In a historical sense, the Renaissance seems to be widely interpreted as a "freeing" of the mind from the shackles of religious self-deprecation. In the Middle Ages, the holy role of king was to...motivate...his subjects to embody Christlike attributes such as humility, submissiveness, and meekness.
While this sounds like a noble endeavor, it usually resulted in oppression, and, more importantly, a significant repression of thoughts and creativity. When one tried to create beauty that wasn't directed completely towards God, it was self-gratifying and vain. Thus, the Renaissance was seen as beauty's hero, send to free the minds of men from the cage of forced humility.
The natural effects of hardened dogmatism have not changed since then, though the times have certainly been generous to artistic freedom. In some parts of the world, certain communities remain rather attached to some of the more medieval aspects of Christianity. In such communities, when a youth is ambitious or aggressive in his or her journey to make it in the world, those ambitions are put down in short order and the youth is told "don't get ahead of yourself, you're not that important."
Never having been an overly patriotic sort of person, it makes me consider what makes Americans feel freer to follow their dreams and passions? Maybe it's because humanism doesn't develop pride and selfishness, but simply encourages people to live up to their potential. Does pursuing humility mean giving less effort to living a full and engaged life?
In my estimation, humility is not inverse to achievement. In fact, how can one be humble without any achievements? Is humility the war against pride, or simply the absence of anything to be proud of? Such was the dilemma of the Renaissance.
As Friedrich Nietzsche once put it, "Of all evil I deem you capable: Therefore I want good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
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What you pointed out between humility and repression is really interesting. Because of an increasing support of individualism, the talents exposed reflected more of God's goodness than repression did. However, whether or not that was each artist's motive is subjective.
ReplyDeleteI think your question about humility being a war against pride or the absence of anything to be proud of is very interesting. I think the answer is obvious but it's an interesting thought. To be humble it is important to understand why it is good to be humble and what its benefits are. It is also important to know what humility isn't so that you don't fall prey to dehumanization.
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