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.

     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.