Lawyers are all right , I guess--but it doesn't appeal to me. I mean they're all right if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't DO that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides. Even if you DID go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really WANTED to save guys' lives, or because what you REALLY wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporter and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is you WOULDN'T.
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This is Nietzsche's whole deal about there being no altruists; We all do things for selfish reasons. Our dear Holden is probably right that we really can't know whether we are being phony. We can't really know anything. But if you are the attorney out there saving the guy, it doesn't matter if you are being phony, because you are doing the right thing. Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is ok. Everybody wins.
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