Being vs. Appearance: Two-Faced Moderns

Rousseau argues throughout Part Two that rivalries and the evils of nascent inequality arise from the ideas of property, "the first fence," and unnatural divisions amongst men. Eventually, after showing the development of memory, imagination, and pride, Rousseau begins to explain how these qualities are neccessary to modern man in large quantities. Therefore, humans have to have skills, talent, beauty, strength, etc. or at least PRETEND to.... I felt this was an interesting twist to everything he had said before, because this brought in an element of duplicity or deceit:

"It was necessary in one's own interest to be other than one was in reality. Being and appearance became two entirely different things."

He goes on to show how the two-faced aspect of modern human beings is the epicenter of so many problems-----"deceitful cunning" and "ostentation". Finally I felt like Rousseau was getting to the heart of some modern problems! For once he was pointing out a problem that I could actually believe nascent man would not have had. As Rousseau points out, these dual personalities tend to sprout a dangerous jealousy amongst people that is "masked in benevolence."

But to take this argument a step further, I began thinking of it in the modern world and our celebrity crazed society. Isn't there a lot of false duality there? Celebrities strive to come across to be something they are not, perfect in every way. Fans attempt to emulate them (denying their true free will, Rousseau might say). And at the same time that our society seems to follow strict guidelines (what to wear? how to eat? what political views?) and crave common understanding and equality, we all are striving to be "individuals" and win back that free will. I remember we touched on some of this in class last week and talked about how phenomena like Myspace are perfect examples of this dance between the individual/truth and the public/false. I think Rousseau's points here about the negative aspects of the private face and the public face are truly at the heart of this modern problem, and what makes modern life so confusing!