're, of course, several points where this simply is incommensurable - if you want to be impersonal, then how alive are you? The contemplative life has always been comparable to death - a state of complete stillness to comprehend the cosmos. It's an extremely Buddhistic concept, which I never reconciled myself with.
I don't believe the concept of impersonality helps make a person become a human being - if anything, it lends itself to the concepts of post-humanism with its question of "what is human? Can we be completely impersonal and still be human?" My simple answer is no. Human nature likes to find out about things, it likes to change things in its environment, it likes to experiment, and it doesn't just "let things be", because if we did that, we wouldn't really be any much different than animals.
Impersonality, I believe, also leads to the huge post-modern problem of alienation. We see this all the time, especially with the burgeoning technological advances we make. We don't have to go to the bank and see a real bank teller anymore, because we can do it online. We don't babysit our own kids, we make them sit in front of the television. We don't go out and make friends, we make them online.
Don't get me wrong, the Internet is wonderful. It helped me grow up as a person because I met so many types of people that I never would have met otherwise. But for some, it becomes a dependency because they become too afraid to go out and see who's in their immediate vicinity, and partake of emotional bonds safely behind a screen. (This doesn't include people who become very emotionally bonded to their online friends.) But do we really partake of life if we remain faceless beings behind a screen?
That, in itself, is a form of impersonality - we don't necessarily participate in other people's lives, we just sit back and observe. We oftimes don't pass judgement, because we're not there.
Simply put, impersonality can lead to alienation, a highly uncomfortable human state. There're people who achieve impersonality and are perfectly content with it (I won't say happy, because the word "happy" implies a certain extreme). They're content to just sit back and do nothing, and let the world unfold itself. But I don't think, for most part, that all humans are capable of this.
Alienation is a problem of mine and I know a lot of other people share this too. That is why, I think, it's a dangerous thing to tout impersonality as a good thing. So here's a song that depicts my sense of alienation - David Bowie's Space Oddity.
Ground control to Major Tom
Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown, engines on
Check ignition and may God's love be with you
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five,
Four, three, two, one, liftoff
This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell me wife I love her very much, she knows
Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you....
Here am I floating round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do.