You should read The Dawn of Everything, there are chapters devoted to the question.

The ‘Age of Reason’ was an age of debate. The Enlightenment was rooted in conversation; it took place largely in cafés and salons. Many classic Enlightenment texts took the form of dialogues; most cultivated an easy, transparent, conversational style clearly inspired by the salon. (It was the Germans, back then, who tended to write in the obscure style for which French intellectuals have since become famous.) Appeal to ‘reason’ was above all a style of argument. The ideals of the French Revolution– liberty, equality and fraternity– took the form they did in the course of just such a long series of debates and conversations. All we’re going to suggest here is that those conversations stretched back further than Enlightenment historians assume.

Let’s begin by asking: what did the inhabitants of New France make of the Europeans who began to arrive on their shores in the sixteenth century?

At that time, the region that came to be known as New France was inhabited largely by speakers of Montagnais- Naskapi, Algonkian and Iroquoian languages. Those closer to the coast were fishers, foresters and hunters, though most also practised horticulture; the Wendat (Huron), concentrated in major river valleys further inland, growing maize, squash and beans around fortified towns. Interestingly, early French observers attached little importance to such economic distinctions, especially since foraging or farming was, in either case, largely women’s work. The men, they noted, were primarily occupied in hunting and, occasionally, war, which meant they could in a sense be considered natural aristocrats. The idea of the ‘noble savage’ can be traced back to such estimations. Originally, it didn’t refer to nobility of character but simply to the fact that the Indian men concerned themselves with hunting and fighting, which back at home were largely the business of noblemen.

But if French assessments of the character of ‘savages’ tended to be decidedly mixed, the indigenous assessment of French character was distinctly less so. Father Pierre Biard, for example, was a former theology professor assigned in 1608 to evangelize the Algonkian- speaking Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia, who had lived for some time next to a French fort. Biard did not think much of the Mi’kmaq, but reported that the feeling was mutual: ‘They consider themselves better than the French: “For,” they say, “you are always fighting and quarrelling among yourselves; we live peaceably. You are envious and are all the time slandering each other; you are thieves and deceivers; you are covetous, and are neither generous nor kind; as for us, if we have a morsel of bread we share it with our neighbour.” They are saying these and like things continually.’ What seemed to irritate Biard the most was that the Mi’kmaq would constantly assert that they were, as a result, ‘richer’ than the French. The French had more material possessions, the Mi’kmaq conceded; but they had other, greater assets: ease, comfort and time.

Twenty years later Brother Gabriel Sagard, a Recollect Friar, wrote similar things of the Wendat nation. Sagard was at first highly critical of Wendat life, which he described as inherently sinful (he was obsessed with the idea that Wendat women were all intent on seducing him), but by the end of his sojourn he had come to the conclusion their social arrangements were in many ways superior to those at home in France. In the following passages he was clearly echoing Wendat opinion: ‘They have no lawsuits and take little pains to acquire the goods of this life, for which we Christians torment ourselves so much, and for our excessive and insatiable greed in acquiring them we are justly and with reason reproved by their quiet life and tranquil dispositions.’ Much like Biard’s Mi’kmaq, the Wendat were particularly offended by the French lack of generosity to one another: ‘They reciprocate hospitality and give such assistance to one another that the necessities of all are provided for without there being any indigent beggar in their towns and villages; and they considered it a very bad thing when they heard it said that there were in France a great many of these needy beggars, and thought that this was for lack of charity in us, and blamed us for it severely.’

Wendat cast a similarly jaundiced eye at French habits of conversation. Sagard was surprised and impressed by his hosts’ eloquence and powers of reasoned argument, skills honed by near-daily public discussions of communal affairs; his hosts, in contrast, when they did get to see a group of Frenchmen gathered together, often remarked on the way they seemed to be constantly scrambling over each other and cutting each other off in conversation, employing weak arguments, and overall (or so the subtext seemed to be) not showing themselves to be particularly bright. People who tried to grab the stage, denying others the means to present their arguments, were acting in much the same way as those who grabbed the material means of subsistence and refused to share it; it is hard to avoid the impression that Americans saw the French as existing in a kind of Hobbesian state of ‘war of all against all’. (It’s probably worthy of remark that especially in this early contact period, Americans were likely to have known Europeans largely through missionaries, trappers, merchants and soldiers – that is, groups almost entirely composed of men. There were at first very few French women in the colonies, and fewer children. This probably had the effect of making the competitiveness and lack of mutual care among them seem all the more extreme.)

Here’s another section where they quote a debate between Kondiaronk, a Wendat chief, and the governor of Montreal in the 1699:

Kondiaronk: I have spent 6 years reflecting on the state of European society and I still can’t think of a single way they act that is not inhuman and I generally think this can only be the case as long as you stick to your distinctions of “mine” and “thine.” I affirm that what you call “money” is the devil of devils, the tyrant of the French, the source of all evils, the bane of souls and slaughterhouse of the living. To imagine one can live in the country of money and preserve one’s soul is like imagining one can preserve one’s life at the bottom of a lake. Money is the father of luxury, lasciviousness, intrigues, trickery, lies, betrayal, insincerity—of all the world’s worst behavior. Fathers sell their children, husbands their wives, wives betray their husbands, brothers kill each other, friends are false—and all because of money. In light of all of this, tell me that we Wyandotte are not right in refusing to touch or so much as look at silver.

