Monday, March 10, 2008
--The Society--
--There's nothing morally wrong here. No laws are being broken; no one is being robbed or assaulted. It's just extremely ugly. Such a sight nudges us towards philosophy: What is ugliness? And what is actually bad about it?
Ugliness is generally the physical equivalent of an unhappy state of mind. It is depression, anxiety and hopelessness made visible. This environment is at odds with human flourishing. Ugliness gets under our skin and induces a feeling of misery: the unhappiness of the environment is contagious.
This is a pure instance of ugliness: probably no one likes it; it's not the result of a deliberate plan — it's an accident caused by lack of money, neglect and a general sense that other problems are more pressing and have to be addressed first.
So when we see something that strikes us as ugly, the question we should be asking is what lies behind this: what is the state of mind of which this is the outcome? It might be a hectoring, abrasive self-assertion; it might be despair.
"OR IT MIGHT BE meanness."
When it comes to people, ugliness is an extremely fraught topic. That's because we know perfectly well that to judge a person by the comeliness or elegance of their physical appearance is extremely unkind, and also that it fails to take into consideration the fact that almost everything that matters about people is independent of physical appearance: we want to know about a person's soul — what are they like inside, how kind or interesting or helpful are they.
But we are probably hardwired to take physical appearance into account. Good posture, lustrous hair, bright eyes, a lithe, strong body: these are all elemental signs of physical well being. Genetically, it makes sense for human beings to strongly prefer such appearances. And we do. It's just that we know that other qualities matter as well.
Discussion of ugliness always stumbles, sooner or later, on the question of subjectivity. Surely what one person finds ugly another might find lovely. Surely what was regarded as ugly in one era is seen as charming in another; what is disliked in one culture is sought out in another. There is some truth to these observations. They record the external facts of changes in preference. But it is less clear what the implications are for how we should think of ugliness.
But there are many issues in private and social life that are both intimate and important. They are subjective in the sense that they are personal, that they reflect who we are, that they go deep with us as individuals. But they are at the same time matters on which things can go badly wrong.
Boredom provides the best analogy. In a way, I can't possibly be wrong that I feel bored, just as I can't be wrong that I think something ugly. But my boredom might reveal something far from admirable about me: I'm bored because I'm insensitive, unintelligent and incapable of concentration or effort. And, sometimes at least, an inability to notice ugliness may have very similar causes.
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