Here's a cogent passage from that Gopnik article on Popper that Dratfink had posted.
But what really underlay the contradiction between
what he thought and what he was, I now think, after
a quarter-century's reflection, is a perversity of
human nature so deep that it is almost a law-the
Law of the Mental Mirror Image. We write what we
are not. It is not merely that we fail to live up to our
best ideas but that our best ideas, and the tone that
goes with them, tend to be the opposite of our
natural temperament. Rousseau wrote of the feelings
of the heart and the beauties of nature while stewing
and seething in a little room. Dr. Johnson pleaded for
Christian stoicism in desperate fear of damnation.
The masters of the wry middle style, Lionel Trilling
and Randall Jarrell, were mired in sadness and
confusion. The angry and competitive man (James
Thurber) writes tender and rueful humor because his
own condition is what he seeks to escape. The
apostles of calm reason are hypersensitive and
neurotic…
I just want to say how true it is. And if any of you have been taken in by that namby-pamby, new age nonsense posted elsewhere, well, just let me assure you that it's strictly therapeutic. I require the bandwidth in order to dispense with these awful impulses of love and understanding that torment me. I am so thankful to have this means of eliminating my baggage, so that I can get back to my real business of being one nasty bastard!
O you think yer the meanest bird in the tree do ya... looking forward to getting truly vicious widja.
|
- alex 4-01-2002 6:34 pm
O you think yer the meanest bird in the tree do ya... looking forward to getting truly vicious widja.
- frank 4-01-2002 6:56 pm [add a comment]