Contrary
to popular belief, Rousseau did not advocate turning back the clock to some primitive golden
age. At no point in his voluminous writings does he argue that men and women should leave behind
their modern towns and cities and adopt the kind of simple lifestyles associated with our
distant ancestors. However, he did believe that a more natural existence, one shorn of the
trappings of an increasingly corrupt modern society, could act as a moral ideal to which we
should aspire.
Rousseau (in)famously believed in man's innate moral goodness
which was corrupted by his entry into society. In a sweeping indictment of man's social life,
Rousseau argued that society was the source of all evil as it tore man away from his natural
condition, forcing him to be selfish, competitive, and envious of others' property.
In his critique of modern society, Rousseau is especially scathing of the notion of
private property, which he sees as the source of so many of humankind's ills. Once we start
dividing the natural world into "mine and thine" (i.e., this piece of land is mine,
and that's yours) then we no longer see nature as a dwelling place but as an object to be
possessed, a source of exploitation, which in turn leads to the exploitation of man in the
pursuit of more property and the power that it brings.
No comments:
Post a Comment