I'm curious: did you know him face to face or just on the internet? Did you live within visiting distance by bicycle, car, or plane?
I never knew him personally. I considered he had faults ( as I consider I and all others do)--but I thought he was a decent human for all that...which is not my opinion for ANYONE who has faults.
I am not posting to make a God out of a man. My most honest judgment (as one who knew him only through the inference of internet posts) was that he had strong biases but was a fine and decent human being in spite of that--finer and more decent than most.
I thought he was puritanical--and he was. But I always respected him for standing behind his beliefs while disagreeing with the beliefs of others...in usually a subtle fashion...
Will I pretend he had no ego? NO. I think he was more opinionated than almost anyone I have met. But this is not a criticism. The great are always opinionated because that is the mark of those who seek to separate the true from the false--the wheat from the chaff.
As I said before, I say again: he was a man--not a God. But I believe he was a man with a good heart, an exceptional intellect--and subject to all the doubts, fears, prejudices, and neurosis as the rest of us.
I think if he had lived longer he would have discovered a less compelling need to be absolutely confident in what he "KNEW". But my opinion is of small import. It is simply the only opinion I can own or truly defend.
May he rest in peace. May he rest in dignity.
It is special that you honor his life with this thread. I have probably said all I can as one who knew him only through heated discussions on several topics. Although I disagree with many of his opinions...I think he understood the concept of "ahimsa".
I found it strange and amusing that as a student of liberal arts , he became such an adamant proponent of Conservatism.
I distrust all such demonizing of others (read some of SI'S political or religious threads). I would rather give my honest opinion than to add fake commentary to his life. I think he was terribly biased and very contradictory. But I think most of us are. It is for others to see it, because Carl Gustav Jung is also dead.
It is not important whether he was the world chess champion or that he could not memorize "Prufrock". What matters is that he was fair, decent, above-board, kind--and a seeker of truth and knowledge.
He died too young. I have spent time writing a lengthy post as a stranger to his life. That, in itself, is a tribute. |
