THE ARTIST AS A HYPOCRITE. JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU “The Insensitive Sensitive”(1712-78) 

Jean Jacques Rousseau, the father of THE SCHOOL of EUROPEAN TAOISM, or NAIVE IDEALISM is a study in contrasts. He got the worst care and the best himself, but he only gave the WORST care to others. Studying his life, it is no wonder he was emotionally crippled. His mother died only days after his birth (FROM THE BIRTH itself, being the first woman he made miserable or killed, of MANY…) leaving him to his father who not only failed to educate him but also abandoned him when Rousseau was just ten years old. 

Relatives of Rousseau’s mother took over care of Rousseau but at age sixteen he ran away from an apprenticeship (JOB TRAINING) to travel. BEN FRANKLIN did the same thing but traveled on his own for the rest of his life. Rousseau found a patron, becoming acquainted with a certain Madame de Warens with whom he lived for approximately nine years. She was a person with ‘connections’ who saw to Rousseau’s education and his conversion to Catholicism, She probably did it because he was a VERY pretty boy.WHICH PROVES PRETTY IS NOT as PRETTY DOES. PRETTINESS IS NOT ENOUGH! AND BEAUTIFUL FACES CAN HIDE HORRIBLE SOULS! The affair started when he was l9 years old. She was way older. 

Anyway, he wasn’t much of a Catholic. During his life, Rousseau had no problem launching and maintaining multiple love affairs, and had no qualms in bedding married women with absent or distracted husbands. In time, Rousseau was to return to Madame de Warens. Who was loaded.

When he was thirty, Rousseau moved to Paris to present and hopefully make a good deal of money off of a new kind of music. One assumes that he was the analogue of a chick magnet ROCK MUSICIAN. In this attempt Rousseau failed miserably. He began secretarial work and copying music after this failure. 

Now he couldn’t get the prime pussycats anymore so he took up with a maid at the hotel in which he was staying; Thérèse Le Vasser . She saluted the tinsel, not the man obviously. She and Rousseau were to continue to have a lifetime relationship which brought into the world five children whom, Rousseau -- (this man who wrote of man’s natural goodness and the corrupting forces of institutions) -- assigned to a foundling hospital! i.e. threw them into an orphanage! Which in those days was like a DOG POUND.

Yet HISTORY tells us the l8th century or “Enlightenment” period had several great thinkers and philosophers, one of them Jean Jacques. HA!

PARANTHETICALLY, Rousseau defended the rights of small children and spoke often of the importance of a good education. This hypocritical act is only one paradox that makes the life of Rousseau so contradictory. In his book “Emile”, Rousseau writes that ‘we are born weak, we need strength; helpless we need aid; foolish we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of education.’ In the orphanage, his kids barely got food much less education. (1) In spite of this belief that each person is in need of strength, aid, reason and so forth, he failed to even take care of his own flesh and blood, much less give them the education he spoke so well of

OTHER TITLES PLUS CUTS FROM THE BOOKS at the GUTENBERG PROJECT, where you can get the writing of all the writers ….and there’s some bio stuff over at ROUSSEAU WEBSITE

Rousseau believed that man was born innately good but that it was society that corrupted man. He argued that man was “made unhappy by experiences that he had in society because society was distorted, corrupt, and false.”  A case of the man seeing in others what he couldn’t see in himself.

In Rousseau’s The Social Contract, which he wrote when he was fifty, Rousseau explains this concept of man being naturally good but corrupted by society. The social contract is an accord, which all men enter into by common agreement. In this book the idea is presented that the state would give protection to the members of this contract and in return the state gets the pleasure and opportunity to govern the members. Freedom is easily preserved in this sort of contract because when entering the contract all the members give up as well as gain the same rights as each other. Rousseau writes that: “Since each gives himself up entirely, the condition is equal for all.” (2) In The Social Contract Rousseau also states that for society to run well there is need for a Legislator. This Legislator writes the constitution of the state but he himself does not enforce it. The people enforce it themselves because they are able to see the good in it even they may not be able to recognize that good without there being a constitution of the state.

