As an individualist, with Objectivism as my guide, I would like to think that I choose friends based on shared values. A recent event challenged this idea. I found myself faced with someone, a person with whom I had corresponded, in whom I had confided personal information, and on whom I had conferred the title friend. For myself the introvert, the cautionary one, the wolf, this was no small thing. In some ways, I had begun to see in this person, a kindred spirit. When the shit hit the fan however, and some fell my way, a number of things happened.

First I questioned the process by which we had become "friends". It had started with praise. He became aware of one of my aspirations, and praised it to the hilt. He confessed similar aspirations. He mirrored some of my experiences, and spoke about values which were near to my heart. In public, I was offered yet more praise, and sanctioned heavily. For my part I surrendered reason to validation. I mean, fuck, the man called me a genius. Hemingway was a genius. Damn!