Moving on from the previous post which highlighted a lack of curiosity among COP29 attendees, we have F. Scott Fitzgerald’s idea of mental adventure and those who opt out. It’s a striking aspect of social and online life.
Anthony Patch had ceased to be an individual of mental adventure, of curiosity, and had become an individual of bias and prejudice, with a longing to be emotionally undisturbed.
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
It’s a guess, but likely enough that everyone who reads this knows or has known people who are not, in Fitzgerald’s words, an individual of mental adventure.
It’s one of those things which baffles, frustrates, annoys sceptics. Those endless encounters with people who lack the curiosity to climb off dubious, flaky or stupid standpoints. People who refuse to embark on the mental adventure of finding something better.
Finding new insights is an adventure - how can anyone stand back from it? But they do.
It’s a guess, but likely enough that everyone who reads this knows or has known people who are not, in Fitzgerald’s words, an individual of mental adventure.
It’s one of those things which baffles, frustrates, annoys sceptics. Those endless encounters with people who lack the curiosity to climb off dubious, flaky or stupid standpoints. People who refuse to embark on the mental adventure of finding something better.
Finding new insights is an adventure - how can anyone stand back from it? But they do.
There’s a certain amount of self-protection involved … feeling that not getting involved somehow protects them.
ReplyDeleteAnon - yes there is self-protection involved, like staying out of altercations.
ReplyDelete