“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue, and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice.
Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
Joseph Heller, Catch 22
I have always maintained my character and values. That has reaped me a lifetime of low wage earnings. I do things right, I don’t cut corners, I don’t step on other creatures in order to further my own self interests, I won’t lie to get ahead.
I may die poor but I will go contented that I did the best I could under the circumstances, and that I harmed none in the doing.
No regrets.
“It has always seemed strange to me…The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”
― John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
Catch-22. One of the funniest books I ever read.
Catch-22 is an awesome book. Movie sucked, but you can’t have everything.
@Backtable…That’s a great observation from Steinbeck. I haven’t read Cannery Row in decades, but I’ll remedy that soon.