Week 3 blog- Vivian
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Mandeville’s hive of bees thrive because of all the vices within their community. Each bee cheats, manipulates, and deceives in order to satisfy its own personal greed. However, this is what allows the community to flourish so well. The community’s value is built upon deceit. In Swift’s “The Lady’s Dressing Room”, he seems to agree that deception and value are connected with each other but in a different way. Swift believes that value itself is deceiving. While Celia appears perfect and beautiful in public, he reveals that in private, she is a disgusting mess. But again, in order to attain that value, Celia has to deceive others by going through numerous horrendous procedures. While their view of how deceit and value connect differ a bit, they both seem to agree that success and value aren’t how they appear to be. Getting there requires doing things that aren’t considered ‘good’.
If asked what makes something valuable, Swift would most likely respond that the labour put into it gives it value. At the end of “The Lady’s Dressing Room”, Swift concludes that instead of being disgusted at how Celia started out, you should be amazed at the finished product and appreciate all the labour that was put into getting there. Mandeville, on the other hand, did not seem to directly address what gives value. From “The Grumbling Hive”, you may deduce that he thinks labour itself is what’s valuable because bee’s seem to always be busy working and “They counted ease itself a vice” (404). Or you may believe that he thinks value is just value, you can get there anyway you want (through honest labour or cheat and deceit). Either way, both strongly agree that deceit plays a role in value.
Excellent focus, Vivian, and a clear description of the significance of the disagreement between Mandeville and Swift. I think that it ‘s interesting that you wrote “If asked what makes something valuable, Swift would most likely respond that the labour put into it gives it value.” I quite agree, and my question is this: is Swift implying that labour itself can be deceitful in some way? And would Mandeville agree with him? I’m asking in particular because, as you say, in Mandeville, it’s vices, rather than hard work, that make the economy flow; and this is why the rich are more important than the poor. Again, +1 for writing a post that is a straightforward and helpful discussion.