“Discontented with your present condition for reasons which portend still greater discontent for your unfortunate posterity, you will perhaps wish you could go back in time - and this feeling must express the the praise of your early ancestors, the accusation of your contemporaries, and the terror of those who have the misfortune to live after you” (p.79). In Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality, he not only argues for inequalities between men, but also the inequality of happiness between pre-civilized and post-civilized human beings. Rousseau believes that, as savages, humanity lives a simple and oblivious lifestyle, unaware of their own existence, with "self-preservation being [their] only concern" (P.86). Rousseau defines this monotonous existence as happiness, but with a constant and unchanging lifestyle, comfort and indifference seem to surpass the characterizations. Modern life, which Rousseau sees as an oppressive abyss of misery, pits wild nature against its diversity and therefore the possibility of happiness. Although Rousseau successfully describes the adequate lifestyle of the “savage people,” he fails to convince readers of greater pre-civilized happiness. Rousseau begins his speech by introducing the wild man and his seemingly preferable lifestyle. He sees man as “satisfying his hunger under an oak, quenching his thirst at the first stream, finding his bed under the same tree that provided his meal; and behold, his needs are satisfied” (P.81). Whatever man's desires, limited to those concerning self-preservation, he can realize them easily and effortlessly. Being an undeniably tranquil and simplistic lifestyle, Rousseau idealizes the savage life as a life that surpasses civilized life for its greater happiness... middle of paper... leader of a dominant happiness in the civilized state. In the savage state, men are like machines that perform the actions necessary for self-preservation, but civilization offers the possibility of loosening the grip on their comfortable nature and entering the unknown, providing them with authentic happiness. The introduction of desires, inequality and government strip man of his oblivion and throw him on an irreversible but promising path. Despite the innumerable changes undergone by man, one statement applies to both savage and civilized man; “It will not be the strongest or most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change” (Darwin). Works Cited Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. A speech on inequality. Trans. Maurice Cranston. London: Penguin Books, 1984. Print.Darwin, Charles Robert. The origin of species. New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909. Print.