People I Don’t Like (Part One)

I designate this item “Part One” because I wish to emphasize that by no means is the following short list meant to be exhaustive of all the people I don’t like. There are a whole lot more people I don’t like, but I’ll get to them later. In other words, if you don’t see yourself on this list, don’t give up hope; you might still make the grade in a subsequent round.

I don’t like people who talk to fill the space between thoughts. That space should be as silent as the coldest depths of the darkest regions of the night sky, so that even the faintest glimmer of a distant idea may be noticed by one who glances in the right direction, at the right moment. Words that have no purpose beyond themselves are like light pollution. Modern cities obscure the stars.

I don’t like people who are endlessly pleased to look at their faces in mirrors, but never notice their souls reflected in the history of civilization.

I don’t like people who walk in straight lines and always get where they are going. Walking should be curved, and in the best circumstances the walker should never quite know where he is going. To be certain where one is going is to remain oblivious to all the places one might have ended up, had one the courage and profound absentmindedness to just walk on, observing one’s surroundings all the while.

I don’t like people who live for “the best food,” or those who scoff at “fancy dinners.” The first are gluttons or hedonists and proud of it; the second are democratic vulgarians and proud of it.

I don’t like people who boast of being realists, or who categorically reject the “high falutin language” of philosophers and poets in favor of what they call “the facts.” Facts are just metaphors that have been cooled and set for practical efficiency, and I don’t like people who think practical efficiency is the meaning of life.

I don’t like people who boast of being idealistic. An idealist, in the modern sense, is merely a person who believes he is certain, and therefore has nothing to learn. I don’t like people who believe they are above further education, mistaking their certainty for a sign of superior sentiment or “high aspirations.” On the contrary, certainty is typically a sign of stupidity, which is to say willful ignorance. I don’t like stupid people.