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George Bernard Shaw (on the virtue of disagreeableness)

I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell’s latest, David and Goliath. Like most of his books, this one takes things that we blandly believe to be true and asks questions, tells stories, and cites research to suggest that they ain’t necessarily so. In Blink, for example, Gladwell challenged the idea that sound decisions come only after long reflection, that following an impulse is always a bad idea; his Outliers is one of several recent books that punch holes in our belief in the solitary genius, the I-did-it-my-way exaltation of individualistic accomplishment.

David and Goliath argues that it wasn’t such a big upset when the shepherd boy stoned the slow-moving giant — he made what appeared to be a disadvantage into his ace-in-the-hole, by not playing the game the way the Philistine Tallboy arrogantly assumed it would be. In a chapter that spotlights the unusual proportion of noted entrepreneurs who suffer from dyslexia, Gladwell cites an advantage they have: used to being outcast, at failing repeatedly, they are not only inured to difficulty but they may also be less afraid to beĀ disagreeable. At which point, Gladwell quotes a beloved old chestnut from George Bernard Shaw, and I get to my point!

Contrarian, egalitarian, smarty-pants.

Contrarian, egalitarian, smarty-pants.

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George Bernard Shaw (on circumstances & blame)

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) in Mrs. Warren’s Profession. (Mrs. Warren’s was the “oldest” of them.) Her daughter Vivie, previously unaware of her mother’s business, well-educated and (for that time) wildly privileged in her relative independence, is initially shocked by her mother’s management of brothels.

I’ve loved this quote for a long time, but didn’t know where in Shaw’s canon it occurred. My goodness, what a writer and thinker he was! (His Wikiquote page is ridiculous.) Writing this play in 1893 was a remarkable thing, as was his stated motivation: “to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing, and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together.” I don’t think male licentiousness can be entirely exonerated, but still.