Who does Errol Morris despise?

He said the person that most challenged his capacity for empathy was Donald Rumsfeld.

He’s confident right now! He doesn’t have to wait 100 or 500 years. He doesn’t care. I really care whether I’m right or wrong. I really do care. And probably for lots of reasons. I don’t want to be seen as a dumbass, I don’t want to be seen as someone who believes in something that’s absolutely false, untrue, something that can’t be substantiated, checked. I believe that there’s some deep virtue in pursuing truth. Maybe it’s the highest virtue. I believe that. Whether you can attain it or not, you can pursue it. It can be a goal. It can be a destination. I don’t believe that’s Donald Rumsfeld’s goal. I believe that Robert S. McNamara really wanted to understand what he had done and why he had done it. You know, we remain a mystery to ourselves, among the many, many, many other mysteries there are. And McNamara’s struggle with his own past — I was deeply moved by it. I think he’s a war criminal, I think he sees himself as a war criminal, but I like him.

Full interview. Hat tip to Kottke.

3 Responses

  1. I really don’t care how I’m seen by the citizens of a country that re-elects George W. Bush. I do have to look at myself in the mirror when I wash my face in the morning, though. So that’s much more immediate. I can do it through psychosis, as in Rumsfeld’s case, or I can take the hard road. I’ve taken the hard road.

    But I still don’t care much about how I’m seen, except insofar as it helps or interferes with paying the mortgage.