{∅, {∅}, {∅, {∅}}} : Rage Against the Meat Grinder

Lin Yutang

We who put on dog collars and neckties and go with the regimented herd to an office every day cannot help envying the man who wears an old broad-brimmed hat and open shirt, who dares to walk in the sun in the good hours of the morning doing nothing. He is the man who does not yield to social pressures. He does not have his holidays rationed. He TAKES them. He is jealous of his personal liberty and a little disdainful of the multifarious activities of society and politics. He stands a little aloof and is not intimidated.

Lin Yutang refers to this lucky person as a "scamp." He chooses the scamp as the ideal: The scamp is a literary symbol of a man who refuses to submit to the external pressures of society. I looked up scamp. It means rascal or scoundrel even. A mischeivious character. Someone like the character Henry Fool or even Ignatius Reilly or Martin Dean or even myself, for that matter.

It's not a very great way of life, but the alternative has become unimaginable to me. I've become unfit for employment since I have become so accustomed to just being myself. Very problematic when it comes to "earning a living" in this society.

Lin Yutang alsp wrote:


Something of man has been lost. We are all properly subdued. Do not talk to me of initiative, pluck, and spirit of adventure when a college graduate applying for a job asks, "What are the terms for retirement pensions?" The dissenter, the man (or woman, of course) who refuses to conform, is still the man (or woman) for me.