The Inconsistent Iron String

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do" (Ralph Waldo Emerson from Self-Reliance).

In class we discussed the problem of Emerson's self-contradictory writing style. He seems always to be at odds with himself, never at once coming to a full conclusion but at the same time asserting himself with a self-righteous attitude that his writing is the truth. At one time good and bad "are but names very readily transferable to that or this" (Self-Reliance), and at another he speaks of "obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark" (Self-Reliance). It is not quite certain what he means by "the Almighty effort", but his language very clearly represents an idea that there is Dark that must be fought against. 

Ironically, it is in being inconsistent that Emerson is consistent with himself. Throughout all of the works that we read, Emerson constantly supports the individual, the soul of man, the need to rebel against the system, to not conform. If there is anything that seems objectively bad for Emerson, it is conformity: "the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he" (Self-Reliance).  Yet in the same breath that Emerson asserts that Self-Reliance is the key to non-conformity and right living, he urges us to "Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events" (Self-Reliance). The full quote reads as follows:

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events

Thus, we are to rebel against conformity through Self-Reliance -  in doing so conforming to the place divine providence has planned for us. Which, according to Emerson, will make us great.