In praise of the quiet life Flashcards
Lauding a quiet life has some of the eccentricity of praising rain.
A quiet life seems like something imposed upon us by their own ineptitude. It is a pitiable consolation prize.
Winning higher status makes us increasingly sensitive to its loss; we start to note every possible new snub.
We fall prey to scared, paranoid thoughts; we see possible plots everywhere, and we may not be wrong. The threat of vindictive scandal haunts us.
Alongside our privileges, we grow impoverished in curious ways. We have very limited control over our time.
We can no longer express our more spontaneous, imaginative, vulnerable sides.
We are at this point in history so deeply fixated on the idea that poverty must always be involuntary and therefore the result of lack of talent and indigence, we can’t even imagine that it might be the result of an intelligent and skilled person’s free choice based on a rational evaluation of costs and benefits.
It might sincerely be possible for someone to decide not to take the better paid job, not to publish another book, not to seek high office – and to do so not because they had no chance, but because – having surveyed the externalities involved – they chose not to fight for them.
There are for many of us plenty of options to take up certain career paths that carry high prestige with them.
We could have something deeply impressive to answer those who ask us what we do. But this does not necessarily mean we must or should follow these possibilities.
When we come to know the true price some careers exact, we may slowly realise we are not willing to pay for the ensuing envy, fear, deceit and anxiety. Our days are limited on the earth.
We may – for the sake of true riches – willingly, and with no loss of dignity, opt to become a little poorer and more obscure.
