Come As You Are

“I love myself better than you. I know it’s wrong but what can I do.”—Kurt Cobain

The “Voice of a Generation” so perfectly and simply summing up the Modern Human Condition that has pervaded all discussions of Modern Political Philosophy since Rousseau’s dismantling of the basic premises, which were to make it work.

How does one construct a Society out of naturally selfish, therefore, Self-Interested Men? Is Reason a sufficient basis to found a Society upon, when Reason can conceive of no greater goal than comfortable Self-Preservation? Is the Social Contract even possible without the conception of some sort of Common Good?

In order to try and remedy this situation Rousseau comes up with the ideas of Amour de Soi and Amour Propre, which are unfortunately inarticulable in English because they both translate as “Self-Love.” Rousseau accepts that Man is by Nature a selfish being, so, instead of dividing Man between the demands of Egoism and Altruism (the failed remedy of the Christians) he distinguishes between good and bad forms of Self-Love.

He believes that in order to create an effective morality, it cannot be rooted in imaginary oughts, but instead should take into account Man’s full range of natural sentiments and attempt to redirect them into socially acceptable modes of behavior—known as Sublimation. (This probably sounds quite tyrannical to our modern American ears because we now believe it is not our Right to judge the values of Others, but you must keep in mind that conforming to the dictates of Nature is a lot different than conforming to false convention or tradition.)

Amour de Soi is the type of Self-Love that Man has while he is still in the State of Nature. It is born of a complete self-reliance that requires nothing from anyone else (except for a sexual partner every now and again, but merely for the physical act and nothing else). Man is absolute unto himself and is able to provide perfectly for himself. He was “without industry, without speech, without domicile, without war and without liaisons, with no need of his fellow men, likewise with no desire to harm them…he felt only his true needs, saw only what he needed to see; and his intelligence made no more progress than his vanity.”

The other type of Self-Love is Amour Propre, which is the type of Self-Love Man can experience only once he has entered into a Society. He only knows “how to be happy and content with himself on the testimony of others rather than on his own.” This “sociable man, always outside of himself, knows how to live only in the opinions of others.” It is a form of Self-Esteem that has no inner-content and is completely relative based on the Others to which one is constantly comparing oneself. This form of Self-Love is the source of the misery of Social Man because it is the root of Vanity and Pride, and their effects: competitiveness, ambition, anger, jealousy, envy, hypocrisy, and deceitfulness which distort our relations with our fellow Man.

Rousseau’s prescription, which he sets forth in the Emile—his guide for a new form of education—is a relatively simple one: “What makes Man essentially good is to have few needs and to compare himself little to others; what makes him essentially wicked is to have many needs and to depend very much on opinion…It is true that since they are not able always to live alone, it will be difficult for them to always be good. This same difficulty will necessarily increase with their relations; and this, above all, is why the dangers of Society make Art and Care all the more indispensable for us to forestall in the human heart the depravity born of their new needs.”

The Emile is Rousseau’s attempt to create a bond between Men that could hopefully correct the wickedness that has enslaved Man ever since he contracted—or possibly was forced to settle down—into the first nascent communities. In it he declares that the Imagination is the true source of all of Man’s misery because, once it is aroused, thus begins Man’s separation from Nature and with it an infinite number of fears and hopes arise transforming our true needs into artificial ones distorted by comparative ideas of Merit and Beauty. But, paradoxically, the Imagination may also be the best device to reconcile Man to Society and to create a needy, relative Social Being out of a natural, independent Solitary Being.

Although Amour Propre may be the source of Man’s greatest pains and sorrows, it may also be the source of Man’s greatest achievements—either in politics, literature, art, sports, science, or even, love. Despite being a perversion of our Nature, it at least forms some sort of connection between Men that if properly educated can make Man truly care for one another. For Rousseau, all those pursuits have no other reward than the desire to be recognized as number One. And the main motivation behind all these other goals is actually Sex. Man wants to acquire and perfect all these seemingly useless, vain skills in order to differentiate himself from his sexual competitors, so that a potential mate will prefer him over everyone else.

“One loves only after having judged; one prefers only after having compared. These judgments are made without one’s being aware of it, but they are nonetheless real. True love, whatever is said of it, will always be honored by men; for although its transports lead us astray, although it does not exclude odious qualities from the heart that feels it—and even produces them—it nevertheless always presupposes estimable qualities without which one would not be in a condition to feel it. This choosing, is held to be the opposite of Reason, but [actually] comes to us from it.”

So for Rousseau, the goal of Education (cultivating Reason) is to teach Man how to Love and how to properly order the Passions, allowing Man to be happy within the confines of Society—for which, to Rousseau, he is ill-fit. Civilized Sex can never simply be physical. It is always tied with the image one holds of what constitutes Merit and Beauty, therefore it is Imagination (Spirit) that moves the flesh—the Immaterial which moves the Material. And, by properly directing the objects of the Imagination, it is Rousseau’s hope to shape Men’s preferences toward good and noble objects, as well as decent and peaceful Social relations.

Rousseau also feels that even in the State of Nature Man has an innate repugnance to the suffering of Others—which can be endlessly debated in light of the horrors of the 20th Century—and it is this Compassion that will also help to shape the relations of Civilized Men.

But, although Man has an abstract Compassion for Other Men, it is certainly not the same as Care for their well-being or Standard of Living and has absolutely no relation to Love. To him, there is a causal chain, which begins with the Love within a Family, then extends to Friends and then out to the Community at large—the Family plays as an intermediary which unites the Individual with Society. And, at the final stage, there is a substitution: pure Amour Propre, becomes Sublimated Amour Propre. The desire that one feels to be number One is transformed into the goal of having your Community/Country be number One, and this sentiment is expressed through the feeling of Patriotism. This can make one feel much better about not being the best at everything, but also allows you to feel the glory of being number One.

These are all very dangerous ideas that have resulted in some extreme events throughout the History that has succeeded them, but ones I think that we ignore at our peril. The easiest solution that people have come up with to this problem is simply to deny that there even is such a thing as Human Nature and to simply prescribe “to each his own, whom am I to judge?” But if you will notice, the very people who teach this are the self-same people who never shut the hell up about Nature. The environment, global warming, endangered species, organic food: everything must be natural. If Nature is so damn important, then why do they close their ears to what She has to teach us about our-selves? Every other species in the Animal Kingdom has a Nature and Instincts, why do we think we are so special?

This problem will not go away simply by hiding our heads in the ground and there is absolutely no possibility of a return to the State of Nature (unless of course we allow our leaders to use those Weapons of Mass Destruction they are so fond of speaking of). There are very definite reasons for this disorderly mess that we are presented with everyday and unless we are willing to put in the work to sort it all out, then we can hope for all the change we want, but all we’ll ever get is just more of the same.