Who mediates our genius?, A Human Strategy, Matt Berry, aphorism 242

242
A multiple choice test: Who mediates our genius?
A)
The greats of history are our mediators: genius is an external authority to which I must appeal.  A personal conclusion must first receive authorization from these mediators before it can be considered true or false.  And this is of course all in order since anyone who is anybody knows that one has no right to one’s own reality.  To claim the contrary is to overstep my bounds, is a symptom of megalomania, and remains contrary to what I need most, humility ... also known as, low self-esteem.  
B)
Those with the greatest number of stored facts are our mediators: A genius is a type of filing cabinet, the recognition of which is quite simple: if we meet another who has been nominated for the office of genius, we must immediately request a file and test whether the nominee can produce that file without hesitation and without any sign of concern on his brow.  The file itself is of no importance.  It could be anything, a date, a place or any other fact — and the more unrelated to day-to-day affairs, the more accurate will be our findings.  
Another popular test: ask for a list certifying that precisely those books which we have read have also been read by the nominee.  And let us not forget to mention the use of quotations!  One genius, whom I witnessed with my own eyes, could cite the act and scene of any Shakespearean line quoted — even when he was not called upon to do so!  
One need not tally up a score here to reach a conclusion.  If the nominee does not produce the record promptly and with a smooth brow, then he can not possibly have genius.
C)

I myself am my own mediator: to be a true genius is to be a sort of inept criminal.  I have to be willing to plot the crime against the great authorities and to “botch the job” when the public catches me in the act.  On the one hand, I appropriate my own relationship to my own reality; on the other hand, I leave much behind ... bring too little with me to prove what I have, for the public wants to see the loot, but I have only brought myself.


A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism



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