To say whether you are a transcendentalist or not can be hard, especially for me, because there are things that the transcendentalists believed in that I also do and some that I do not. For example, Emerson talks about about how we must rely on ourselves instead of society. He says, "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members....Self-reliance is its aversion." I for one think that is very true. Society can hold us back from becoming better as a person.
What I do not agree with is what Emerson says about everyone having good in them. I think most people are good, but not everyone. That is why I agree with what Nathaniel Hawthorne said in The Minister's Black Veil. He had said, "...on eery visage a Black Veil!" I agree with Hawthorne when he says that meaning everyone has something they are trying to hide from everyone else. I feel this is more true than anything I read in either Emerson's or Fuller's text. For that reason, I do not think that I am able to call myself a transcendentalist.
I think you do a great job of explaining why you don't think you're able to call yourself a transcendentalist. I agree with the points you've made and I like the texts that you backed them up with. =] I think that although yes, society can hold us back sometimes from being a better person, society can also help us with becoming a better person too.
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