Monday, May 27, 2013
Humanity's narcissism
Clearly Swift's portrayal of the Houyhnhnm society satirizes man's narcissism regarding our place on earth. In this part, the Houyhnhnm's rationality puts them ahead of the Yahoos. But so far, the Houyhnhnms are not taking advantage of the Yahoos, contrasting with the generally abusive relationship between people and horses (and the rest of nature) in our society. Perhaps Swift is trying to bring humanity's ego into question. Since both societies see themselves as "the perfection of nature", we may see more evidence of the Houyhnhnm's self centeredness on par with humanity's.
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I agree that Swift pointed out the narcissism of the human race, with all our flaws we still declare ourselves the superior beings and put the rest in servitude. However, in the situation of the book, I don't think the Houyhnhnms were self centered or narcissistic. They had a society ruled by logic and reason, and kept it in order fairly. Although there was a sort of racism issue with the darker horses being of higher rank and the lighter ones being servants, they were not abusive, and their society was overall successful, much better in all ways than our own.
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