Weigh in on an Argument about Emerson ans Society? In Emerson's essay "Nature" what was his attitude towards society and what was his purpose in the...

I think the key
is in the opening paragraph when he asks, "Why should we not also enjoy an original
relation to the universe."    He says this in response to the question that precedes this
question:  "The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we through their
eyes."   If there is any contempt in this, it is the same contempt he shows for slavish
"following"  that runs through all his writing, particularly "."  We should
not live vicariously, through the experience of other generations, but through our experience of
God through(intuition).  When he writes "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the
manhood of every one of its members," it's not the institution of society, although that
plays a part in it, but more the structures that force us to be what we are not ... to imitate
and not be the original force that each of us is.