Have you ever wondered what could be if you ruled the world? I have. And since there's no chance of that happening, I'm with Umberto Eco on supporting political empathy. There's so much we would accomplish if interests were not financialized so much. Along similar lines, you can accomplish a lot if you don't care who gets the credit.
Trust less what you read and more what you create. When everything becomes commercial, everything is subject to manipulation. So each of us and our communities need to do the work of parsing and reflecting. Which is not the same as 'doing our own research online.' A euphemism. Because there's no quality control.
Eco mentions education. A system that helps us see diverse points of view. That would be a classical education. Every government should do something to improve it. Given that the purpose of learning is to fully engage in civil society. But not make it too easy. We accept pain in physical challenges to build muscle and endurance. What's the block on mental challenges? Reading books is the best way to access knowledge and acquire wisdom.
Languages should be compulsory. They do help you understand another culture. After 8 years, I don't speak Latin, but recognize it at the root of things. Like Eco's grandson, studying ancient Greek gave me access to a civilization. The word is part of what was called “encyclios,” which means “circular education” from which comes the word “encyclopaedia.”
CK Chesterton said, “When men don’t believe in God any longer, it is not that they believe in nothing; they believe in everything.” Does religion keep people quiet, as Karl Marx said? Or does it help answer fundamental questions? What's most helpful to heal a parent who's lost a child to cancer? To fill you with awe.
But here we come at the crux of the interview. Eco has a few good words for authors as well. And if you're writing or have written an important book, you know how valuable this advice is to not give up in the face of commercial indifference:
“Finally, if I were ruler of the world, I would like to oblige people to read all my books, so they become as intelligent as me and don't believe we should have a ruler of the world! I am irritated by positive reviews if they are positive for the wrong reasons. And sometimes I am touched by negative reviews because they see that I have understood something true. Sometimes I'm irritated by a negative review because I think it's stupid, but OK, it's a part of the game.”
For the publishers who reject your work, I have a wonderful quote from Michel de Montaigne, the first to write in the stream of conscious format: “On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
In The Vanity of Words Michel de Montaigne retold a story of a Spartan rhetorician that his trade was to make big shoes for little feet. “Eloquence most flourished at Rome when the public affairs were in the worst condition and most disquieted with intestine commotions; as a free and untilled soil bears the worst weeds.”
If you're in the market for a good biography of Michel de Montaigne, I recommend Sarah Bakewell's How to Live or A Life on Montaigne in one Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer. It was the first book I re-read during the lockdown.