This behavioral tendency of man towards his contemporaries is very peculiar: at the same time that he is unimpressed with, when he does not despise, the truly extraordinary, he endorses and praises everything that makes up the range from the mediocre to the truly despicable. That is why one can never trust a contemporaneous judgment on anything, at the risk of embarking on the most scandalous frauds and injustices. We always have to wait for history to dispassionately put everything in its proper place.
Tag: behavior
The Right to Disturb
In Brazilian society, the right to disturb prevails over the right not to be disturbed, which is fundamental to peaceful coexistence in the civilized world. In the civilized world, anyone who disturbs immediately ceases to be reasonable and is condemned by common sense; in the Brazilian jungle, woe betide anyone who thinks he has the right not to suffer frequent disturbances! It is said that in Tokyo, what is most surprising is the silence that permeates the busy avenues, the muteness of the huge buildings, the noise that does not emanate from commerce. A Brazilian dog, in Tokyo, seems destined to go mad.
Sometimes It Is Amusing to Imagine…
Sometimes it is amusing to imagine the reaction of one of these very real and literary Europeans, who combine their routine bad humor with the practice of misanthropy, if they were exposed to the boldness of these street peddlers who abound in Brazil’s metropolises. How long could they stand it without exploding and ending up aggressing? Hard to say… But it would only take a few minutes on foot on any busy avenue for them to notice that here there is no such thing as this embarrassment, this healthy inhibition in front of a stranger, this respect that is manifested by a desire not to bother. No, no… the opposite is true here, and the same irritation would arise in the peddler hit by the disappointment of meeting a passer-by who is not entirely available, entirely open and eager for an untimely approach. Two animals whose relationship can only be summed up in repulsion and confrontation and which God, for the good of the planet, does well to separate.
The Extremes to Which Vanity Throws the Spirit
It never ceases to amaze the extremes to which vanity throws the spirit, fostering this despicable need to affirm one’s importance before others. With every manifestation of this kind, a bad feeling rises up in the observer, a feeling that only a saint could convert into pity and mercy. Indeed, moral charity is the most painful of all the virtues, and perhaps only possible for those touched by a higher inspiration.