Smith tells us we cannot form moral judgments regarding our own actions without assuming the station of another and “[endeavoring] to view them as at a certain distance from us” (281). He says that a human who grows up completely without society will not contemplate the moral implications of their passions. Only other people can provide a mirror fit for examining one’s self. Smith then goes on to say that if this isolated person were to enter society “all his own passions will immediately become the cause of new passions” because he would take joy in being pleasing to others and despair in those traits that disgusted them. Smith seems to think of this as a good thing, because it is through these feelings that we develop an “impartial spectator,” which commands the self in an honorable direction.
Reading this piece, especially the section about how our sense of human beauty turns on us to become a sense of personal anxiety immediately brought to mind Facebook and other social media sites. People create (or perhaps the appropriate word here is “craft”) detailed profiles of themselves and their lives and put them on display for hundreds of other people to judge. We decide which pictures and quotes we want to represent or define us, and constantly engage in conversation about our lives and the lives others in short, and (hopefully) witty posts. In a sense, we are utilizing the mirror that Smith seems to think humans benefit from. We get constant feedback on our vacations, education, relationships, community service trips, clothing and even our social circles. Yet, as Smith writes “It is evident, however, that we are anxious about our own beauty and deformity only upon account of its effect upon others” (282).
When Smith was writing his piece, the “mirror” that society provided was perhaps less clear than it is today. It seems to me that our society is so over-saturated with the minute details of every life that our human need to constantly refer back to the criticism and praise of others is hurting us more than helping. We antagonize over people’s comments and their deeper meanings, photos of friends and enemies, and constantly compare our actions and decisions to those of others—made all the easier by the fact that they are only a click away. Smith seems to think that these comparisons make us into better people, but I think that today the constant need to think about what others think is making us more “sordid and selfish” than “generous and noble” (286).
