George Saunders

And I think in some ways, if you're doing okay, it'll harder to be aware of it because it's very human to mistake good fortune for virtue.

So, yeah.

Well, it's not a fiction, but it's not as important as people think it is.

I mean, it seems to be, to me, it seems that we use that to excuse a lot of bullshit that we wouldn't put up with normally.

I don't know if I can articulate this, but it seems to me in our time we've become very comfortable with a certain mental move.

And it's something like, I know what the right thing is.

Wait there.

And then we turn and we do something else.

I think it's just pervasive.

It's one of the reasons our politics is the way it is.

I mean, our president calls a reporter a pig.

And some percentage of people say, well, I know.

I would never do that.

I would never.

I have a wife.

I have a daughter.

Never would I call a person a pig.

However, then we turn.

So I think this is, again, this is just a first thought, but I'm interested in the way that we can

know very well that certain enlightenment values are true and important, and make an excuse, sometimes it's shareholder value, to turn and look away from us.