[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fQ1K10DMSI1tsl_54PRIEMIaRpkOk9F1MUiYuUdnw1dQ":3,"$f5IN-WrefsWA8DH9F1tgkQ7ZswqD6DXAXNe8ZiG8fejs":12},{"author":4,"tags":11},{"author_id":5,"author_name":6,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"bio":9,"short_bio":9,"slug":10,"image_url":9},6064,"Theodore Dalrymple","T",92,null,"theodore-dalrymple",[],{"quotes":13,"pagination":78},[14,22,29,35,41,47,53,59,65,72],{"id":15,"quote_text":16,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":19,"source":20,"quote_tag":21,"commentary":9},3968642,"We all resort to the ad hominem from time to time: in human affairs, it is difficult to avoid it, and probably not desirable. After all, our opponents are human. The proper use of an ad hominem argument, however, still requires evidence to back it up.",7,false,{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":23,"quote_text":24,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":25,"source":26,"quote_tag":27,"commentary":28},3968640,"The idea that man is a tabula rasa, or Mao's sheet of blank paper upon which the most beautiful characters can be written, is an old one with disastrous implications. I do not think though that the cults you mention could survive honest thought about human nature.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],"**The Backstory**\nTheodore Dalrymple, a British psychiatrist and writer, penned this quote in the context of critiquing modern ideologies that view human nature as malleable and easily shaped by external factors. This sentiment reflects his broader concerns about the erosion of traditional values and the overemphasis on environmental determinism in understanding human behavior. As a doctor who has worked with patients in inner-city London, Dalrymple has witnessed firsthand the consequences of such ideologies.\n\n**The Hidden Insight**\nOn the surface, Dalrymple's statement appears to be a rejection of the idea that human nature is a blank slate, susceptible to being inscribed by external influences. However, the deeper insight lies in the tension between acknowledging the complexity of human nature and the danger of idealistic expectations about human potential. Dalrymple is suggesting that the notion of a blank slate has \"disastrous implications\" because it creates unrealistic expectations about human behavior and ignores the inherent flaws and contradictions that make us human.\n\n**How to Use This**\nIn today's professional and creative landscape, this insight can be applied by recognizing the importance of setting realistic goals and expectations, particularly when working with others. Rather than expecting people to be blank slates or easily moldable, it's more effective to work with the complexities and contradictions of human nature, acknowledging both our potential for growth and our inherent limitations. By doing so, you can create more realistic and achievable plans, and avoid the disappointment and disillusionment that can come from idealistic expectations.",{"id":30,"quote_text":31,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":32,"source":33,"quote_tag":34,"commentary":9},3968631,"It is clear to me that people often want incompatible things. They want danger and excitement on the one hand, and safety and security on the other, and often simultaneously. Contradictory desires mean that life can never be wholly satisfying or without frustration.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":36,"quote_text":37,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":38,"source":39,"quote_tag":40,"commentary":9},3968622,"I do not think it possible for anyone to get by in life without prejudice. However, the attempt to do so leads many people to suppose that, in order to decide any moral question, they have to find an indubitable first principle from which they can deduce an answer.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":42,"quote_text":43,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":44,"source":45,"quote_tag":46,"commentary":9},3968616,"Parents are perhaps the most common object of resentment, the people who are most frequently blamed for all our failings and failures alike.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":48,"quote_text":49,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":50,"source":51,"quote_tag":52,"commentary":9},3968608,"Many young people now end a discussion with the supposedly definitive and unanswerable statement that such is their opinion, and their opinion is just as valid as anyone else's. The fact is that our opinion on an infinitely large number of questions is not worth having, because everyone is infinitely ignorant.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":54,"quote_text":55,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":56,"source":57,"quote_tag":58,"commentary":9},3968595,"All forms of human happiness contain within themselves the seeds of their own decomposition.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":60,"quote_text":61,"author_id":5,"source_id":17,"has_image":18,"author":62,"source":63,"quote_tag":64,"commentary":9},3968584,"Considering the importance of resentment in our lives, and the damage it does, it receives scant attention from psychiatrists and psychologists. Resentment is a great rationalizer: it presents us with selected versions of our own past, so that we do not recognize our own mistakes and avoid the necessity to make painful choices.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":66,"quote_text":67,"author_id":5,"source_id":68,"has_image":18,"author":69,"source":70,"quote_tag":71,"commentary":9},3470756,"Many of the rioters were obviously bourgeois, the scions of privileged families, as have been the leaders of so many destructive movements in modern history. That same evening, I dined in an expensive restaurant and saw there a fellow diner whom I had observed a few hours before joyfully heaving a brick through a window. How much destruction did he think his country could bear before his own life might be affected, his own existence compromised?",6,{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"id":73,"quote_text":74,"author_id":5,"source_id":68,"has_image":18,"author":75,"source":76,"quote_tag":77,"commentary":9},3470755,"The object of such historiography is to disconnect everyone from a real sense of a living past and a living culture.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":10,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":9},{},[],{"currentPage":79,"totalPages":80,"totalItems":8,"itemsPerPage":80},1,10]