Lessons from past

Montesquieu’s words still ring true Guest writer

Reading the eminent 19th century French Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu’s “Persian Letters,” where the author used two travelers from afar to criticize many aspects of French society, I found it eerily timely in 2021 America.

The Vatican banned this book and his “Spirit of Laws.” One might compare this to the demonizing today of scientists and social-justice advocates by many pastors. Montesquieu raises significant questions about theological leaders who intentionally mislead their congregants, about the horrors of the Inquisition by so-called “civilized” religious leaders, about people who argue interminably about religion while appearing to be the least devout. He criticized the amount of blood shed by Christians in the name of Christ.

As I read his quotes on religion, I thought of current-day memes of a muscular Caucasian blond, blueeyed Jesus who carries an automatic weapon which seems to represent the image of the Prince of Peace held by many today. That image reminds me of this Montesquieu statement: “If triangles had a God, they would give him three sides.”

As for governments, Montesquieu was a big supporter of tripartite powers of administrative, legislative and judicial arms, the critical importance of checks and balances. According to a source listed in Wikipedia, his work was cited more by the American founders than any other source except the Bible.

His work was a powerful influence on James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution” — the same James Madison who Donald Trump mistakenly replaced with Thomas Jefferson in a recent rant as the principal writer of the Constitution. By the time writing of the Constitution took place, Jefferson was away in France.

Afew thought-provoking gems from my research stood out as worth revisiting in 2021. Firstly, “Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit” — not the right to harm others by your actions. I fully suspect Montesquieu would urge us to mask up and to get vaccinated for that very reason.

Secondly, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “for Montesquieu certain things are intrinsically evil: despotism, slavery, intolerance.” In these, he was clearly ahead of his time! He mentioned despotism often, never in a positive light. I believe he would be horrified that the ever-grifting despot wannabe is eroding our democratic republic that was based so closely on his wise tenets.

Thirdly, in “Persian Letters,” the two fictional foreigners are quick to criticize society in Europe while remaining utterly unaware of their own ugly despotism in holding eunuchs as slaves and wives in their harems as property to be protected from the sight of other men.

The inability to recognize their own faults is a universal theme that played out in the book and plays out even today in all of us. Their opinion of their wives’ required submission to their whims again rings true today as legislators in this state, oblivious to the dictum of separation of church and state, create laws that relegate women to second-class citizens who must be subservient to their lord and master, and who have little agency over their own bodies and lives.

Lastly, he “maintained a firm belief in human dignity.” I pray that Arkansans and Americans learn to see dignity of all human beings, of prisoners, of refugees and immigrants, of those who have traditionally been held down as “other.”

When we humanize rather than de-humanize, when we celebrate diversity rather than homogeneity, society as a whole will be kinder and gentler. Who doesn’t yearn for that?

Mary Remmel Wohlleb of Little Rock has a master’s in French Literature from Middlebury College and a master’s of International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management, focusing in part on cross-cultural communication.