Kyla Lafleur writes "Oh Bob, your arrogance squeals
like nails on a chalkboard between and within the lines of almost everything
you write on this blog. But we think you are great anyway.” This very much reassured me that my readers understand
me.
The answer to the Pop Quiz is this: Each of us has a public face, a front, as we say, which means not only our
official persona but the front of our
bodies [as opposed to the back or the behind, which is private, covered up,
dirty, but secretly enticing and exciting].
We try very hard to communicate the lie that this front is the real
person. But we are always fascinated,
when we look at other people, by what lies behind
that public face, that front. Most
often, the discovery of what lies behind a person’s front causes us to lower
our opinion of the person, to say, disapprovingly or dismissively, “Oh, that
front is not what he or she is really
like.” However, with some people, to whom we accord a special
or elevated status, this process of re-assessment is reversed. When we discover the secret weaknesses or
foibles of someone we admire, those imperfections make him or her more human,
more accessible, without lowering our opinion at all.
When I speak openly about aspects of my personality or
behavior that would ordinarily be kept private so as not to incur disapproval,
I am implicitly asserting that I am one of those special people whose private
failings amuse us or make the person seem human. In short, my confession of envy of Rawls’
reputation is an expression of arrogance.
Well, enough about me.
Let’s talk about you. What do you
think of me?
14 comments:
And so this explanation is itself yet another expression of arrogance? ;)
of course
The arrogance is justified. But kvelling over offspring? This almost tests a person's patience.
When you ask "what do you think of me?", I recall King Lear, who in his old age made the mistake of asking his daughters for their real opinion of him and got the answers that such a question deserves.
I think that if you insist on being perceived as an arrogant prick you should at least be one in a way that I can recognize as arrogant instead of you having to tell me so later. Then I could write nasty comments about you and you could ban me from the blog and I could spend the rest of my days remembering that arrogant philosopher I had the misfortune to read. I am afraid your supposed arrogance is too subtle for me to detect so maybe this is similar to the question about the tree falling in the forest making a noise if no one heard it.
It's an old stand-up comic's joke! I was mocking my self-involvement. Jeez!
Ah, the arrogance of constructing a mock quiz for your readers just to inform them their answers were wrong... This is becoming unbearable. :)
My answers weren't wrong. Prof Wolff may be arrogant, but I have a superiority complex.
LOL! Thank you for that one F Lengyel! You made my day brighter.
Imagine, constructing a blog where everything is about you and what you think... and then thinking out loud, as it were, about talking about yourself as though the tenor of conversation had changed...ahhh the humanity!
Walking into the empty sanctuary of his synagogue, a rabbi was suddenly possessed by a wave of mystical rapture, and threw himself onto the ground before the Ark proclaiming, "Lord, I'm Nothing!"
Seeing the rabbi in such a state, the cantor felt profoundly moved by similar emotions. He too, threw himself down in front of the Ark, proclaiming, "Lord, I'm Nothing!"
Then, way in the back of the synagogue, the janitor threw himself to the ground, and he too shouted, "Lord, "I'm Nothing."
Whereupon, the rabbi turned to the cantor and whispered, "Look who thinks he's Nothing!"
David, I love it!!! Touche. [accent missing]
Arrogance in the service of truth is no vice. Humility in the service of lies is no virtue.
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