One of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s greatest works is his Confessions. His Confessions was written nine years after The Social Contract and is Rousseau’s autobiography. In this account of his life, Rousseau is quick to celebrate man’s sinfulness and he considers his own sinfulness to be what makes him human. He does not hesitate to give explicit accounts of his sinful acts and in fact speaks highly of them. The Confessions ends with a declaration to his readers that dares them to judge him and his morals, habits and pleasures. “Anyone…who examines with his own eyes my nature…and can think me a dishonorable man, is himself a man who ought to be choked,” writes Rousseau. Then I should be choked as I think he’s despicable. 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau died in 1778 when he was sixty six years old. He spent his life pursuing literary achievements, fame and fortune. Rousseau lived a life filled with paranoia and fear of secret enemies. He had several brushes with the government. His book “Emile was banned in both Switzerland and France for being sacrilegious and Rousseau was exiled. TOO LITTLE TOO LATE, I say. Living a life without God and without good morals, Rousseau often became afraid of resentment, afraid of persecution and often concerned that his friends were plotting against him. This tells us he was a classic paranoid schizophrenic a condition born of guilt. This paranoid attitude cost Rousseau many friendships and resulted in a nervous and suspicious mistrust of most people. When he died, Rousseau was clearly insane and it is not surprising, considering the way he chose to live his life. Rousseau told us that he believed man to be innately good and only sinful because of the corruption of society (his cop out,) but he failed to realize that it is man’s own sinfulness and unwillingness to realize his faults that is the true cause of unhappiness in life. God provides a way for us to be truly happy, apart from perverseness and hypocrisy. It is man’s choice to take a hold of that and Rousseau, although he had a great, philosophizing mind, was not able to realize the need for God in a corrupt and perverse world. (NOTE: Obviously I'm cribbing some of this from a website.). 

HIS FAVE: SAYINGS:“A feeble body weakens the mind.”GAD, the king of skirt chasing SHOULD KNOW! Here are some MORE! The aphorisms are FATUOUS, hypocritical,  false and nothing more than GLIB LIES. EVERY SINGLE ONE of his ‘ideas’ reveals the counterfeit personage this twisted soul had learned to impersonate. They are as empty of vitamins as farts! FALSELY POETIC. REVEALING of EGO, of PIQUE, of what we call today TWEAK! I’ll bet that he died mad as “:WHOM THE GODS ABHOR THEY FIRST MAKE MAD” 

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death. (It is if your skull is empty, Johnnie or your heart isn’t FULL….)

All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows. (Famous people didn’t treat you well? Ahhhhh.)

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.

Base souls have no faith in great individuals. (indicting those who didn’t see his greatness, so I’m a base soul I guess.)

Childhood is the sleep of reason.(You did pretty good with adulthood, too.)

Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation  of it. (Duhhhhhh)

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being. (Yeah babe and you weren't an expression of THAT!)

Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome. (Yet you craved it JJ?)

Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers. (What accounts then for the absolute obedience of the people toward most rulers? Who are illegit as Hell)

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost. (Too bad JJ couldn’t live to see the Revolution)

Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect. (Your patrons wanted you to sleep with em, eh?)

Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.

How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?

I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can. (Oh yes the French Kings, the Louis’ did real well with a single man on top. Despotism is so tidy.)

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles. (Ever wonder why JJ?)

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million. (Meaning you never got together two farthings, right?)

Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.(makes no sense)

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves. (You’re the expert on that, but you did real well deceiving OTHERS.)

Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux. (Meaning you couldn’t stay with a girl long.)

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves. (at last, candor)

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little

THIS GUY NEVER STOPPED TALKING which proves HE WAS A MAN WHO KNEW NOTHING!

Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.

Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger. (Meaning you fucked everything but the wallpaper. Got it.)

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.(Many a’time, ya must have wondered why God punished you..and probably come up with answers galore, right?)

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases. (Ah, an admission! If nobody heard the hand of Rousseau clapping, he wouldn’t be out there mouthing off, trying to be someone.)

Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.(AHA! Admission #2. Tell the world that the naïve jungle native is more soulular than the average French aristocrat and you’re gonna make bank and see sales go thru the roof)

The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries in itself the causes of its destruction.

The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.

The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament. (better than a KING, JJ!)

The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery. Whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it. (His most deep thoughts were on the mechanisms of vice!)

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.(Sensualists always tell me that. Especially the restless ones who travel a lot.)

The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it”(MEANINGLESS !)

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless. (Fantasy addict!)

There are two things to be considered with regard to any scheme. In the first place, “Is it good in itself?” In the second, “Can it be easily put into practice?”(Note that EASY is the operational word in that sentence.)

Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it. (You never made promises you couldn’t keep, eh JJ?)

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know. (I know. Life was tough for you.)

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of education. (He was mistreated as a kid and education was all this warped boy had so I’ll let this one go but it proves that book larning cannot make a many feeling or real, that the mind by itself is amoral, sensual, predatory, unscrupulous though amusing)

We do not know what is really good or bad fortune. (This always means that good things come from bad luck. In your case JJ? It didn’t.)

We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.(Did you meet other infants, abandoned at birth. Doubt it.)

We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.

When an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one. (That was his HIS GRAND FINALE, an example of Fatuous and totally PHONY bogus communistic ethos.

Jean Jacques Rousseau, Date of Birth: 6/28/1712 died 1778.  66 yrs old.