Such an attitude was encouraged by the thoughtlessness of youth (a period in which, even in the middle class, one appears ungrateful and behaves boorishly because, having forgotten for months to write to a benefactor who has just lost his wife, one then ceases to greet him in the street so as to simplify matters), but it was inspired above all by an acute case snobbery. it is true that, after the fashion of certain nervous disorders the symptoms of which grow less pronounced in later life, this snobbishness would generally cease to express itself in so offensive a form in these men who had been so intolerable when young. Once youth is outgrown, it is rare for a man to remain confined in insolence. He had supposed it to be the only thing in the world; suddenly he discovers, prince though he is, that there are also such things as music, literature, even standing for parliament. The scale of human values is correspondingly altered and he engages in conversation with people whom at one time he would have dismissed with a withering glance. Good luck to hose of the latter who have had the patience to wait, and who are of such a good disposition - if "good" is the right word - that they accept with pleasure in their forties the civility and welcome that had been coldly withheld from them at twenty.
Marcel Proust, The Guermantes Way, p. 418
Quite naturally, I suppose, issues of class and privilege play such a pervasive role in Remembrance of Things Past. As we discussed earlier this week, when Marcel was feeling up the serving girl at the tavern, he may be perceptive and sensitive, but he's still operating within a world of privilege. That said, and naturally, those above him in the social pyramid get it worse as they inevitably come across as insensitive and emotionally tone deaf, if not idiotic (I couldn't help but think of Voltaire's portrayal of the nobility in Candide). In this particular section Proust reflects upon meeting with the Prince de Foix. It seems to me that so much of this insensitivity is related to isolation, in this case a social and economic one. They may not care because they don't care, but more likely they don't care because they don't know any better. Which, I would argue, is what is plaguing the US right now. We are the ultimate gated community, and even when we travel out into the world we even vacation in even posher gated communities. I always think back to one of my first overseas trips when I made the decision, unpopular with my administrator at the time, to leave behind the safety of our gated school in India and disappear into the chaos of a Hindu festival, and I don't think I was ever the same again. The Internet, which was supposed to be the ultimate leveler, has only made it worse because the possession of technology can be a haves vs. have nots dividing line, but it also allows us to live in intellectual social media driven gated communities. And thus we have to make a very concerted effort to leave behind the isolation of inexperience because, as Proust opines, "Once youth is outgrown, it is rare for a man to remain confined in insolence" This, maybe more than any other reason, is probably why I go to the trouble (and it is a challenge) to take students overseas. It may only be twenty students, and those that can go are by definition children of a certain level of privilege, but it is something I can do in my little corner of the world. It does make me think, wistfully and regretfully, of what we might have been able to achieve with the Global Modules project if the college had simply supported us and had the courage of their own convictions (or at least my convictions).
No comments:
Post a Comment