At the beginning of the Enlightenment, the story of the world was told like this: Homo sapiens stand at the top of the evolutionary pyramid, the pinnacle species, a white man distinguished by his capacity for reason. One giant step down the pyramid stands the white woman, and below her are her children. Another large step down the side of the pyramid stands all the other races and below them, at the bottom, resides animals, plants, and earth. Each step down marks a distance away from reason and a step closer to the emotions, until finally at the bottom, there were no thoughts or emotions at all, just the body-machine and space. Here we would have found one of the heroes of the Enlightenment, René Descartes, asserting, as he repeatedly kicks a dog, that its cries were no different than the ticks of a clock. “Kick a dog, or vivisect a dog, and it yelped not out of pain but like the spring in a clock being struck.”
For Descartes, the dog confirmed the divine order of the world, and evidence of the human capacity for reason as the sin qua non of humanity as well as proof of human superiority. Anthropologist Paul Radin saw through such barbarism, writing in The trickster: A study in American Indian mythology:
“Viewed psychologically, it might be contended that the history of civilization is largely the account of the attempts of man to forget his transformation from an animal into a human being.”
With his ‘experiment,’ Descartes used the hallmark of civilization — exalted human reason — to justify cruelty. In effect, he used being ‘civilized’ to make it okay to dismiss his responsibility to the needs, feelings, and dignity of others. But isn’t this practice what really makes one ‘primitive’ — that is, one is primitive when ignoring emotions, including ignoring the responsibility to feel empathy for others?
The shadow of civilization is not stirring, irrepressible feelings. Rather, the shadow is the capacity to turn our hearts stone cold, to project inferiority —if not evil — on others, and to fail to see ourselves in the hearts of all beings.
Although today the evolutionary pyramid is flattening (even the fruit fly now has the equivalent of “personalities”!) the human capacity to ignore the feelings of others continues, and we are capable of using all manners of justification to do so. In a world threatened by scarcity, the intergenerational transmission of trauma, and hierarchical thinking, ignoring the feelings of others is at the root of our greatest evils.
© 2014 Laura K Kerr, PhD. All rights reserved (applies to writing and photography).
Written By Laura K Kerr, Ph.D
A Civilized Heart? was originally published @ Laura K Kerr, PhD and has been syndicated with permission.
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Well done! Thanks for writing this.
And thank you for your feedback.
Ironic how even in her challenge of the absence of emotions and the leveling of the human playing field she fails to address the white male at the top of the pyramid. All cultures have contributed to the rise of humans. Maybe it’s ok that the white woman is far down from the top as long as there are others to see beneath her. No group of people have been more cruel and murderous than the white man over the course of our human exsistence. Hierarchical thinking and ignoring the feelings of others is at the root of our greatest evils…, at the top of the pyramid
I do not deny the role of white male privilege for the creation of modern hierarchies that ignore the emotional needs (as well as dignity and often physical needs) of the people who have been suppressed, i.e., white women, their children, and all other races. In fact, that was what I was portraying.
I disagree with your assessment that it’s “ok that the white woman is far down from the top as long as there are others to see beneath her.” I believe we all deserve full equality, including white males.
And if we are going to survive on this planet, and not completely destroy Earth and each other, then commitment to the “rise of humans” no longer serves us either. Instead, we should be looking for how to create equality with all other species. They matter too.
Thank you for your feedback.