Often in life I favour that which I perceive as more elegant. Philosophers have spent millennia trying to define many things, but as far as I can tell elegance was not one of them. So what is elegance?
Isn’t elegance merely the perception that something is more refined, thus more desirable by those who want to be perceived as with better taste and crucially, the ability to indulge in such taste?
Would it be fair to say some cultures are more elegant than others? Perhaps elegance shouldn’t be the sole defining factor by which to evaluate one culture over another.
I like to think of the ancient [hellenocentric] world as a much smaller world than our modern one. Naturally, in physical size they are both equal, however ancient people didn’t know the limits of the world, thus their understanding was that of a much smaller landmass. This landmass was possibly populated by less cultures, and was definitively much harder to navigate; people seldomly traveled.
In this context this quote from Herodotus has relevancy:
Just suppose that someone proposed to the entirety of mankind that a selection of the very best practices be made from the sum of human custom: each group of people, after carefully sifting through the customs of other peoples, would surely choose its own. Everyone believes his own customs to be far and away the best.
Don’t think so? Go out to dinner with a group of people from different nationalities. Ask them which cuisine is the best, all of them will reply with their own cuisine, except for those who are cosmopolitan. Regardless this is not a writing about cosmopolitanism.
I’d say the majority of people are naturally biased towards their culture, as it is simply how they are wired. Humans have a natural disposition towards self segregation, culture just happens to be one of the prime axis for it. However beyond this, the gene of cosmopolitanism is not a common one.
Why do some cultures prevail over others? Perhaps a question for later.
Elegance, like many other things in society is simply a construct, but hey I’ll gladly indulge in it. After all isn’t elegance one of the social constructs that stand out the most? Isn’t it one of the most desirable subjects of indulgence?
To be elegant is to indulge on one of the most exclusive, perhaps not necessarily insufferable, behavior. But again, it is not like I don’t advocate for decadence…
