The benefits of being incalculably rich are:
You don’t care what happens, and;
You don’t care what happens to possessions.
When the bourgeois are burglarized they invariably take it personally, and will whine that they feel, “violated,” while a rich person will show no reaction, only coldly say to an aide: “Call the insurance company.” Their attitude toward possessions, (be they vacuum cleaners or Van Goghs), is that anything can be replaced, or its purchase price recouped. Everything was originally traded for mere money, which proves its true value; it’s all just – stuff – and everything, ultimately fungible.
So, too, is the attitude of a man-with-the-understanding toward mental possessions, opinions, beliefs and knowledge-of-non-tangibles. He feels no personal attachment to the ideas that furnish his normal neural residence. They are like nondescript, rental-quality furniture that came with the place. It’s just STUFF; it’s just THERE; it fills up the space and gives dust something to sit on.
A man with the understanding, understands above all – mind – and in so doing, obviously understands the value of the mind’s stock in trade. He realizes that all the thoughts he and everyone else can think are interchangeable, replaceable, meaningless knick-knacks, available on any corner, and their possession or loss is without relevance.
Should such a man be told that some idea he had previously expressed, had today been denounced, his reaction would be: “Talk to my insurance company.” Having some idea that once passed through his mind be attacked by another idea that happened to pass through someone else’s mind, would be of no more interest to such a man than would the theft of a penny to a trillionaire, (and a counterfeit cent at that).
J.