Emerson: The Mind on Fire I

I've started on this biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Robert D. Richardson Jr. So far it seems to be well-written, but, because I'm reading it more for the historical context of writers in nineteenth century Massachusetts than for a specific interest in Emerson, I'm not finding it particularly exciting. Emerson and his family sound fairly extroverted, and, over the years, I have gradually come to dislike extroverts compared to introverts. The writers, artists and scientists whom I like best tend to be introverts: George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, László Krasznahorkai, Emily Dickinson, Vivian Maier, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and E.O. Wilson, for example. Part of this may be that in order to grasp aspects of life or the world well, one must be capable of observing them and meditating on them for long periods of time. The need to socialize reduces the time available for extroverts to excel in many fields. Rather, I think that extroverts tend to serve the specific function of fostering social unity in various groups. There are probably exceptions to this model, because most people aren't purely introverted or purely extroverted, but it reflects my observations of people over the course of my life. In any case, Emerson seems to me to have been an extrovert, which means that I am unlikely to find his ideas interesting. Nevertheless, it should be informative to learn more about how he interfaced with Henry David Thoreau and other American and British intellectuals of his time.

Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston. This made him about fourteen years older than Thoreau and twenty-seven years older than Emily Dickinson. In 1803, Boston was a town of only about 25,000 residents, but it was at the beginning of a population explosion. Emerson's father was a poorly-paid minister, and, like other families at the time, his was large, with illnesses and early deaths. The first two children, a girl and a boy, didn't survive to adulthood, then there were five boys who did and one girl who didn't. Emerson's father died 1811, when he was eight, so did not have much direct impact on him. The household, however, was highly literate, and Mary Moody Emerson, his aunt, was extremely well-read. He attended Boston Latin School and entered Harvard in 1817, when he was fourteen. This wasn't because he was precocious, and his family's church connections generally allowed the boys to attend Harvard. Harvard at the time was part boys' school and part college, and there were only sixty students in his class. He did not excel academically and seemed to prefer literature to science. He fancied himself a poet.

After graduating from Harvard in 1821, Emerson didn't have a career plan, and he taught at a school for young women until 1825, when he entered Harvard Divinity School, which he did not complete after withdrawing because of an eye infection. Recovering from the eye infection, he traveled by ship to Charleston, South Carolina and Saint Petersburg, Florida in 1826. In 1827 he returned home, visiting friends and relatives in Baltimore, Alexandria, Philadelphia and New York. He became a preacher and met 16-year-old Ellen Louisa Tucker in Concord, New Hampshire. She was a daughter of a deceased Boston rope manufacturer. They fell in love and married on September 30, 1829.

Besides the above, the book dutifully recounts Emerson's readings throughout and his efforts to clarify his religious beliefs. Of course, his religious struggles are of little interest to me, but I realize that they may be important to others. For me, the ideas discussed by intellectuals didn't become particularly interesting until about 1859, when Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species; by then, Emerson was already fifty-six. I do find Richardson's book helpful for understanding the historical and sociological context of Emerson's life, but am doubtful that I would share Emerson's concerns. Hopefully this will not stop me from finishing the book. Because of Richardson's writing style, I may end up speed reading sections of it that don't interest me. In a worst case scenario I'll read only the sections that pertain to Thoreau and Emerson's trips to Europe. 

Diary

Although, as I've said repeatedly, I don't like thinking about or discussing Donald Trump, I thought that I should pass along my impressions of what is happening now. While Trump has proven himself to be incompetent in multiple areas, he is actually fairly predictable, and, after being forced to pay attention to him for ten years, I just noticed how he is changing his strategy. There is a certain amount of speculation here, but this is what I think. Because of his interaction today with the newly-elected mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, and some of the comments that he made during the meeting, I think that Trump has recognized that he is about finished with the MAGA movement and is fully prepared to exit the Republican Party. This is evident in his harebrained continuation of his economic policies from his first term, which didn't work then and aren't working now. Despite his often-aggressive behavior, Trump is one of the most predictable public figures that I've ever observed. He never had much of an emotional connection with the Republican Party, because he grew up in New York City, and he now sees the writing on the wall regarding his future as the leader of MAGA, and he is preparing for a retirement from politics which will allow him to maintain connections with New York City. This can also be interpreted as an attempt to divert from the reality of a weakened economy and public disgust regarding his military assaults on American cities, but, to me, Trump seems to be exhausted from his entire effort and has reached the point where he is seriously thinking about exiting the situation – rather than continuing his attempt to transform the presidency into a dictatorship. It is also possible that new facts from the release of the Epstein documents may be affecting him, but, in any case, Trump seems to be giving up. In addition, it is quite possible that he is now getting negative feedback from the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court. The reason why I'm writing this is that the news media in general is not courageous enough to say it or even speculate at all.

