There are some people that have photographic memories. I call them assholes.
I am the opposite. My retention was depleted by Milton Bradley’s “Memory” game, TV theme song lyrics, and useless even for trivia knowledge (do you know what the word Cahuenga means?).

That said, I double majored in Dramatic Writing and Philosophy (or, as my mom called it, “Unemployment”) and even though gathousands of american dollars were thrown that way, I can remember that I liked Kant, hated metaphysics, and developed funny doodles about unicorns and fagots (look that word up if you think that was a hate word crime) but if you asked me why…well please don’t ask me why.

Lately, (like, since yesterday) I’ve been thinking about what the difference is between Character and Personality. Specifically, do they or can they change? And I know that I studied this when I was like 19, but I can’t remember to take my socks off before getting into bed most nights, so clearly, I turned to my friend, the internet for re-remembering.

I’d like to share with “you” what Johnny Knuckles has to say about it cause I think it’s pretty effin’ brills. Who are you Mr. Knuckles, I’m not sure you answered all my questions, but I think I’m in love:

(ok, i am a webtard and can’t figure out how to re-post his blog post here so either click on the link above or read it x+paste style here)

Personality vs Character
Many of you groin-grabbing fucktards– wait, hold on. Let Knuckles start again. Just noticed an alarming lack of epithets on this site lately and panicked.

Alright, today’s sermon from Father Knuckles is the confusion between personality and character. It’s important to know the difference between the two. Especially during times of war and when you’re dating.

Personality traits are individual, subjective and vary widely.

Character traits are constant, objective and timeless.

Character traits include honesty, trust, respect, responsibility, leadership, loyalty and courage. One’s character can be objectively judged. Character is defined as right or wrong. Character, despite its detractors, can be taught. However educators are bypassing the difficulty of teaching character and have gone directly to self-esteem, the reward of strong character. But without character, self-esteem is a hollow concept.

And while character traits are universal, each individual has the choice to accept or reject them. One of character’s best features is that you can do them without conviction and the end result is the same. For instance, a coward can recognize he’s a coward yet still perform an act of bravery and no one will fault him acting out of character.

Personality is subjective. It includes your sense of humor (or lack of), whether you’re outgoing or shy, friendly or stoic, your interests, passions, and the list goes on. While some people have well-developed personalities, their character sucks and you eventually avoid them even though “they’re a lot of fun.”

Taking the historical big-picture long view, personality is neither right nor wrong. Some people will like any particular personality and others won’t. (You’re thinking Knuckles is trying to justify his crappy personality. But you would be wrong. Knuckles is a pantload of fun.) And while someone’s basic personality never changes, it can be improved with exposure to the arts, people, travel, reading, hobbies, and pilgrimages to the holy site of this blog.

To sum:

Clinton has personality.
Bush has character.
Kerry has neither.

Bless you and fuck off, er, go forth and multiply.

Father Knuckles

seriously love him. but to bring this full question mark (there’s no way it’s sensical enough to be a circle), if you have a photographic memory could you ever not be an asshole? I seem to remember my philosophy professor saying that one of the two was unchanging. it was either personality… or character. what what?
-mama knuckles

(my The Secret style attempt.)