Self-Reliance Self reliance in Emmersons view is to look upon the world and yourself, seeing the resources available to you and working with them in a fashion which makes you feel you are productive. Deeper than that it's a understanding of what your personal role is in the universe, and acceptance of that justifying it only to ones self. I don't believe one could be truly self reliant and selfish, because self reliance means an understanding of the world around you in order to be independent enough to find confidence with in yourself to exist self reliantly. I think that one could be very independent though, and at the same time be selfish. A person of such mind set would view them self as the c