The American Scholar
Danny Brumar
Emerson’s argument still holds true in today’s society.
The main reason Emerson’s argument is still true, is because when people in the U.S lose their jobs, they are not being able to do anything else, because they don’t know how to do anything else. In the American Scholar, Emerson talks about people doing only one thing, like being a farmer, mechanic etc. But he says that in order to be truly happy, and be Man Thinking or American Scholar, to which he refers to, you need to know how to do more than one thing, and focus on more than one sole purpose, which he says, is money. Imagine you are working in a factory that you have worked in since you were out of high school. You never went to college but you’re making pretty good money. One day the factory announces that there are budget cuts, and next thing you know, you are out of a job. You don’t know how to do anything else, because you’ve been working in the factory all of your life. This is the reality for many Detroiters in today’s economy. They have worked in Ford, Chrysler, or GM factories on the line for almost there whole life, and when the economy turned bad, they were out of a job.