Regarding the last comment, although I don't always enjoy The Contrarian, Jennifer Rubin and Norm Eisen have in fact created an effective antidote to the Trump phenomenon. I find that some of their interviews get right to the heart of the issues, and they don't pull punches. It can be really frustrating to watch the traditional news outlets waltzing around meaningful commentary. My only complaints about The Contrarian are that they are more confident about the democratic process than I am and perhaps have a religious faith that I am completely lacking. Still, their chutzpah can be inspiring. 

In any case, whether or not my evaluation is completely accurate, I now feel that Trump is on the way out. The job market is deteriorating, and if Trump decides to mail out checks to get a political boost, that will only increase inflation.

In other news, I am attempting to prepare for a long, slow winter. I currently have a lengthy biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson to read, which should last for several weeks. While I don't think that I will find Emerson's ideas particularly interesting, I have recently been reading about nineteenth century New England people, and this will help round out the picture for me. I've read enough biographies now to think that entire periods are generally more interesting than any particular individuals who were prominent during those times. This is also a safe way to avoid lionizing one or two people who don't necessarily deserve it. Many famous people have serious flaws that can be quite annoying when you take a close look. At this point I find it more interesting to look at different periods and locations and see the biographical participants within their particular ecosystems. This has worked fairly well for me recently for the French Enlightenment, nineteenth century British intellectuals and artists, and now nineteenth century American intellectuals and artists. However, I may be running out of material and may soon have to learn Mandarin or some other language – though, as I've said, I'm terrible at languages. For entertainment, I am currently watching Claire's Knee, by Éric Rohmer, for the third time. I enjoy seeing Lake Annecy, which I visited in 2000. Annecy is also where Rousseau met Mme. de Warens. While there, I took out a motor boat on the lake.

The Origins of Consciousness: Thoughts of the Crooked-Headed Fly

This new book, by Giorgio Vallortigara, continues his discussion of apparently complex neurological mechanisms in simple animals. He moves on from his last book, Born Knowing: Imprinting and the Origins of Knowledge, which discusses chick behavior, indicating innate knowledge at birth and the ability to perform some kinds of abstract reasoning without language. This book is comparatively more varied and discusses several different experiments involving much simpler organisms in an attempt to clarify the origin and function of consciousness. Because of the density of the material and the brevity of the book, I found it less compelling than his last one. There are eclectic elements to Vallortigara's writing style, and this book even includes two poems by Emily Dickinson!

One of the most interesting experiments to me was one in which bees were trained to identify paintings by Monet and Picasso. After the initial training, they were generally able to discriminate other paintings by Monet and Picasso. There is also a study of horseshoe crabs, which are actually more closely related to spiders than crabs. They have two primitive eyes which, with their neurological system, allow them to discern visual edges. There is an experiment with cockroaches which indicates that their visual system is similar to that of humans.

The experiment with the crooked-headed fly of the title seems to indicate that this fly possesses a neurological structure that contains a model for the external world around it, and that new external stimuli are compared to the standing model in order to assess their reality. In this instance, the fly's head had been rotated on its body from its normal position. When new experiences don't match the existing model, the fly may freeze. Vallortigara's main thesis is that moving organisms, as opposed to stationary ones, as a matter of survival have evolved the neurological equivalent of a map that shows how their bodies are oriented in relation to objects in the external world. He expands this to say that this is the origin of consciousness, and that consciousness is not an emergent phenomenon that exists only in animals with large brains, such as H. sapiens.

I finally figured out, several years ago, that "consciousness" is actually a buzzword that is often used by people who implicitly believe that ours is the only species to have reached that exalted level. In this respect, I am very much in agreement with Vallortigara's tendency to demythologize our place in the universe. Whether or not this experiment proves his conclusion, I already agreed with Vallortigara that many species share characteristics that have enabled their survival with other species; it makes sense that survival-based characteristics may also work in other species. Not only do we inhabit the same universe, but we inhabit the same planet, where all currently known life has evolved.