Do you seriously imagine that I would be happy to live like one of the inhabitants of Paris? To take two hours every morning just to put on my shirt and make up? To bow and scrape before every obnoxious galoot I meet on the street who happens to have been born with an inheritance? Do you actually imagine I could carry a purse full of coins and not immediately hand them over to people who are hungry? That I would carry a sword but not immediately draw it on the first band of thugs I see rounding up the destitute to press them into Naval service? If on the other hand, Europeans were to adopt an American way of life, it might take a while to adjust but in the end you will be far happier.

Callière: Try, for once in your life to actually listen. Can’t you see, my dear friend, that the nations of Europe could not survive without gold and silver or some similar precious symbol? Without it, nobles, priests, merchants and any number of others who lack the strength to work the soil would simply die of hunger. Our kings would not be kings. What soldiers would we have? Who would work for Kings or anyone else?

Kondiaronk: You honestly think you’re going to sway me by appealing to the needs of nobles, merchants, and priests? If you abandoned conceptions of mine and thine, yes, such distinctions between men would dissolve. A leveling equality would take place among you, as it now does among the Wyandotte and yes, for the first thirty years after the banishing of self-interest no doubt you would indeed see a certain desolation as those who are only qualified to eat, drink, sleep, and take pleasure would languish and die, but their progeny would be fit for our way of living. Over and over I have set forth the qualities that we Wyandotte believe ought to define humanity: wisdom, reason, equity, etc. and demonstrated that the existence of separate material interest knocks all these on the head. A man motivated by interest cannot be a man of reason.

You’re absolutely right, thanks!

ABC agrees to give $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle defamation lawsuit

Of course my point about appeasing fascists still stands, but it’s important to have the facts straight. Much appreciated.

Weird, I thought appeasing fascists made them stop attacking you.

Nice job, ABC. Guess that merger was worth losing all your credibility, huh?

Thanks for the recommendation. I bookmarked this comment in case they put ads in the app that I paid money for years ago. I got the ad update today, so I switched.

This dickhead made people return to the office, but he zoom calls into a Fascist rally. You can’t make this shit up.

Yeah, he’s definitely going to try and minimize his strokes this weekend.

The very first thing he says is the most damning.

He wanted to use the death penalty against the people who stood up to Trump’s fascist insurrection.

Dude got what he earned.

That’s Madison “Cousin Humper” Cawthorn.

It’s so hard to get into it; I’d never played one before I picked it up either.

This is a good entry-level lute. I had wanted one for a while before I got mine, but I was worried about spending so much and having it be unplayable.

I fortunately talked to another musician who had one of these already and he sounded fantastic, so I decided to take the plunge. I’m glad I did! There’s nothing like playing period music on the actual instrument that would have been used (modern convenience like temperament aside) and reading from historical tabs.

I ran into the guy again about a month ago, and he has an incredible luthier-made theorbo that sounds amazing. Maybe I’ll get one of those some day lol!

Unlimited funding from billionaires helps a lot, too.

He’s considered a founder of TPUSA, but he was just a blowhard with a tiny face who could be a good mouthpiece for the worst people on earth.

I play the renaissance lute, which also uses tied frets. I just play in equal temperament because its easier and my ear isn’t that good. I’m merely an ambitious amateur though, maybe I’ll get into it one of these days.

Yup, they use wrapped gut frets. They’re moveable so that the musicians could adjust intonation in the period before equal temperament was invented.

I certainly see where you’re coming from; there’s a difference though.

Charlie Kirk was fighting to overturn the social contract; he didn’t think the country has to accommodate LGB (and especially T) folks, atheists, Muslims, leftists, single women, et cetera. Hell, he loved political violence directed against Democrats.

People who break the social contract should not be surprised when they lose its protection.

Exactly what I’d expect from the billionaire leech class.

I wonder what he thinks about a thirty-eight year old man dating a seventeen year old? Oh wait we know already.

Dude’s been fuckin’ gross for years, nobody should take moral advice from this pedo.

I play early music, and what we call a viol de gamba is a different thing; the viola is fretless and held under the chin like a violin, while the viol de gamba is a renaissance/baroque-era fretted instrument that is held between the legs and comes in treble, tenor, and bass sizes.

Savall plays the latter.

To further confuse the matter, there’s a renaissance-era instrument called the vielle that is played more like a modern violin or viola.

Recorders sound incredible in consort! I play the tenor myself. Glad to see another player of early music around here.

I bet the billionaires who back it will put Candace Owens in charge next.

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure for me.

They’re called Ferengi, but yeah close enough.

Lots of stuff from I Might Be Wrong by Radiohead. Like Spinning Plates, especially.