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| French-Allied Native Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States#/media/File:A_Battle_of_the_French-Indian_War.jpg |
After observing the American Natives that his fellow countrymen had referred to as barbarous savages, Michel de Montaigne comments:
He is not sorry to have come all this way to a new world. He is not sorry to note the differences between his culture and the culture of the Natives. He is not sorry to be slightly horrified by the traditions of these new people. He is sorry, however that those same rules that make him comfortable in Europe, urge him to discredit the traditions he is now seeing.I am not sorry we note the barbarous horror of such an action, but grieved that, prying so narrowly into their faults, we are so blinded in ours.
One tradition of the Natives was to eat the prisoners of war. While this throws up huge moral red flags for anyone outside of the tradition, someone to whom it is commonplace might be surprised that we are so taken aback by it when we have many forms of savagery of our own.
I really appreciate that Montaigne is not justifying the actions of the Natives, simply stating that we should refrain from judgment until we have carefully examined our own faults.
This is reminiscent of the Christian idea of motes and beams. Christ taught in Matthew 7:3:
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?I think his idea of making sure Europeans are not ignoring their own societal flaws shows a counter thought to the general humanism of the Renaissance. Where others say "What a piece of work is man!", Montaigne argues "What a piece of trash is man". And he's not sorry.
I think it's true that in order to actually progress as a society, we have to acknowledge our faults. We've got to see them honestly and come to terms with them. I think the problems arise when we get overwhelmed by our shortcomings as a society and lose our motivation to improve. We really are incredible when we choose to be, and if we want to continue to choose to be, we have to remember that we are.
ReplyDeleteI do feel like as much as the Renaissance was about improvement, they seemed to lack the skill of self-relection. They are all about improving the skills they already have, but not as fond of improving their faults.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the premise of the idea of not judging people because of their traditions. Which is why I find it ironic how people are so quick to judge the Europeans for their violence. As people we like to idealize ourselves and say things like "if I was a European explorer I would have been more like Montaigne." Or "If I was a German in Nazi Germany I would have done what Schindler did." The fact is, statistically speaking we wouldn't, like 99.9% chance. It is a scary fact, but it is a naive mistake to think it's not true.
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