In his essay “Of
vain subtleties” (Essays I, 54)
Montaigne writes that “there are a sort of little knacks and frivolous
subtleties from which men sometimes expect to derive reputation and applause:
as poets, who compose whole poems with every line beginning with the same
letter.” Writing such poems was fashionable among the rhetoricians of his days.
They excelled in writing poems with literary tricks. For instance, the Dutch
national anthem, written about 1571 by an unknown author and the oldest
national anthem in the world, consists of fifteen verses and the first letters
of all verses together form the name Willem van Nassou, also known as William,
prince of Orange and count of Nassau, the leader of the Dutch struggle for
independence. However, so Montaigne, such vanities are not only mental but also
physical, for he tells us that “the cloth of state [=canopy] over our tables is
not permitted but in the palaces of princes and in taverns.” What is the use of
it except as a showpiece in honour of the owner?
Such “vain subtleties” were not only typical for Montaigne’s time. He found
them already among the old Greeks. It’s not surprising: “Tis a strong evidence
of a weak judgment when men approve of things for their being rare and new, or
for their difficulty, where worth and usefulness are not conjoined to recommend
them.” This human characteristic that existed already in the past still exists
today. Political leaders want to display their omnipotence and glory with useless
projects like highways that nobody needs or by building palaces that are by far
too big for themselves, but that are full of gold and gleam. The private palace
of the former Romanian dictator Ceaușescu (toppled in 1989) is a case in point,
but also the present renovation of the White House in Washington, D.C., the
residence of the US President, belongs to this category. But such vanities are
not more than striking extravagances, if one realizes that in fact the economy
of the western societies is based on such inutilities. There are shops and
websites that (literally!) sell “Useless Gifts” and even
such products like golden
toilet paper or bricks
for $ 30 each. However, these are only marginal cases, for a walk through a
random city centre will show you what I mean: Look how many fashion shops you
find there. Do we really need all those clothes? How often it happens that people
wear the clothes they have bought there only once or twice (or never!) and then
throw them away (sometimes only after years, ashamed that they bought it?). But
also in supermarkets, where we buy the products we really need each day, the
choice of products is so big that I wonder why. Do we really need a choice of,
say, more than ten types of toilet paper? Not to mention websites like TikTok
that try to sell products like fashion and makeup in the first place and to the
most vulnerable groups like children in the first place; groups of people who
actually don’t have the money for it and products they don’t need and often are
not worth the money. As Sander Bais wrote in an article titled (translated) “Of
vain subtleties” (indeed, inspired by Montaigne’s essay): “The point of
things is mainly that they are sold... Advertising and media firmly show us the
way to fulfilling our needs while also dictating what those needs are. Big
Brother determines which creams we should put on our skin, which meatball to
swallow, which films we should have seen and which books we will like very
much.” Are you surprised that such a society, so a society economically founded
on inutilities, vanity and superfluity, is on the way to its own ecological
destruction?
Although Montaigne, then, couldn’t see yet this actual meaning of his words in this
essay – so in spite of himself –, as so often he holds up a mirror to us. But
we see our image and close our eyes.
