Are You Stabbing People in the Head With a Fork?

Ralph aldo emerson says it's better to act honestly and have a chance to learn from your mistakes, recalibrate and grow than lie fall in line with what everyone else tells you as a proper response. At a certain point, blind following society, not thinking for yourself and instead just conforming to somebody else's opinions becomes an act of cowardice according to the author. He asks how many people are sitting around waiting for some external force or dogma to solve all the problems for them?