In any event, any complaints on FW's side would be hypocritical, because he had written to the old Dessauer during Grumbkow's life time: "I know he is like that, but you need such people to do the business honourable people wouldn't want to soil their hands with. I get more out of him in an hour than I acquit with others in three."
Yeah, I've read a number of quotes where FW thought he could see right through Grumbkow and use him as a useful tool, but didn't believe Grumbkow was smart enough to manipulate *him*. Which, well...
Now, I wouldn't exclude that in the moment when he shouted at Fritz that he'd have killed himself if his father had treated him this way, but Fritz was too dishonorable to do that - that FW at this moment did hope Fritz would kill himself. But not even once he'd calmed down.
Agreed on both counts. The longer I live, the more examples I see of what's informally called the teleological fallacy: the idea that because something leads to some outcome, it must have been intended to lead to that.
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Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - FW and young Fritz
Date: 2020-09-10 02:06 pm (UTC)Yeah, I've read a number of quotes where FW thought he could see right through Grumbkow and use him as a useful tool, but didn't believe Grumbkow was smart enough to manipulate *him*. Which, well...
Now, I wouldn't exclude that in the moment when he shouted at Fritz that he'd have killed himself if his father had treated him this way, but Fritz was too dishonorable to do that - that FW at this moment did hope Fritz would kill himself. But not even once he'd calmed down.
Agreed on both counts. The longer I live, the more examples I see of what's informally called the teleological fallacy: the idea that because something leads to some outcome, it must have been intended to lead to that.