I have an interview this afternoon for teaching work in my department. I am considering turning up and answering all of the questions with quotations from Walter Benjamin’s The Destructive Character. I imagine it will go something like this:
Are you able to manage a busy workload?
The destructive character does his work; the only work he avoids is creative.
And how do you feel about working in a team?
Just as the creator seeks solitude, the destroyer must be constantly surrounded by people, witnesses to his efficacy.
Part of the teaching work involves explaining complex concepts. Can you tell us how you would do that?
The destructive character has no interest in being understood.
And can you tell us about your expertise?
The destructive character has the consciousness of historical man, whose deepest emotion is an insuperable mistrust of the course of things and a readiness at all times to recognize that everything can go wrong.
And where do you see yourself being in five years time?
The destructive character lives from the feeling not that life is worthing living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.