Wednesday, September 12, 2018

A Time of Black and White Thinking

Right and wrong, intelligent and unlearned, holy or heathen. Going off of what was mentioned in Of Cannibals by Michel de Montaigne, there seemed to have been a pervasive idea that there was absolutely a right way and a wrong way to live life. Cultures that differed from the monolithic towers of Catholic religion and Roman philosophy were regarded as refuse if regarded at all. For a time that is considered so forward thinking, there was a lot of tribal belligerence plaguing the masses. Montaigne’s essay seeks to delve into the lives of so called savages and help set them on a similar plane with others, but this was not normal, hence the essay is looked back at as controversial for its time.

Image result for uncivilized natives     Today, similar thought patterns seem to be creeping back into society and modern “tribes” begin to emerge. Take political discourse for example, there are fewer and fewer people willing to compromise for a general consensus, and more and more people who will unabashedly shame someone, no matter their character or demeanor, simply because they have not chosen the obvious high road. I think that it is vitally important to take from the Renaissance the zeal for learning and history, but I also think we should be careful not to emulate the pompous pride that plagued society as a whole in that time period.

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3 comments:

  1. Carter ShearerSeptember 13, 2018 at 10:54 AM

    This is a very nice and insightful post. A great weapon against a healthy society is when the people become so heavily polarized. A good society wants differences of opinion and ideas, but when everyone holds their views as the only possible and righteous course of action, progress and improvement are halted and society degrades.

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  2. Sterling SmithSeptember 13, 2018 at 1:47 PM

    I completely agree with you. The media focuses on issues of race and gender differences that people have started to forget our similarities. People are quickly categorized into their different group identities and generalized far too often. Seeing how we can change those around us, it is important to take the responsibility upon ourselves to follow the example of Montaigne and focus on what we can do to understand other people rather than demanding other people to bend to our will.

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  3. UnknownSeptember 17, 2018 at 11:46 PM

    I 100% agree with you here! I think it is very important to remember that we can't look at everything in terms of black and white. It's a very boring world that way. How important it is to make sure we are considering the perspectives of others around us!

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