Ralph Nader would like a word with Emily Dickinson. In fact, he’d like a word with everyone.

Nader, the indefatigable consumer advocate and political gadfly, has just published a slim paperback called “Civic Self-Respect.” He calls it a “very personal book.” But the person he’s talking about isn’t him; it’s you.

“I’d go around the country talking to sizable audiences,” he tells me, “and people would come up afterward, and they would say, ‘Well, Ralph, I’m a nobody, but I really have to ask you this question.’ And I’d say, ‘Wait a minute — what do you mean you’re a nobody? How can you say that? How can you have such a low estimate of your own significance?’”

In short: Come on, have some civic self-respect!

To drive home this point, Nader offers eight rabble-rousing chapters that articulate the influence we can each wield as Citizens, Workers, Consumers, Taxpayers, Voters, Parents, Veterans and Philanthropists.

When Whitman says, “I am large, I contain multitudes,” Nader says, “Damn right — now act like it.”

This isn’t a new theme for Nader, but it’s an encouraging one when many of us are feeling powerless to stop the dismantling of American democracy and the hegemony of corporate interests.

The key, Nader says, is to be informed, motivated and social. “You cannot have a daily democracy without daily citizenship.”

His hero, naturally, is America’s First Tireless Citizen, Ben Franklin, whom Nader describes as “an unparalleled master of motivation, self-taught skills, and self-improvement.”

Indeed, you can hear the classic self-help tone vibrating so strongly through these pages that I expect to get clearer skin and six-pack abs:

“Place yourself in the expressive roles described in this volume,” Nader writes, “and you’ll generate a sense of greater ‘being and doing,’ replacing tired routines and tedium with that basic principle of living an active democratic life: that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You’ll find you’re healthier, happier, and living in more productive communities beside people who live, work, and raise their families to embrace the kind of living democracy that future generations can benefit from and build upon.”

The book is filled with examples of ordinary people — including his parents — who perceived a problem, got involved and got it fixed. Kate Hanni, “a regular airline passenger,” was outraged that she had to sit on the tarmac in Austin for nine hours. Afterward, she stirred up enough ire to create a consumer group called FlyersRights.

“Justice movements,” Nader writes, “tend to start by replacing some daily small talk with significant talk about societal betterment — just the way our forebears did before 1775.”

If living in a state of constant political vigilance and consumer advocacy sounds exhausting, take heart. “It is simply more pleasurable to live life when you have developed some power by exercising your civic muscle,” he writes. “There is less agony, anguish, and frustration when you are not feeling disempowered.”

Toward the end of our conversation, I see a bit behind the curtain.

“You know, sometimes I get frustrated, too,” Nader says. “There’s a limit to exhorting people, having them agree with what you say, and then they drift away and do nothing.”

But if there’s really a limit, Nader hasn’t hit it yet. At 91, he shows no sign of flagging. He speaks in flawless NPR-ready paragraphs. He displays an encyclopedic grasp of data. Perfect anecdotes never miss their cue.

When I ask how he does it, he pauses, a little irritated by the flattery. “Well, the obvious answer is no drinking, no smoking, a nutritious diet and a modest amount of exercise. Everybody knows that.”

“But there’s something else that I think has driven me,” he says. “I’ve never liked bullies. Ever since I was a kid, I couldn’t stand a fourth grader beating up a second grader. Sometimes, I paid a price for that. And as I grew in adulthood, I saw a lot of bullies.... In a strange way, that keeps you mentally acute. When you have a sense of injustice, it’s more than just making some meaningful sense of life. It also makes you ask very sharp questions that you ordinarily wouldn’t ask and read things that you ordinarily would not read and be bold enough to buttonhole lawmakers and corporate officials that you wouldn’t ordinarily do. So, I really think there’s a connection between having a refined sense of injustice based on facts and morality and keeping alert at an older age.” That’s self-help advice we can all take to heart.