There is also some discussion in the book about how animals with very small brains manage to survive, given their limited neurological capacities. Vallortigara thinks that social insects may compensate for this with specialized jobs within the hive: one insect doesn't have to know all of the jobs.

I am generally in agreement with the ideas expressed in this book and think that most people who think like naturalists probably would. I was also reminded of Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, in which humans do most of their thinking fast, like insects, and reserve larger portions of their brains for more complex matters. I am still amazed to see how quickly flies and hummingbirds react to changes in their environments. Larger animals may have the capacity to process more complex information, but they are all descendants of smaller animals that never did slow thinking. 

Diary

One of my characteristics is that I like to be completely caught up on all responsibilities so that I don't have to worry about things that don't interest me much. This is fairly easy to do if you don't work for a living, and I haven't done that since 2007. Even so, certain challenges do come up occasionally, such as at the beginning of winter. It snowed last night, but it is already melting. My property maintenance tasks become compressed at this time of year, since I do nearly everything myself. Because I have a small shed, at any given time I can conveniently take out either the tractor or the snow blower, but not both. This means that I must finish all of the mowing and put away the tractor before the first snow. Then the snow blower can easily be taken out. I also have to clear the leaves from the yard before a heavy rain or snow, or they may still be sitting there in the spring. In addition, since I don't have a garage, I try to install my snow tires before the first snow. This all occurs within a short time period. One advantage at this house is the fact that I have no wood-burning stove. Though I liked having one, it was quite time-consuming stacking and moving wood and cutting and splitting firewood from the property. Also, from sleeping on hard mattresses for thirty-six years, I had developed tendonitis in my shoulders, which was exacerbated by all the wood-lifting. Since moving and buying a new mattress, my tendonitis has disappeared.

When I have free time, that doesn't necessarily mean that I daydream all day. Although I'm not as obsessive as my former neighbor, Dorothy Douglas, I don't like to see trash along the road, and occasionally I stop to pick it up. Yesterday, on a hike in Pittsford, I noticed that there had been a large beer party in the woods behind the Congregational Church. Rather than having to see the cans lying there for years, I decided to remove dozens of Labatt Ice 24 oz. cans. With winter coming, there may not be another beer party until next summer.

Since I'm tired of thinking about Donald Trump, I thought I'd say something about Dick Cheney, who just died. It is instructive to examine Cheney's political career, because he normalized self-dealing within the Republican Party well before Trump came along. He became Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush in 1989 after five draft deferments during the Vietnam War. Then, from 1995 to 2000 he served as the CEO of Halliburton, the energy services company which has deep connections with the defense industry. Some of his business decisions were considered questionable, and he accumulated $45 million while there. Cheney is a good example of the revolving door practice in which government officials move on to high positions in the corporate world. Later, after becoming Vice President under George W. Bush, he became the main promoter of the Iraq War, with Iraq as a major oil producer. From an ideological standpoint, he was an advocate of increased presidential power, which has probably helped pave the way for Donald Trump. However, perhaps as a form of contrition, he opposed Trump politically and voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.

There is nothing unusual about self-dealing in politics, but I have long been irritated by people who idealize democracy and present corruption as something that can easily be controlled by voters. It can't be. As I've said on numerous occasions, the underlying problem of democratic governance is that humans are simply large mammals, and, as such, are likely not only to behave irrationally much of the time, but to act primarily in their self-interest if they think that they can get away with it. So, my standing model is still an AI-based government which, if designed properly, would have the potential to permanently remove corruption and incompetence from governance. On a theoretical basis, I think it is possible that democracy may only work in very small societies whose citizens are culturally uniform and have only one class; ideally, they would all know each other. Even then there would be conflicts, but they would occur on a manageable scale.

In other news, I've done a very small amount of stargazing and did get a quick look at the Orion Nebula, though the moon was up. My new mount is working fine now. It is convenient to leave the mount and telescope set up outside, because, at this location, you never know exactly when the sky may clear up. Sometimes that lasts for only a few minutes. I'm not about to move to the Atacama Desert in Chile for better viewing conditions. I plan to bring the telescope inside rather than leave it outside all winter. The mount can handle the weather and that stays outside because it is time-consuming to set up. I've started on a new book and will probably have something to say about it on my next post.