The person behind the idea
We read what people are thinking all the time. We rarely meet the flesh-and-bone person behind it. Every time I met someone I'd read before, I understood their writing much better:
In most cases, their ideas are directly coming from from their personality. Autocratic ideas? An autocratic personality. Pessimistic ideas? A pessimistic person. When I say it this way, it sounds obvious. But I still haven't fully integrated what this means.
When you read a careful argument of how X is ruined, it often reads like the writer started with some neutral facts and then reached an inescapable conclusion. But then you meet them IRL you realize they think everything is ruined. No facts or arguments necessary.
This is one way in which podcasts help:
- Because they are conversational, they cover more topics. You can see what their default stance is as the conversation goes to topics outside of the speaker's comfort zone.
- You can pick up on their tone and language to see the personality.
But still, even then, I've been surprised when meeting people face-to-face. I always learn more! The things they find funny, the way they talk to a waiter, whether the let others talk, etc. You only get those readings in private settings. I've always been surprised in some way after meeting an author.
Internalizing this point makes it harder to trust older texts. Here some tragicomical examples:
- David Foster Wallace wrote about personal responsibility and ethics. DFW that committed suicide and was accused of extreme violent abuse by his partner.
- Karl Marx talked about the struggles of the worker but he never worked a day in his life. He lived from inheritance and the largesse from his wealthy friends.
- Rousseau talked about Natural Goodness and an innate moral conscience. He also talked about what constituted a proper moral education for children. He also abandoned five children to die in the hospital they were born.
This is not to entirely dismiss them. I take elements from each of them seriously! Somebody can be a monster and inspire at the same time. I can ignore Rousseau's Emile and read The Social Contract. Nobody is perfect and I don't expect moral perfection. But the the authoritative voice fades in the background when you meet the author, even if it is by reading their biography or listening to their podcast.