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!
Tag: behavior
It Is True That the Last Two Centuries…
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…
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.
There Is Nothing More Comfortable for the Inconsequent…
There is nothing more comfortable for the inconsequent, the coward, the immature and the scoundrel than Freud’s ideas, which attribute human action either to an uncontrollable impulse or to unconscious conditioning, always exempting the individual from responsibility for his own actions. The fault, then, is never in the being that deliberately chooses, because he can never do so, since he is dominated by superior forces from which he can never free himself. Freud’s enormous success stems mainly from the fact that he greatly stimulated the human propensity to victimization, which is infinitely more comfortable than the thankless path of maturity. If psychoanalysis were not obscene, it would be fair to compare it to a grandmother incapable of giving her innocent grandchild any treatment other than that of rubbing her hand on his head and giving him a piece of sponge cake.