Uniqueness is a modern malady and those who suffer from it are condemned to a life of loneliness. We in the West work hard but we are torn by our troubles given the emptiness of our rewards. We are prosperous and educated but we have mortgaged our individuation and consigned our distinctive fingerprint to the fanciful reliquaries of quirk.
I know exactly three people of unimpeachable integrity. Unfortunately, one is dead, one is mad and one is a world class trou de cul.
Hélas, it is better than nothing.
Let's leave aside for now the first two and focus on the third: My good friend David Schoffman.
You may wonder, how can I classify Schoffman as a rare man of honor and yet describe him with that classic French profanity?
Simple.
Men (& women) of virtue earn their stature by the transparency of their character. With Schoffman one always knows where one stands and it's usually in the gutter of disdain. To say he suffers little foolishness in others is to tame his wicked stridency to the stature of a hood ornament. To Schoffman the only things that matter are ideas and in typical Manachian fashion, for him there are only two kinds:
Bad ones and questionable ones.
And herein lies the true definition of integrity.
To observe the world as closely as one can, alive to its warmth, its depth and its contradictions and to express ones relationship to these circumstances with complete intellectual brutality.
What is the definition of a
trou de cul?
Someone who expects and demands the same fidelity in others.
I'm honored to call him a friend.
Despite the fact that I can't stand him.
Hélas, it is better than nothing.
Let's leave aside for now the first two and focus on the third: My good friend David Schoffman.
Simple.
Men (& women) of virtue earn their stature by the transparency of their character. With Schoffman one always knows where one stands and it's usually in the gutter of disdain. To say he suffers little foolishness in others is to tame his wicked stridency to the stature of a hood ornament. To Schoffman the only things that matter are ideas and in typical Manachian fashion, for him there are only two kinds:
Bad ones and questionable ones.
And herein lies the true definition of integrity.
To observe the world as closely as one can, alive to its warmth, its depth and its contradictions and to express ones relationship to these circumstances with complete intellectual brutality.
What is the definition of a
trou de cul?
Someone who expects and demands the same fidelity in others.
I'm honored to call him a friend.
Despite the fact that I can't stand him.
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