“America thinks of itself as a meritocracy, so people have more respect...” — Toby Young Quote

America thinks of itself as a meritocracy, so people have more respect for success and more contempt for failure.

In my capacity as a board member of the OfS, I hope to be impartial, objective, and fair.

I think I've been wishing for celebrity for so long that I've got used to being someone who's petitioning the establishment for acceptance... my whole schtick, my whole identity, is so wrapped up in being a petitioner that I don't really know how to react now that petition has been granted.

Oddly, I do have a problem with authority. I find it very difficult to knuckle down and follow rules. Which are the classic symptoms of someone who has a troubled relationship with their father. And yet, I never had a problem with my father.

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

In my case, my contempt for the state is infinite.

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

Just as people behave to me, so do I behave to them. When I see that a person despises me and treats me with contempt, I can be as proud as any peacock.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.