IX. THE VOLTAIRE EGO
A woman gets into a car. She puts the key in the ignition, turns the heater up and switches the radio on. “Now isn’t this comfy,” she says as she leans back and closes her eyes. The car has been parked in the back garden for the past ten years.
DEFINITION: The Voltaire Ego is named after the famous 18th Century French philosopher, Voltaire, who once famously declared that ‘it is our duty to cultivate our garden’. The Voltaire Ego represents the temptation to focus on a tiny private realm – sometimes even a literal garden – outside of which nothing really registers as interesting or worthy of attention.
DISAPPOINTER MODE: retreat from the world, smugness, conservatism, narrow horizons.
MOTTO: ‘There’s no place like home.’
APPOINTER MODE: embrace of the Small Is Beautiful philosophy, love of home and family, enjoyment of the simpler things in life, enjoyment of one’s own space and one’s own company.
