Bouncing off the point I make in that last post , I’ll present a conundrum: Why is it that the most humble people I know also tend to be the most violent (sometimes physically, more often intellectually)? Those friends of mine who are most skeptical of dogmatism (especially rationalism, the absolutist’s absolutism), the ones most willing to entertain the other side’s arguments in good faith, are also the ones most disposed to instigate long political brawls by making provocative statements, or get into bar-fights. Why? I would have thought that humility was a virtue of the dispositionally meek or, at the very least, non-confrontational.
Is it because these friends of mine have faith, not in themselves, but in the fight? "I am willing to slug it out with you, not because I am sure I’ll win, but because I’m sure the right man will?" Something to keep in mind when illustrating your own copy of A Field Guide to the Virtues of North America .
