On Ego

“I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.” 
― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey


This particular quote is the keynote for the set of quotes to follow from J D Salinger. I have not read his books but learnt from Wikipedia, unsurprisingly, that he was very interested in Hindu philosophy. Perhaps Salinger did not have the guts to be an absolute nobody but he had a rare capacity to be self deprecating, almost approaching sagacity



“I’m just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else’s. I’m sick of everybody that wants to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It’s disgusting.” 
― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey


We all, I guess, at some point, get sick of our egos but almost all of us carry on with this sickness. We are always selling our self to someone to avoid the greatest fear of our life - anonymity. We are educated to be someone and somebody. Are there any takers for an education that teaches to be just oneself?To meet someone who is just himself or herself is actually rare. It takes far greater intelligence to be so. 

“I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible.” 
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye


This is trademark, Salinger, self-deprecating humor. These are the kinds of aspects that people, most carefully conceal in themselves, almost like a shadow. I believe, like Don Quixote some don't even consider such things as lies. But for those who don't have an easy conscience, the damned souls, it's a torturous inner battle; the deep wish for truth but falsity and deceit winning at the end. It's so difficult for us to live without some constructed grandeur.