Tag: behavior

It is notorious that the so-called temperamental predispositions are almost always anchored in experience, thus removing much of the meaning they seem to suggest. Much of what psychology says about environmental conditioning and its long-term impacts is definitely true, and it is indisputable that the environment interferes and shapes, its effect being proportional to the exposure time and intensity of the contact. Thus, whether we like it or not, we carry something with us from it, and precisely for this reason, distancing ourselves from it is fundamental in case this something inclines to the undesirable. Blocking oneself and creating psychological barriers to avoid its influence is possible and, in extreme cases, indispensable; but an experience, even if it bears fruit, cannot, no matter how much one may wish, simply be erased.

A person with some education does not interrupt another on the telephone; but he interrupts, without fearing for an instant, one who is thinking, as soon as he has the slightest and most insignificant communicative impulse. From this one can only conclude that thinking is a disease, and that normal people are not used to it; otherwise they would certainly know that a “excuse me” or an “I beg your pardon” in no way lessens the violent and abrupt cut they operate in the flow of ideas, which may never return. Neither morals nor conventions have taken care of this incomparable inconvenience: there are no restraints of any kind on the person who feels the desire to approach a stranger; quite the contrary, it is the stranger who will seem rude if he does not pay attention to the one who demands it. And, finally, how much satisfaction it gave to see for the first time that Karl Kraus noticed it! It is a subject for a whole book, and yet everyone seems accustomed to hearing news when they go to the barbershop; to being approached insistently by anyone who comes forward with the intention of selling. Well done, well done!

It is true that the last two centuries have accustomed man to a workload unthinkable in other times. From this we can see that, as far as literature is concerned, the works of great authors have taken on greater proportions: today, the natural thing is for serious writers to be like typewriters and to produce, time permitting, dozens of volumes. What can we conclude? First, that perhaps fecundity has become vulgar, as it is almost a contemporary requirement; second, that, as a result, one can no longer associate fecundity with the old estrus, since the former has become as automated by the spirit of this time; finally, that perhaps one has to admit that such fecundity entails a vice—a vice which, more than ever, one must be careful to avoid…

There are no more despicable human models than those who, when faced with real or imaginary inferiority, make a point of humiliating. Words are lacking… Such a manifestation of bad nature only occurs in vile spirits, deserving of the fullest contempt in all spheres. The satisfaction they derive from this arrogance, which seems to elevate their sense of importance, should, in a just world, be followed by a humiliation so complete that it would forbid, until the end of their lives, the mere idea that they might perhaps be superior to someone else in something.