This is a very short essay, but I want to point out a couple of things about it. First, the premise is that Montaigne’s father had some crazy ideas for civic administration, but I don’t find them offbeat. Here’s an example:
My late father, a man of a decidedly clear judgement, based though it was only on his natural gifts and his own experience, said to me once that1 he had wished to set a plan in motion leading to the designation of a place in our cities where those who were in need of anything could go and have their requirements registered by a duly appointed official; for example: ‘I want to sell some pearls’; or ‘I want to buy some pearls.’ ‘So-and-so wants to make up a group to travel to Paris’; ‘So-and-so wants a servant with the following qualifications’; ‘So-and-so seeks an employer’; ‘So-and-so wants a workman’; each stating his wishes according to his needs.
Montaigne’s father would have been a great success in modern Silicon Valley. Apps have fulfilled many business ideas expressed in this essay. What we expected from the government in another era, we now expect to be handled via disruptive technologies.
The essay then mentions how well his father kept records of the estate, which made his job much easier through the years and gives him material to peruse pleasantly occasionally. As meaningless mental habits go, it’s not a useless one, in my opinion.
Leave a Reply