Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm– but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. T. S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party, (1974), p. 111
Well put. Found here.
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By Robin Hanson · Hundreds of paid subscribers
This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
That quote always makes me think of Thomas Sowell's Vision of the Anointed.
Interesting quote.
It doesn't sound as intellectually appealing, but it instantly made me think of the cattiness of girls (I taught high school for two years). A pretty girl walks in the room, and the other girls in the room will immediately begin formulating their thoughts so as to rip her to shreds as soon as they have the chance. All in a seemingly blind psychological effort at making themselves feel better. It's as if they believe that whatever beauty they can knock off of the "pretty" girl, will automatically be added to themselves.