on ben franklin's virtues# LeisureTime - 读书听歌看电影
w*g
1 楼
THE Perfectibility of Man! Ah heaven, what a dreary theme! The
perfectibility of the Ford car! The perfectibility of which man? I am many
men. Which of them are you going to perfect? I am not a mechanical
contrivance.
Education! Which of the various me's do you propose to educate, and which do
you propose to suppress?
Anyhow, I defy you. I defy you, oh society, to educate me or to suppress me
, according to your dummy standards.
The ideal man! And which is he, if you please? Benjamin Franklin or Abraham
Lincoln? The ideal man! Roosevelt or Porfirio Diaz?
There are other men in me, besides this patient ass who sits here in a tweed
jacket. What am I doing, playing the patient ass in a tweed jacket? Who am
I talking to?
Who are you, at the other end of this patience? Who are you? How many selves
have you? And which of these selves do you want to be?
Is Yale College going to educate the self that is in the dark of you, or
Harvard College?
The ideal self! Oh, but I have a strange and fugitive self shut out and
howling like a wolf or a coyote under the ideal windows. See his red eyes in
the dark? This is the self who is coming into his own.
The perfectibility of man, dear God! When every man as long as he remains
alive is in himself a multitude of conflicting men. Which of these do you
choose to perfect, at the expense of every other?
Old Daddy Franklin will tell you. He'll rig him up for you, the pattern
American. Oh, Franklin was the first downright American. He knew what he was
about, the sharp little man. He set up the first dummy American.
At the beginning of his career this cunning little Benjamin drew up for
himself a creed that should 'satisfy the professors of every religion, but
shock none'.
perfectibility of the Ford car! The perfectibility of which man? I am many
men. Which of them are you going to perfect? I am not a mechanical
contrivance.
Education! Which of the various me's do you propose to educate, and which do
you propose to suppress?
Anyhow, I defy you. I defy you, oh society, to educate me or to suppress me
, according to your dummy standards.
The ideal man! And which is he, if you please? Benjamin Franklin or Abraham
Lincoln? The ideal man! Roosevelt or Porfirio Diaz?
There are other men in me, besides this patient ass who sits here in a tweed
jacket. What am I doing, playing the patient ass in a tweed jacket? Who am
I talking to?
Who are you, at the other end of this patience? Who are you? How many selves
have you? And which of these selves do you want to be?
Is Yale College going to educate the self that is in the dark of you, or
Harvard College?
The ideal self! Oh, but I have a strange and fugitive self shut out and
howling like a wolf or a coyote under the ideal windows. See his red eyes in
the dark? This is the self who is coming into his own.
The perfectibility of man, dear God! When every man as long as he remains
alive is in himself a multitude of conflicting men. Which of these do you
choose to perfect, at the expense of every other?
Old Daddy Franklin will tell you. He'll rig him up for you, the pattern
American. Oh, Franklin was the first downright American. He knew what he was
about, the sharp little man. He set up the first dummy American.
At the beginning of his career this cunning little Benjamin drew up for
himself a creed that should 'satisfy the professors of every religion, but
shock none'.