A religion of losers
It’s in the 40s (F) again – a most welcome change. There’s still too much snow everywhere to take Samuel strolling. But a lot has melted.
As I said, I welcome the change; but I also feel blue about it. Apparently, there’s a kind of seasonal affective disorder that is triggered when the weather improves. Maybe that’s what is bothering me. Or maybe it’s that I like having the snow around while I read Smilla’s Sense of Snow.
And, of course, C.P. Snow.
This month’s Strangers and Brothers novel, Corridors of Power, is about Whitehall – the world of British politicians and civil servants. What an awful, soul-sucking scene that is. One’s every word (deed, gesture) is assessed in terms of whether it will cause one to go up or down the ladder – and climbing the ladder is pretty much zero-sum. Of course, there are parallels to this in every government, in every company. As I read, I recall the two or three ladders I’m personally acquainted with. That is plenty depressing, too.
Two things bring comfort. One is the Bible. Simon Leys writes:
As I said, I welcome the change; but I also feel blue about it. Apparently, there’s a kind of seasonal affective disorder that is triggered when the weather improves. Maybe that’s what is bothering me. Or maybe it’s that I like having the snow around while I read Smilla’s Sense of Snow.
And, of course, C.P. Snow.
This month’s Strangers and Brothers novel, Corridors of Power, is about Whitehall – the world of British politicians and civil servants. What an awful, soul-sucking scene that is. One’s every word (deed, gesture) is assessed in terms of whether it will cause one to go up or down the ladder – and climbing the ladder is pretty much zero-sum. Of course, there are parallels to this in every government, in every company. As I read, I recall the two or three ladders I’m personally acquainted with. That is plenty depressing, too.
Two things bring comfort. One is the Bible. Simon Leys writes:
The famous multi-billionaire Ted Turner made a remarkable statement some years ago. He said he disliked Christianity, as he felt it was “a religion of losers.” How very true! What an accurate definition indeed!The other is Winesburg, Ohio – “The Book of the Grotesques” – which I’m rereading after twenty-odd years. That is another book in which losers are treated with compassion.