The true meaning of ‘misanthrope’ can be found in a comedy series
In Curb Your Enthusiasm, a series created by Larry David, he plays a melodramatic version of what he claims is his real self. Once, he encounters a large woman in a shelter for battered women and he suspects she is lying about her trauma because she is so physically imposing no man could have battered her. Another day, he appoints an African-American man to behave poorly with Caucasians, on his behalf.
At the peak of the #MeToo movement in America, when Larry David finds a date, he persuades her to appear on tape with him giving him consent to get physical. Also, he woos a disabled woman to get ahead in queues and ends up cheating on her with another disabled woman. The twelfth and final season of the cult sitcom dropped a few days ago.
Long before that, Larry David has been celebrated for all that is great about him. Except one thing—he is not hailed enough for unintentionally introducing to the modern world the most sensible meaning of the word ‘misanthrope.’ There is a corrupt side to language, especially English, which has words that do not exist in most languages. Through labels, it simplifies complexity, and at times manufactures ideas that do no exist (just about anything that ends with ‘ism’).
Among its odd words is ‘misanthrope,’ which dictionaries interpret as “hater of mankind." It is not an obscure word at all. Yet, its dictionary meaning is obscure. “Hater of mankind." Who hates humans, really? People do say that, but without seriousness.
Larry David himself says that. Yet, he is a man who loves his friends, and even an ex-wife. No one truly knows the meaning of ‘hating humans.’ At best, it is a lament.
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