The Virtues of Our Vices by Westacott Emrys

Author:Westacott, Emrys
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Figure 3.3

What is thought to matter most about a person also changes over time. Family lineage was hugely important in many ancient societies: witness the long genealogies provided in the Bible, in Homer's Iliad, and in other ancient texts. Marital status used to be more central than it is today, especially in the case of women; hence the distinction between “Miss” and “Mrs.” in the traditional forms of address. Until quite recently in our own society—and in many parts of the world still—an unmarried woman's virginity was of paramount importance. “Innocence” was her first virtue; once it was lost, she was “soiled goods.” Today, in modernized societies, such things as education and occupation have largely displaced sexual purity, both as the sort of thing others are first interested in, and as primary building blocks of a woman's self-image.

Three key points emerge from the preceding remarks: (1) not all attributes are equally central to a person's identity or worth; (2) which attributes we consider central is historically and culturally relative; (3) we tend to place a higher premium on those attributes we pride ourselves on possessing in good measure.

These points relate to the question before us: is the slide from snobbery about things to snobbery about people psychologically avoidable? The people we identify as card-carrying snobs are the type who shoot down the slide easily, often, and whooping as they go. They positively keep an eye out for opportunities to treat things in the world as further evidence of their own superiority over others. If we are honest, most of us secretly enjoy such opportunities, at least some of the time.

But while the slide may be unavoidable, it can—to extend the metaphor almost painfully—be made less slippery and less steep. By keeping in mind the three points just made, we can cultivate in ourselves a certain restraint. We can ask ourselves: Does the thing or attribute in question—reading habits, clothes, furniture, musical tastes, and the like—really tell me something about who a person is? Am I just uncritically buying into my own culture or subculture's assumptions about what matters most? Am I lured by the prospect of smugness-inducing comparisons? Questions like these will not block the slide entirely. Nor should they, since some of our inferences from things to the people we associate with them are legitimate. But here again, asking them can help us become more self-aware and self-critical.

Is the slide morally objectionable?

At one level, this question has an easy answer. We built into our definition of snobbery the proviso that snobs believe themselves superior to others without sufficient justification. We also argued that snobbery invariably carries the insinuation that some people's lives and happiness count for less than those of others. If we subscribe to even a modest version of ethical rationalism, we will object to the first of these features. And if we are good, modern egalitarians we will object to the second. So any tendency that produces snobbish attitudes toward other people can be criticized on these grounds.

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