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What does "Everyone is naive all the time" means in the following text

English Language & Usage Asked on July 27, 2021

I am translating a psychoanalysis book, here is a background about this chapter: in this chapter the author is speaking about getting it. it can be a joke, saying, or a point or anything that needs to be got. here are some sentences which will help to understand the context:

Getting what people say, for example, may be complicity, may reveal you are a member of a cult; or colluding with someone to protect yourself from unwanted experiences; or that you prefer agreement to revision or conflict. And this might mean, in this context, not always assuming that there is an it to get; living as if missing the point – having the courage of one’s naivety – could also be a point."

and he continues (in this passage I have questions) :

Not assuming, as I think we do more often than we realize, that the joke – after God’s providential design, and the laws of nature, is our best model of how things works, especially between people. If it had to be formulated, in brief, we could say that the man or woman of your dreams is the person who both gets you and does not get you in the way you prefer to be got. That is to say, someone who does not only treat you as their favorite joke. Or, everyone is naive all the time.

to translate it perfectly I have two questions

1- I am trying to understand the below sentence.

"who both gets you and does not get you in the way you prefer to be got"

my understanding is: who both get you and does not get you, and in both way the person does not get you/ or even get you in a way you prefer to be got. Is this a correct understanding ?

2- "Or, everyone is naive all the time."

does the above sentence mean:

Or all the people who are naive always will be the person of your dreams?

this is a page about the book
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Missing_Out/6sgL6iqrHZUC?hl=en&gbpv=0

One Answer

The problem with this text is that the author is not very clear and does not seem to care if he makes sense. Let's take your first phrase here:

"...who both gets you and does not get you in the way you prefer to be got."

The author is advocating that you should find someone who generally understands you, but doesn't understand you in the way you prefer to be understood. That's some pretty terrible relationship advice, as it dooms two people to be perpetually frustrated.

Now, reading the next sentence after that one:

Or, everyone is naïve all the time.

That doesn't logically follow from the previous sentence, and it's a declarative statement, not a command. Thus I'm hard-pressed to understand how the audience is supposed to follow that advice. Also, it doesn't make the previous sentence make any more sense. It's written like a restatement, but it doesn't restate the previous sentence in any way I can understand.

This is why others have accused this text of being basically meaningless. I have to agree.

Correct answer by FeliniusRex on July 27, 2021

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