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You’re taking my buddy Fenwick. He’s an exceedingly loveable little man. His disposition is so sunny, his character so open, that even the Most Hardened Cynics, of whom my spouse is Worldwide Chairman, name Fenwick “completely lovely.” He’s the very incarnation of the Boy Scout creed: “reliable, loyal, useful, pleasant, courteous, type, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, courageous, clear (nice Scott! however he’s clear), reverent.”
Now you’ll assume that with a persona like that, Fenwick can be nearly the preferred man on our block. That isn’t so. Fenwick is nearly probably the most unpopular man on our block. Folks can’t stand him. I’ve seen Sunday-school lecturers with unblemished complexions, and account executives with split-level ranch homes, throw conniption suits on the mere point out of Fenwick’s title. Why? Why? I puzzled over this for years, utilizing the best puzzling tools cash should buy, earlier than I found the reply: Fenwick is a person who goes round being logical. He even makes use of purpose at cocktail events.
Now, most individuals consider in purpose the best way they consider in chilly showers: It’s O.Okay. in the event you don’t overdo it. Only a few persons are so insensitive as to go round making use of logic to different individuals’s beliefs. The constant software of purpose to human affairs is irrational. It’s also harmful, as you shall quickly discover out.
The essential hassle is that Fenwick, who could be very clever, assumes that different persons are very clever, too. And that, consider it or not, is the best way he talks to them. This makes individuals uneasy, for nothing is extra unsettling than to be handled as if you’re extraordinarily clever—particularly by somebody you hardly know. To keep away from disillusioning such a person requires that you just preserve a relentless state of alert, and assume earlier than you converse, which imposes merciless calls for in your mind. It even makes you look at the partly packaged platitudes you will have all the time employed as a substitute of considering. Few actions tire one out so quickly.
That is from an essay by Leo Rosten, a long-time buddy of Milton and Rose Friedman. “Fenwick” is Milton Friedman. Milton and Rose grew to become pals with Rosten within the Thirties, a reality I didn’t know till I learn their autobiography, Two Fortunate Folks. Rosten is the creator of, amongst others, The Joys of Yiddish, a e book I’ve had on my shelf and dipped into because the Eighties, after I began wanting to grasp Yiddish higher (having married right into a Jewish household.)
I knew Milton fairly properly, having first met him in Might 1970. I feel Rosten has him precisely proper.
Learn the complete factor, which is pleasant.
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