Jean Jacques Rousseau’s terrible life: Why it’s important to read bad books about bad ideas.
“The most dangerous ingredient in Rousseau’s ideas was an unbounded confidence in human ability. He scoffed at formal religion, assuming that through unaided reason, humans could discover all truth. In his view, we only need to be freed from the chains of superstition and authority.” - Breakpoint
Rousseau didn't just leave his five children at an orphanage; he left them at an orphanage where most of the children died due to lack of care. We are talking some serious soullessness that is regrettably mirrored by those who have adopted his ideas.
On the light side, I remember reading his discourses in college, and I vividly remember one passage where it read The virtuous man is an athlete who likes to compete in the nude. I of course broke out in laughter, much to the confusion of friends with me who thought that Rousseau ought to be treated with a great degree more reverence.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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