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I think there's a corollary to the nootin that people are inevitably driven by short-term desires that shows up in individuals' assessments of their own characters. I am thinking of the common self description of the form "I am so I don't ." This statement is made as though this is a concrete inevitable nonmalleable truth. I am not talking about adjectives that reflect hard realities ("I am 4 feet tall so I don't easily reach the top shelf without a stepstool"). I mean expressions like "I am lazy so I don't do physical work" or "I am distractible so I don't finish projects." These feeling are presented as simple facts, even justifications. Once upon a time these sorts of attributes were viewed as challenges within our characters to be overcome through discipline. Now they seem to be worn almost proudly as validations for our actions. I'm sure I have told this next story before...A few years ago I spend months out on a scaffolding meticulously scraping, sanding, repairing, and repainting our 1886 vintage Carpenter Gothic front porch, the only surviving example of its kind in the entire county. All the others have succumbed to the quick-fix and been replaced by boring 20th century stuff bought at the Big Box Home Center. At one point one of our neighbors driving by stopped and hollered out the window "That's so beautiful! I would never have the patience to do something like that." To which my unspoken reply was "Yes, and that is why you will never have something like this." She just took it as a given that she was an impatient flake, that's all there is to it, and she is almost proud of this fact.Apparently in the modern world character is simply what you are born with, and you can no more work to change it that you can grow a third arm. This is especially odd given how much mass culture likes to glorify those who overcome extreme physical challenges, such people with no legs who compete in marathons. But modest individual personality quirks? Just accept them, indulge them, revel in them, and expect the rest of the world to accommodate to you rather than cultivating the teeniest drop of self-discipline within your own constitution.
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(VISITOR) AUTHOR'S NAME
Coby
MESSAGE TIMESTAMP
20 december 2014, 03:35:02
AUTHOR'S IP LOGGED
190.203.196.128
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