Superior Equality

As I started reading Leaves of Grass, I noticed that Walt Whitman starts out the book making the reader feel inferior than him with just two lines, his two starting lines,

"I CELEBRATE myself;

And what I assume you shall assume" (1)

With his first line he immediately makes the reader see him as good I whatever he does because we don't know yet. And with his second line he starts a psychological dictatorship. He states a completely egocentric fact in which the reader can assume very directly that there is no better opinion than the author's and it is even stated in a way that you would feel threatened if you thought otherwise. It just took me these first two lines to think what is up with this Walt Whitman? The second I read these lines I stopped immediately and thought who does he think he is telling me that I need to think what he thinks? I simply didn't know what to think about it, about his egocentric attitude, so I just kept on reading and it relieved me. It certainly relieved me because it said that I was equal to him. The first impression the first two lines give is an unnecessary statement of superiority but once you take a look at the third line which says, "For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you."(1) you see that it's because you are equal so you should think alike, which very few times happens.