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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

A Fascinating Passage from a Fascinating Book

November 1, 2020 by Jan Herman

“We fail to comprehend that the majority of scumbags are consciously scummy—
they are aware of it and would not wish to be any different, as long as they’re able to conceal their scumminess.”—Stanisław I. Witkiewicz
Twisted Spoon Press

“This is my modest contribution to help the forces of good battle humanity’s most diabolical foes, outside of war, poverty, and disease. As the intent of this work is to lay bare bitter truths, it might end up being received in the same humorous or negative vein as my aesthetics, philosophy, works for the stage, essential portraits, old compositions, etc.—a ‘free-form’ product. I hereby declare that I am writing in total seriousness, and that I finally seek to produce something useful. Yet there is no way of getting through to idiots and lowlifes, as I have learned over the course of my dreary career. It’s utterly futile to tell someone ‘go learn a thing or two, maybe you’ll wise up,’ because a stupid man is also an arrogant man, so even if he could learn to wise up, it still wouldn’t break the vicious circle. It’s wasted breath to tell a scumbag: ‘It’s not nice to be such a swine. Why don’t you smarten up, get your act together?’ We fail to comprehend that the majority of scumbags are consciously scummy—they are aware of it and would not wish to be any different, as long as they’re able to conceal their scumminess.”
— NARCOTICS by Stanisław I. Witkiewicz
(preface, 1930)

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Filed Under: books, Literature, main, News, political culture

Comments

  1. gerard bellaart says

    November 1, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    ” a land of freedom, boastfully so called, with human slavery enthroned at the heart of it is always a thing of falsehood and horrible self-contradiction.” William James 1897

  2. Jan Herman says

    November 2, 2020 at 6:00 am

    Bingo! Thx.

Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
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Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

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