On Cannibals
Montaigne Response
11 September 2013
It is no secret Europeans have conquered not only new lands, but their neighbors on the Continent too, by lying and deceit since the days of Ancient Rome. Montaigne remarked on how “better bred sort of men”, i.e. the Europeans, are more curious and discover more than their uncivilized counterparts in the New World. Because of their “superior” breeding, this essentially allowed them to lie and explain things in order to positively affect them. Montaigne remarked on how when meeting a “plain ignorant fellow” of the New World, he appeared more likely to tell the truth, solely because he was uncivilized in the eyes of the Europeans. As he puts it, the Europeans cannot help but alter the story, never representing things how they are, but how they appeared to them. To contrast this, the Cannibal is just a simple, ignorant fellow, who tells things exactly as they are without distorting any facts or evidence. He is not capable of changing the story to suit his needs. That concept particularly stood out to me because it made me realize that the smarter, more educated, and arguably more civilized someone is, the better they are with words and the more likely they are to alter a story for personal gain. The primitive peoples of the New World were not capable of the high level deception and treachery the Europeans were. That is not to say that they were not capable of being just as cruel to their fellow man as the Europeans were, but as Montaigne puts it, lying, treachery, dissimulation, avarice, envy, detraction, pardon; they were unfamiliar concepts to the Cannibals.
One question that transcends time is why some nations or peoples were able to conquer and subject others. There are many theories and arguments to answer this but I am going to make the case that it is because some can deceive and others cannot. For example, white fur traders in the early 1800s were able to get Native Americans addicted to whiskey, often diluted,
11 September 2013
It is no secret Europeans have conquered not only new lands, but their neighbors on the Continent too, by lying and deceit since the days of Ancient Rome. Montaigne remarked on how “better bred sort of men”, i.e. the Europeans, are more curious and discover more than their uncivilized counterparts in the New World. Because of their “superior” breeding, this essentially allowed them to lie and explain things in order to positively affect them. Montaigne remarked on how when meeting a “plain ignorant fellow” of the New World, he appeared more likely to tell the truth, solely because he was uncivilized in the eyes of the Europeans. As he puts it, the Europeans cannot help but alter the story, never representing things how they are, but how they appeared to them. To contrast this, the Cannibal is just a simple, ignorant fellow, who tells things exactly as they are without distorting any facts or evidence. He is not capable of changing the story to suit his needs. That concept particularly stood out to me because it made me realize that the smarter, more educated, and arguably more civilized someone is, the better they are with words and the more likely they are to alter a story for personal gain. The primitive peoples of the New World were not capable of the high level deception and treachery the Europeans were. That is not to say that they were not capable of being just as cruel to their fellow man as the Europeans were, but as Montaigne puts it, lying, treachery, dissimulation, avarice, envy, detraction, pardon; they were unfamiliar concepts to the Cannibals.
One question that transcends time is why some nations or peoples were able to conquer and subject others. There are many theories and arguments to answer this but I am going to make the case that it is because some can deceive and others cannot. For example, white fur traders in the early 1800s were able to get Native Americans addicted to whiskey, often diluted,