Over the past few days, I have seen my social media feeds overrun with a quite different sort of posts than usual. As opposed to the monotonous postings of bored people trying to figure out what to do while self-isolating, I have seen a considerable turn toward social and political issues. In and of itself, there should be no real problem with this; there is nothing wrong with being concerned with one’s social circumstance or trying to figure out how we all ought to live our short lives on this earth peaceably and joyfully. If anything, I believe there is something to commend in such expression.
In addition to the content of these posts, however, what I perceived to have changed is the tone people are expressing themselves in: this is the object of my thought at the moment. There is a plethora of examples of people expressing their fear, anxiety, anger, and even resentment. Regardless of the side of a discussion one seems to be on, no matter how well thought out one is in their position, there seems to be a denigratory and shameful flavour to much of what people state. This seems to be case regardless of if such a stance is warranted or, more importantly, whether such a stance will genuinely make things better.
You will of course notice my vagueness in referring to these various posts and issues at hand—this is for the simple reason that I do not care to weigh in here. This is not to say that I do not have my opinions on several issues which have gained heat over the last week or so, as I surely have opinions of which I am sure some are well formulated while others are less so. Instead of giving my two-cents on any one of these situations, however, I would prefer to simply reflect, in proper philosophic fashion, on these issues to perhaps further inform myself, as well as anyone else who cares to discuss such matters, about how we are thinking about these issues.
For now, I wish to refer to a man whom I have not yet read enough of, but who never fails to provoke me in his writings: Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne was a philosopher who graced the world by his presence during the 16th century, and he is often considered to be the first great skeptical thinker of the modern era, and perhaps one of its best. Late in his life, Montaigne retired to his estates to devote himself to reflection and self-consideration. He wrote a series of essays which attempt to pierce the veil of what we think we understand of ourselves and casts doubt on if we are indeed as transparent to ourselves as we often believe.
In a brilliant but short essay entitled, “How we weep and laugh at the same things,” Montaigne pushes us to question how well we understand our own emotional states, let alone the emotional states of others. Montaigne recognizes the duplicitous nature of the human experience; we may be so sure of something in a moment of action, but yet a pause of reflection reveals to us another aspect of reality which moves us from rage to sorrow, anger to fear, righteousness to remorse. “That is why we can see that not only children, who artlessly follow Nature, often weep and laugh at the same thing, but that not one of us either can boast that, no matter how much he may want to set out on a journey, he still does not feel his heart a-tremble when he says goodbye to family and friends.” Each moment has more than one interpretation which can be considered valid from a certain perspective, but our great task is in attempting to balance such contentions in our souls.
This problem becomes further exacerbated when we do things of significant proportion, of which social activism and political engagement surely qualify. In a given moment, we may support a cause for a reason we feel is entirely justified and perhaps even necessary to accomplish, yet a glimpse from a different perspective of that circumstance may cause us to reconsider if we should be as sure as we often are. “We have pursued revenge for an injury with a resolute will; we have felt a singular joy at our victory…and we weep: yet it is not for that that we weep. Nothing has changed; but our mind contemplates the matter in a different light and sees it from another aspect: for everything has many angles and many different sheens.” The plight of the human experience, for Montaigne, is that we can never fully grasp what it is that we are doing or have complete knowledge of what we gaze upon; thus we are doomed to be divided against ourselves so long as we attempt to treat just one understanding of what we are doing as entirely complete.
As is so often the case with skeptical thinkers, Montaigne seems to place us in a rather precarious or even impossible circumstance. If self-understanding is such a difficult task, yet it is necessary to pursue so as to not feel the divisions of our emotions wreak havoc on our souls, what are we to do?
I believe that Montaigne offers two keys to making the best of things, insofar as we are capable. He does this in a rather humorous quip about how he thinks about himself: “If only talking to oneself did not look mad, no day would go by without me being heard growling to myself, against myself, “You silly shit!” Yet I do not intend that to be a definition of me.” What does Montaigne mean here? I believe the first key he is providing here is that we must first acknowledge how chaotic and disordered our own minds can be. This recognition instills a sense of humility, reflexiveness, and openness which may allow us to engage more effectively with our neighbours and circumstances so as to improve our lot. The second key we can take here from Montaigne is that we can have hope that things may be improved; our current disorder does not define us, and that very recognition of the disorder provides us with the realisation that we could indeed be better ordered so as to feel more settled in our own skin. In consideration of Montaigne, I tend to simply take a step back. When I feel an impetus to speak out for or against something, when I want to argue with someone else who has taken a particular stand, when I feel some semblance of anger, resentment, or fear, I pause. I ask what I am missing; I ask what someone coming from a different place or circumstance might be thinking; I consider the fact that I more than likely do not have the full picture. Does gleaning such thoughts from Montaigne provide us with a proper course of action for our circumstances? Hardly, but that is not the point of his reflection. Montaigne merely provides us with the insight to question our surety and move to a more reflexive relationship with life itself. With his teaching in mind and a little bit of luck, perhaps we will not need to growl as frequently against ourselves for having been such ‘silly shits.’
Hoping for Clarity 