What's That Smell?

 

Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie have announced their legal separation. I think Trudeau is an awful human being, but as far as his marital situation goes, none of us on the outside can know the rights and wrongs. We should not gloat or take sides. All we can say is that every divorce is a tragedy, and divorce is too frequent in our culture.

Tangentialy related, Viva Frei suggests that Justin Trudeau probably smells bad, and that may have had something to do with the separation. Bad people, he says, generally smell bad.

That is too crazy a comment for me to ever make, but since Viva has raised it, I have always found the same: bad people smell bad. Perhaps not always, but usually. I have often pondered why. Is it because, loving themselves, they also love their own smell, and so do not think much about personal cleanliness? No: I know of one who showered at least once a day, but still stank. Is it because they are chronically nervous, fearing their conscience, and therefore sweat more than the rest of us? This could be; lie detectors work on something like this principle. 

Or is it something supernatural?

After all, good people conversely often smell good. Including, I read, their uncorrupted corpses. This must be more than the absence of perspiration. And I also find that bad people look different: they have a dark, sickly pall about them. I do not mean a dark skin tone-their skin can be quite pale. It is more like shadows on their face. Something about them looks less lifelike, more waxen.

Okay, it sounds crazy. But Viva Frei apparently notices it too. Perhaps others do.

It might be that many others experience this, but it does not register, because they are committed to the belief that there is no such thing as good and bad people.