Never Meet Your Heroes
I’ve been busy lately reading a biography of one of my big heroes when I was growing up, Carl Sagan (Carl Sagan: A Life In The Cosmos, by William Poundstone). The man was a gifted teacher and a brilliant original thinker, and it may be a while before we see a talent like his again. I can honestly say that Sagan’s work helped foster a lifelong interest in science, and I admire his work greatly.
Which is more than I can say for the man himself. Behind the public figure who was passionate about science and about the social responsibility of scientists was someone who, by all accounts, was incredibly self-absorbed with an ego that needed constant attention. Sagan was a lifelong womanizer and marijuana user who seemed to pay cursory attention at best to his children from three different marriages. If only his personal life could have lived up to his public image.
(Actually, I should amend this statement: during Sagan's formative years in the 1940's and 1950's little if anything was known of certain learning disorders. It is possible that any number of issues--ADD/ADHD and Asperger Syndrome among the leading candidates--may have prompted Sagan's combination of erratic personal behavior, atrocious social skills, and prolific scientific career. His marijuana usage may simply have been an attempt to calm a restless mind enough to focus. Given the alternatives available at the time, mainly lithium salts and tranquilizers, marijuana seems a progressive form of therapy. His biographer was very careful to note that Sagan's usage of marijuana was discreet and at Sagan's own request not publicized. However, the fact that Sagan was never able to reconcile with three of his five children, and doesn't seem to have made a great effort to be a part of their lives, speaks volumes.)
But then again, I look at some of the other great scientific minds of the past few centuries. Stephen Hawking apparently gets around pretty well with the ladies, too. Imagine what he’d be like if he weren’t stuck in that wheelchair! Albert Einstein ditched his first wife (who by all accounts was at least his intellectual equal) to hook up with his cousin and ignored his children. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Isaac Newton not only never married (having once absent-mindedly used the pinkie of a potential spouse to clean his pipe!) but bragged about spending his entire life as a virgin (he lived to be 84).
(Some biographers have claimed Isaac Newton was a closet homosexual on this basis. I disagree--homosexuality was, if not completely acceptable, at least tolerated amongst Newton's social class in 17th century England. The playwright and poet Christopher Marlowe was a confirmed homosexual and rough contemporary of Newton's, and a man of Newton's reputation and later political power would have little to fear from such accusations. In other words, if Newton were gay he'd have no reason to have to stay in the closet. More likely, Newton was one of those individuals who felt socially awkward around women and never mustered the courage to actively court a bride, a much more complex matter in his day than ours. I can totally relate! Read James Glieck's biography of Newton for a realistic perspective.)
Galileo was at least good to his family--during his Inquisition trial he was supporting a deadbeat son, two daughters in a convent, and several in-laws and grandchildren despite being in his seventies and in rotten health. But this was balanced by Galileo being a serious asshole toward everyone else who couldn’t advance his career (and, to his detriment, a few who had the power to end it).
(By contrast, Johannes Kepler, who faced similar problems with the Lutheran Church as Galileo faced with the Inquisition, was an exemplary person in all aspects of his life, even going so far as to put his reputation, livelihood, and physical health and safety at risk to help defend his mother against false accusations of witchcraft. A superior mind and a superior soul can inhabit the same body after all.)
It all goes to show that a superior intellect doesn’t necessarily equate to a superior man. For that matter, superiority in any one trait is usually balanced out by a deficiency somewhere else. As my father often reminded me when I was growing up, the only perfect man who ever lived got nailed to a cross for his trouble.
(Recent events have further proven to me that mental superiority and moral superiority are not always found in the same package. Of course, I doubt the superiority in any sense of the individual I'm thinking of.)
In a way, though, this is a hopeful sign. If the best and brightest among us can be human beings--sometimes deeply flawed human beings--then any of us can aspire to greater things despite those traits we (or others) think hold us back. In other words, there’s no excuse for not doing your best at whatever you try. Just don’t forget the people in your life when you’re doing it.
ADDENDUM: When looking for the exact book I’m reading to put in the ’What I’m Reading’ block, I noticed that a 1973-83 Honda Civic Shop Manual was authored by Carl Sagan. My first thought was ’Damn, he was talented in a lot of areas!’ Then my rational mind took over (Carl would no doubt approve) and insisted that it was probably not the same person.
