My Year With Proust - Day 345

In any case he would not have been entirely wrong in seeking to hush it up, for there is no vice that does not find ready tolerance in the best society, and one has seen a country house turned upside down in order that two sisters might sleep in adjoining rooms as soon as their hostess learned that theirs was a more than sisterly affection.

Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain, p. 742

I've included this brief section for two reasons.  First off, it's another example how big a role sex, and especially homoerotic sex, plays in Cities of the Plain.  Secondly, it speaks to the, at best, moral flexibility of the "best society," where surface level appearance is more important than any deeper moral/ethical structure.  I've proposed before that I truthfully wonder if the brain of someone like Donald Trump is actually wired differently than actual real - read that as good and productive and beneficial - people.  Essentially, that he acts the way he does not simply because of nurture, but also because of nature - that the cause and effect section of the brain just never quite finishes being soldered together.  Here in Bleak House we find ourselves watching Downton Abbey quite a bit, which is a show I thoroughly loath, for just that reason.  The adventures of the privileged class doesn't interest me (other than spending time ruminating, quietly, on what level of Dante's hell they would populate) and we're past the age where we learn anything from turning light on their imperfections.  In my darkest moments I view it as part of the grand conspiracy on the part of the wealthy to convince the poorer folks - again, read as good and productive and beneficial - to have some patience with them: they're trying, but it's hard to have no real problems - and where your biggest challenge is take make certain that your life remains as untroubled as possible, even if in the process you cause innumerable problems for the rest of society.