Gustav Flaubert wrote:
Complain about your own, and even brag about not having any. But protest strenuously if someone should question your sense of judgment.
That is from his quite interesting Bouvard and Pecuchet. This unfinished book is a parody of self-education and perhaps of gay marriage as well.
Why are we willing to disparage our memories so much more than we will admit to failings in our other mental processes?
Good memory makes you dangerous. Bad judgment makes you dangerous.
As important as class or status is, in the occidental world we associate identity more closely with actions and decisions than with resources available. As such, our memories are something that is available to us (or not), so a slip here doesn’t necessarily speak poorly of who we are. If we make poor decisions, though, that implies an immediate negative aspect to our character.
A Tolstoy character pointed out that nobody is satisfied with his wealth, but everybody is satisfied with his intelligence.
Consistently or no, my judgment is part of what is me, my memories are part of what is mine.
It’s also common, among males at least, to boast of having poor judgment while bragging of physical bravery and prowess — the whole Jackass-style shows and movies are prime examples of this.
But it’s common in regular life, too. A buddy of mine loves to tell the story of when he ran the NY marathon while hung over and nearly died after finishing it. Another friend likes to tell the story of how he stupidly almost shot himself with a spear gun while deep sea shark hunting.
The surface story is, I’m an idiot, but the real story is, I’m strong and brave.
failures in memory are more observable/objective to others and less easily defended, so the next best thing is to pre-emptively mock your own memory problem; failures in judgment are more subjective and defensible.
Tyler, you and other commenters seem to be missing the point Flaubert is making, which is about the hollowness of these kinds of truisms and received ideas.
Because memory is the new cognitive trait of fashion, and modesty would entail disparaging ones own.
Memory, is, of course, only a small part of a human mind but it is the most easily measured quantity, and probably is a focus of research because of that.
That’s right, I forgot to file the correct returns. Silly me!
Fed a bad tip, rather.
Uh… I must’ve been distracted by some loud neighbors.
this is what for we are human as best creation of allah.
People will readily admit, “I’m bad at math”, but who would admit that they are “bad at writing”, which is much a much more difficult task to be proficient in?
Public figures sometimes judge it expedient to have a poor memory.
The quote is actually not from Bouvard and Pecuchet but from The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas, Flaubert’s parody of the received wisdom of his time, which lends support to Larry Rothfield’s claim and leads one to doubt whether Tyler has read either one.
Consistently or no, my judgment is part of what is me, my memories are part of what is mine.
Public figures sometimes judge it expedient to have a poor memory.
I gree with it!
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