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Quote of the Day: Schlegel on the Eccentricity of Virtue
“People who are eccentric enough to be quite seriously virtuous understand each other everywhere, discover each other easily, and form a silent opposition to the ruling immorality that happens to pass for morality.” — Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (von) Schlegel
Where would he stand today?
Published in General
I think the truly virtuous don’t have to, or want to, signal it. It’s revealed in their everyday conduct. The not-so-virtuous pick up on it too and often hate them for it.
“He’s not really like that. Nobody is like that! It’s all a big fake!” (Says those jealous, not-so-virtuous folks.)
Sometimes a quote is so good that there is little to be added.
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Not exactly on topic but a friend says the difference between crazy and eccentric is that if you have money you are eccentric.
Up till now all I knew of Schlegel was
“Wittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.”
I can stand anything except a good example.
As a German romantic, I wager he’d be fully on-side with the SJW Left. He would see the SJW crowd as being the eccentric and seriously virtuous ones who understand each other instantly. What is “wokeness” if not the instinctive virtue of the German romantic and opposed to the limits that rational dialectic imposes on genius?
That’s not quite true. You only qualify as eccentric if you have money and a good team of lawyers, accountants, and business managers making sure the money isn’t depleted by your crazy pursuits.
e.g. One of the heirs to the Guinness fortune is that head of the Cloud Appreciation Society. If he blew his entire fortune on that organization, he’d be crazy. He’s just sane enough to recognize that he needs good people to take care of the fortune for him.
Another e.g. could be Richard Branson. Does crazy things with his “throwing around money”, but is sane enough to keep his capital safe.
Might want to look into his later life more closely.
I still stand by my hypothesis. Who are the SJWs if not the establishment-in-training? His life’s progress looks to me like the very archetype of a SJW romantic.
Ooh! Ooh! Philosophy Fite! Punch him in the dialectic!