Curiously, influence and success are often accompanied by controversy, and controversy by envy, hatred, and defamation. This rule applies regardless of the personalities and the nature of what is exposed to the public, which loves and hates, admires and envies. Polemicists know it as well as saints and spiritual leaders. The noble and the scoundrel, the impassioned and the refined, are all familiar with it. Thus, to seek the former without understanding the natural course of things is to subject oneself to a rather unpleasant ordeal from which there seems to be no escape.
Category: Notes
Just as What a Carioca Would Call “personality”…
Just as what a Carioca would call “personality” may seem like immodesty to a stranger, that same stranger, when in contact with Chinese people, might find their modesty strange, as it sometimes seems exaggerated or irrational. It turns out that, in both cases, such impressions would be false and would say nothing about the individuals, other than that they are in harmony with local customs. Here, we can see how much confusion contact with other peoples can generate, and how little we can know about individuals when we ignore the rules of behavior that prevail in their region.
Elon Musk Continues to Encourage Me…
Elon Musk continues to encourage me weekly to do something crazy. According to him, my future is already guaranteed, my life is already won. “Don’t worry about money,” the multi-billionaire advises me. And I, emotionally wanting to convince myself, go over examples in my mind ranging from Fernando Pessoa to the renunciants of India, from Taleb to St. Francis of Assisi. Everything converges on the unreasonable act that, my own mind now tells me, if it proves to be unreasonable, will at least be courageous, stimulating, or, in the worst-case scenario, unique. “I’m going to go for it!,” I say to myself, knowing that I won’t be able to do it. Imagining how big the pile of my insignificant bills still to be paid would be, I can only smile at Elon Musk.
The Same Organizing Impulse That…
The same organizing impulse that drives the philosopher has an important, but different, weight for the poet. This impulse outlines, structures, organizes, and makes a poetic work comprehensible and justified; it enhances its effect by filling the verses with meaning, putting everything in its place within the whole. However, a poetic work often needs explosions that amplify the effect of the previous and subsequent harmony, beyond its most obvious expressive effects. For the brief period in which they occur, order must sometimes be suspended, chaos must be allowed; otherwise, the rapture is not complete. Allowing it repeatedly, one realizes that, after all, it is such raptures that leave the greatest mark on a poetic work; therefore, the most memorable are the brief moments when there was a break with what was theoretically intended.