" Once one considers less the social ramifications of his actions and considers more the personal consequences, he will become more apt to discover what he is looking for; in the transcendentalists" case, it was the meaning of life. Some may argue that the hole idea of self reliance is arrogant and conceded, or they may list people such as Hitler, Stalin, or even Osama Bin Laden as characters who are anything but innately good. Those people must remember that terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden are conforming to an entirely different society, one in which it is the norm to hate the United States. Villains such as Hitler and Stalin were acting for the approval and recognition of society because they were not comfortable with who they were, all great minds of our world have known who they were and have not been afraid to speak their minds.
Emerson states, "To be great is to be misunderstood," (Self Reliance, Waldo Emerson) along with a list of people who in their time were shunned for not conforming and for thinking differently, the list included; Socrates, Aristotle and Galileo to name a few. All of these men, who we now regard as genius, were once ostracized and dubbed outcasts by the society of their time. Nobody truly understood their brilliance because society was not allowing individuals to think outside the box, or perhaps people did understand them but found their outstanding intellect to be a threat to their own stance in society. Emerson states this to further illustrate his belief in the negativity of conformity. .
"I mean "the foolish face of praise," the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease, in answer to conversation which does not interest us." (Self Reliance, Waldo Emerson) This statement reflects the trite politeness and predictability of society. If one is engaged in boring and mundane conversation, he does not say so. Instead, the general rule is to politely continue the conversation until it is possible to exit.