PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

September 4, 2024

AMERICAN LABORING

On August 31, 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, Mass.  The subject of his presentation was “The American Scholar.”  In his introduction he refers to an old fable entitled “One Man.”

According to the fable One Man exists partially in all of us.  To find the whole Man you must look at all of society.  “Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all.  Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier.” (Harvard Classics, Vol. 5, p. 6)

In the ideal society the different aspects of One Man are parceled out to individuals to do his or her stint at any one particular manifestation.  However, each individual embraces not only his or her labor but all the other laborers.  There is an inner-connectedness among all the different manifestations that brings a sense of unity and solidarity.

For Emerson the ideal of One Man has been corrupted to the point where individuals no longer see themselves as being a part of the whole but only of their own particular part.  “Man is thus metamorphosed into a thing, into many things. … The priest becomes a form; the attorney, a statue-book; the mechanic, a machine; the sailor, a rope of a ship.” (p.6)  One Man has become fractured into many non-related parts.

As I was reading Emerson’s description of One Man, I thought that the fable would work equally well if “American” might be substituted for “Man.”   American is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he or she is all.  American is priest, and scholar, and statesman and producer, and soldier.  At various times each of us may embrace any one of the many manifestations of American.

Three manifestations of One American that seem to be on the front burner these days is One American as worker, as management, and as elected official.  These three manifestations would seem to be in conflict with each other.  Rather than seeing themselves as belonging to One American they only see their own particular manifestation with their self-interests to protect and promote.  People have been reduced to things to be scorned, used, and manipulated.  Managers have forgotten that once they may have been workers.  Elected officials have forgotten that once they may have been management.

In Ephesians Paul writes concerning the relationships between slaves and masters., “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.  Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or free.  And, masters, do the same to them.  Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.” (Ephesians 6:5-9)

Bill Gothard in his Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts has an interesting take on this text.  Workers should do their best to make their bosses look good.  Bosses should do everything possible to provide an environment where their workers can succeed and be successful.  Both should look out for the interests and welfare of the others. Man is worker and man is boss.  Both are manifestations of One Man or more specifically One American.  Workers are not things to be abused by bosses and bosses are not things to be manipulated for one’s own personal gain.

This Labor Day weekend it might be well for all of us to reflect on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s illustration of the old fable “One Man.”

(This article was originally published September 4, 2011.  Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)