The caste system, if interpreted as a system of psychological types, is all too well founded. Much can be said about the number of types, their characteristics and their predominance, or not, in this or that society. What cannot be doubted is the existence of men with such different motivations and predispositions that, even if they are born and live on the same soil, they do not understand each other very much. This is why it will always be impossible to establish a model of life that everyone should strive for: the ideal for some is failure and death for others.
Category: Notes
The Noblest Function of Humor
The noblest function of humor is to appear as a defense and a relief when despair seems inevitable. This is proven by countless biographies, such as that of Polish lieutenant Slavomir Rawicz, who was arrested and taken to Siberia by the Soviets. It is moving to see him speak with the utmost gratitude of the prisoners who, in the midst of misery, anguish and fatigue, were able to crack a joke. It does not sound like much. But there, laughter was like a miracle, invigorating and purifying. Perhaps true humor only manifests itself in the moments of greatest tension; at least, that’s when it definitely proves its worth.
Perhaps the Most Common Element…
Perhaps the most common element in frustrated biographies of talented men is the inability to stop an undesirable course of events, the inability to go against what is convenient for the sake of one’s own affirmation. In this, they end up wasting themselves. Talent is not accompanied by responsibility for it, and this, if not developed and cultivated, will cause the great possibilities to be dispersed in a great lament.
There Are Authors With Truly Impressive…
There are authors with truly impressive powers of assimilation, and we realize that they often cannot define whether the ideas they express are their own or come from the references they reveal. Of course, there is some foundation for true learning. In order for an idea to be grasped, it has to be felt as one’s own, even if it is later abandoned. Ideally, however, the greatest intellectual will be the one who encompasses everything and absorbs everything; thus, since nothing is foreign to him, he is able to express everything as his own.