""Human dignity must be associated with the idea…" — Lin Yutang (#c511)

Card #c511IR // #c511Synthesis

"Human dignity must be associated with the idea of a scamp and not with that of an obedient, disciplined and regimented soldier." Man is "the greatest scamp on earth" — curious, dreamy, humorous, wayward. The scamp can't be standardized: he plays, dreams, laughs, and refuses the uniform. His waywardness isn't a flaw to be trained out; it's the proof he hasn't been fully domesticated by institutions. Regimes fear him precisely because he cannot be regimented.

— In our words · Source: The Importance of Living (Lin Yutang)

[Use when]

You catch yourself (or your organization) rewarding obedience and discipline while quietly punishing curiosity, playfulness, and waywardness.

[Why it matters]

Every institution — schools, armies, corporations, parties — quietly tries to replace the scamp with the soldier as its ideal human product. Lin's test: "only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he who is master of his ideas is not enslaved by them." Seriousness is effort; lightness is mastery. Measure a person or an organization by how much scamp survives in it.

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