Read the short excerpt from Emerson's Self-Reliance to answer the 2 questions that
follow:
These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater, the virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
What is the premise of this paragraph?
a. part of being human is adhering to the customs and rules of a society
b. individuals are responsible for protecting one another and for offering each other insight into the world
c. the government protects us by offering us rules, regulations, customs, and traditions
d. being a part of society, and depending on it too much, will remove our self-reliance and individuality