Inconsistency

Yesterday in Moral Psychology we were beating up on compartmentalized people. Or, at least, I was. The "jet set peace corps worker" example--committedly working in the fields in Africa all week, equally committedly partying in Europe on the weekends--makes me bilious. ("What would we call this person?" "Inconsistent, perhaps; potentially lacking in integrity.") It doesn't matter that the example is just an exaggeration of the typcial college student; I've puzzled over those long enough. On the way home I turned on the radio, where they were talking about the psychological flaws of presidents. Does one have to be compartmentalized to do anything well? As if, otherwise, different commitments will leak into--and compromise--our main activity because we see them as blended. I worry that the whole psychological mess that follows compartmentalization is also what leads to success.

And why is the typical college student like that? (Shouldn't the young be more integrated?) Could young people be taking on the work/play dichotomy from our culture because they think it's what adulthood requires?

White said that we mistrust this person because their "web of commitment" (class was full of webs) is shallow, or perhaps both bifurcated and shallow. He thinks the "relations of support" among our "noninstrumental desires" (read: values) are what give meaning to things we do. I like what he thinks.