Letter to d'Alembert (Outside Reading)

March 9th, 2022

One of the most recent writings that we've read in my leadership class on Jean-Jacques Rousseau is his 'Letter to d'Alembert', an enlightenment philosopher. In this letter, Rousseau essentially stands up for the concept of censorship, especially relating to the theater. Rousseau sees the advent of the theater as a risk to society. He believes that the theater only reinforces the bad morals of society but does not reinforce the good ones.

Giving a comprehensive example of how the theater can negatively affect a group of people, he talks about people that live in the mountains of Switzerland. These people are generally subsistent and live far away from each other. They are not totally isolated, but certainly don't interact daily. These people are highly educated because they have so much time to themselves and are only concerned with their livelihood and maintaining their home and crops. He imagines that the town builds a theater in the middle of the square for the pleasure of the residents. Obviously, at first there is lots of excitement. People begin going to plays and things seem to be great. Soon, though, the plays become a central part of society and these townspeople begin centering their life around the theater. The wealthiest man's wife spends her week preparing the outfit and hair style that she will attend the weekend's play. Other women are jealous of her and try to bolster their wardrobes to match her style. The men become concerned with academic pursuits in order to impress the other men, rather than for their own edification. Years later, this small, sleepy town of happy people has turned into a vengeful and pride-filled city of unhappy citizens. For Rousseau, then, the theater should not be allowed. How does this relate to the class? Is theater, to the extent that Rousseau is talking about, possible in an oral culture? What would Rousseau think about the relationship between written word and the happiness of human beings? Should be censor different parts of the written word? Was there such thing as censorship in oral cultures?

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