We tend to judge the quality of a man’s views on life by how he lives: this is dangerous given that we focus on the negative in men’s characters more than on the positive. The arts and the sciences should provide ample evidence that in fact much of the highest quality work is produced by men that are really no more than monsters — as always, Wagner, my favorite composer and most detested proto-Nazi, comes to mind. There is something to be learned even from hypocrites — perhaps especially from hypocrites.