title: why so few whistleblowers a former cia agents story
text: is there any merit in taking a cynical view of life are the observations of cynicism realistic brave observations on human nature freed from sentimentality or are they only the somber commentary offered by one who is a loser at the game of life taking solace in his weakness and failure there are compelling arguments either way what is not disputed however is that françois de la rouchefoucauld was one of the most brilliantly cynical epigrammers who ever lived
  it probably did not help that he came from a long line of noblemen for nothing so enfeebles the soul as much as inherited wealth and titles he was born in  and inherited the title of duke on the death of his father in  receiving the usual education of his class he dabbled in military matters in his teens various itinerant love affairs followed with wellplaced women but some of these ended badly we find him imprisoned in bastille for a week in  for political intrigue
  
  although married he continued to pursue other women as was the custom of the time and his station marriages in those days were business affairs to be ignored at each partys pleasure or necessity one such dalliance resulted in an illegitimate child but the woman eventually rejected him for a more appealing competitor in  he found himself mixed up with a quasirevolt called the fronde an adventure that left him with impaired sight when he was struck with a musket ball in the head health problems also intervened to add to his misery in the form of gout and melancholy
  in late seventeenth century france the paris salons were centers of debate discussion and the flowering of controversial ideas by now la rochefoucauld had acquired an acrid talent for stinging prose and he knew how to use it his failures in love and war had primed his spirit for a cynical view of life and this predilection meshed well with the taste of the salons for savage wit nothing is so shallow as sophistication
  from his frequent visits to the salon of mme de sable in paris he had begun to piece together a body of epigrams that represented his worldview one of his peers had more commercial goals in mind for a bootleg collection of  of his sayings was first published without his permission and with no attribution in  two years later he finally put out a proper edition this contained  maxims the volume was titled sentences et maximes morales  but this is usually shortened to maxims 
  there is a philosophy here it centers around the idea that all men are selfseeking egoists to a fault any virtue a man displays is only a smokescreen concealing his selflove our virtues are only vices in disguise human vanity takes precedence over nearly all else virtues are lost in selfinterest as rivers are in the sea even the nobler emotions like love and altruism according to la rochefoucauld are only a kind of traffic in which selflove ever proposes to be the gainer he took a dim view of women finding them fit only for love for men such as himself of course and procreation one of his crueler maxims was few womens worth lasts longer than their beauty
  
  but lifes realities eventually caught up with him softening his rougher edges his wife who had cared for him in his infirmities for eighteen years died in  his mothers death followed two years later two of his sons would eventually die of injuries received in frances ruinous wars of the period
  this gloomy picture was brightened by the entry into his life of the mme de la fayette who was twenty years his junior she invited him to stay with her in paris and he was carried there with difficulty she seems to have viewed him as a reform project she would later say that he gave me understanding but i reformed his heart perhaps his fame made him an interesting captive the union worked and seemed to alleviate his dark picture of humanity and when his final hours came he asked for and received the last rites of the church in 
  a fair assessment of la rochefoucauld must take into account his undeniable wit his probing sensitivity and his ability to strip away the pretenses behind many human actions yet all in all his maxims are meager in result many of them are superficial and shallow the product of a personality still nursing the wounds of an early disillusionment we weary of his aphorisms after two or three pages and hesitate to reopen his book later
  worse still he was wrong to say that virtue and altruism are shams nothing is more vital to life and we can see them around us every day if only we know where to look and as long as our senses are not blinded by fear timor animi auribus officit  as sallust says fear blocks out the ears
  
  any bitter weakling can be a cynic but it takes depth of character to accept the worldsand mansfaults and foibles and to balance those against mans unquestioned capacity for greatness of soul broader life experiences might have corrected la rochefoucaulds errors but he preferred to remain in a state of arrested development while receiving the applause and notoriety of paris society his maxims can bring smiles to our faces as it is easy to find amusement in the flaws of others yet we forget that his barbs were directed at us as well
  montaigne was far wiser for he took a balanced view of life accepting the worlds absurdities and joys with the equanimity and calm resolution of a greek or roman sage he was also a better man la rochefoucauld was intelligent without being wise and never found the confidence in himself to submit his ego to the consolatory power of a higher philosophical authority in any form cynicism in the end strips a man of his most important protective armor and leaves him naked to face the cruelties of life no cynic ever died a happy man
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