Idealism
TheExecutive has this thing about not meeting your idols. If that doesn’t make sense to you yet, it’s just something to think about.
It’s really easy to let people embody the ideas you believe in and I think it might be because it sets you up with escape clause you can always invoke. It’s much harder to accept that the responsibility, and even the belief, exists entirely within yourself.
It’s easy to let another person’s passion for an idea embody the strength of it itself and become hopelessly disillusioned if the two ever get muddled. It’s even easier to let the attention of others be the barometer of how you feel about yourself, forgetting that you’re staying the same, only the notice fluctuates.
The only thing that will never let you down are ideas and yourself. Just something to keep in mind.
Is this about me?
If anything, that sounds like greater reason to meet your idols. Idealism is fine in certain contexts but why would you willingly accept the illusion you’ve created about others?
Wow, you put that into words so well that I have the urge to leave a comment.
You’ve NEVER let yourself down? And even if you haven’t, I’d hardly believe you could generalize that the only things that won’t let people down are “ideas” and “themselves.” People let themselves down everyday in a multitude of ways. Additionally, as someone who reads history and evolutionary psychology, I think you’d be well aware that ideas have let people down as well. The ONLY thing that can’t let you down is truth. But that is inductive logic…and I hate inductive logic. Perhaps you are trying to say that the only things that are true are ideas and yourself (a little cogito action), but I think thats reading into it a bit much.
Above – Dude what the fuck are you talking about? Maybe you let yourself down because you’re crazy. His point seems very clear: don’t let people personify your belief in things since people are fallible. Yes, we too are fallible and so are ideas but in a completely different sense.
Comment FAIL
In my head, my idols are just kickass versions of myself.
But you meet them and you realise that they have a complete personality that’s probably nothing like yours.
Isn’t that why famous people Always Say Less Than Necessary?
Every word you say makes your target audience smaller.
Hers’s an image for S:
http://alessonislearned.com/index.php?comic=34
“The only thing that will never let you down are ideas and yourself. Just something to keep in mind. ”
I originally read that as “The only thing that will EVER let you down…”
It’s funny I agreed with it the first time I read it (incorrectly), and the second time I read it (correctly).
Agree with The Exec.
Thanks for the post
I corrected a couple minor spelling errors in the Wiki article on animal quotes, but saw a couple more things I wasn’t sure enough about to touch:
The Lippizan horse link is broken; it should go to this section
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipizzan#The_Rescue_of_the_Lipizzans
I don’t know how to do links on Wiki, so I brought that here.
In the quote about Ashurnasirpal killing lions, is that supposed to be “killed 450 mightY lions” or as it exists presently as “killed 450 might lions”?
“When I read a novel that I really like, I feel as if I am in direct, personal communication with the author. I feel as if the author and I are on the same wavelength mentally, that we have a lot in common with each other, and that we could have an interesting conversation, or even a friendship, if the circumstances permitted it. When the novel comes to an end, I feel a certain letdown, a loss of contact. It is natural to want to recapture that feeling by reading other works by the same author, or by corresponding with him/her directly.
[…]
A novel represents years of hard work distilled into a few hundred pages, with all (or at least most) of the bad ideas cut out and thrown away, and the good ideas polished and refined as much as possible. Interacting with an author in person is nothing like reading his novels. Just about everyone who gets an opportunity to meet with an author in person ends up feeling mildly let down, and in some cases, grievously disappointed.”
– From “Why I am a Bad Correspondent” by Neal Stephenson