The Man We All Should Try To Be

There are many qualities I admire in people, and many (many, many, more) that I find irritating or even despicable.  It's impossible to divide the whole world neatly into two groups, one good and one bad, and still be in contact with reality.

If I were to create such a division myself, though, it would be this: Do you like answers, or hate questions?

People who like answers love questions, because asking them is how you find the answers you wanted, and one of the great things about answers is that they lead to even more questions.  It's pinball - your reward for playing well is that you get to play again, even harder.  It makes you willing, sometimes even eager, to admit you were wrong about something, because you want to be right.  It requires you to accept logic, to build ever better approximations of the world as it really is.  Wanting answers and going looking for them is what makes a skeptic, a scientist, a rebel, a gifted kid, a great artist or a friend of mine.

People who hate questions only have, want, or need one answer.  They may phrase it many ways, saying, "God did it," "The Furher commands," "Because I said so," or, "Shut up." They all mean the same thing: Stop asking questions.  It's chess - your reward for playing well is that you win, and the game is over, and you don't have to play anymore.  It makes you unwilling to ever admit you were wrong, because you always want to be right.  It requires you to bury your head in rhetoric, to build ever more elaborate illusions about what the world must be like.  Hating questions and seeking to stop others from asking them makes a denier, a zealot, a despot, a fool, a bigot, a follower, a pretentious artiste, and above all a crushing bore.

I have enjoyed a game of chess now and then, but I'd much rather play pinball.  Wouldn't you?