As someone with an interest in the Middle Ages, I am again taking some courses this term that relate to that era. In every medieval class I've taken, the professors have had to dispel the numerous popular beliefs about the period. Listening to the familiar myth-busting this term, I was reminded of a phrase coined by C.S. Lewis "chronological snobbery" which he defined as an attitude that one age is superior to other eras simply by virtue of coming after them. In our case, we think of ourselves as vastly more advanced than the miserable, violent, illiterate, pre-industrial, barbaric, superstitious past.
If "chronological snobbery" and its associated confidence in the concept of "progress" merely caused us to misunderstand the past, it would be an unfortunate, but relatively harmless, attitude. In fact, however, its effects extend far wider. The modern Western world may be chronologically snobby, but it is guilty of developmental snobbery as well. We assume that, because we have reached a certain cultural and technological level of development, we are superior to all other cultures, whether they be chronologically, geographically or developmentally separated from us.
This point hit me very strongly this past weekend at the showing of a movie called "The Human Experience" in Collis Commonground. In this documentary film, two brothers travel to an orphanage in Peru and a leper colony in Ghana to interact with and interview the people who live there. Many of the orphans were very seriously deformed or injured some had been abused by their families or left for dead because of their aliments. The lepers had lost limbs, many had been abandoned by their family and friends and all were visibly suffering. And yet the children and adults interviewed for the film expressed an entirely surprising sentiment: many of them were happy.
This fact stunned me. Here were people who had every reason to despair and curse their lives (and I have no doubt that some people off screen probably did just that). However, many of them radiated a quality of happiness that I have never really experienced in myself or other people I have met. They have nothing in material terms, and yet they are deeply happy, whereas we in the wealthy West who have material blessings heaped upon us are often discontented with our lives. In fact, studies by the World Health Organization indicate that wealthy countries generally tend to have higher suicide rates than poorer countries.
All this is to point out that the modern, Western understanding of happiness, which very often places great intellectual stress on material prosperity, autonomy and independence as keys to happiness, might be missing something. I don't know the full story behind these people's happiness, but several reasons came across in the movie. Some explanations were religious, but others were accessible even to a secular audience. It was clear that deep relationships and a strong, interdependent community were sources of happiness and joy to the documentary's subjects. This reliance on support networks stands in stark contrast to the exalted Western model of a strong, self-sufficient and prosperous individual. They also felt deeply that their lives had meaning and purpose in a way that Westerners today often don't. Finally, they believed that a good and upright life brings its own rewards. These are things that can never be taken away, unlike transient material prosperity.
I point all this out because I think we tend to underestimate the extent to which the West's understanding of basic human concepts including happiness, but also freedom, morality, love, friendship and religion is the result of a particular philosophical and cultural atmosphere that may be based on false premises. It is therefore important not to condescend to other ages or cultures, for they often offer valuable alternative understandings of essential human principles. Sometimes, as in medieval philosophy, alternative understandings are put forward by highly sophisticated scholastic philosophers. Other times, as in the case of the poor in "third world" countries, they are put forward by the examples of people's lives. Either way, we should take the time to seriously engage with alternative understandings of fundamental human concepts proposed by those outside the modern Western intellectual paradigm.
