Who Would Have Thought, It Figures

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn.”
― Joss Whedon

Practicing for retirement. 

I am what a friend calls, somewhat dismissively, "Three digits short." That is, I am more than one hundred days shy of leaving full-time career employment. However, there is no time like the present to take on the burden of "nothing much to do," as John Prine expressed ("Hello in There" 1971).

My wife and I had selected restoratives appropriate for the occasion - her a lovely sparkling wine (with cheese and crackers - she'd learned the art of this afternoon repast in Greece) and I a home-built margarita, as an antidote to bee sting. I worked at finishing Kevin D. Williamson's The Smallest Minority - Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics. We'd fired up the tikis, unfurled the umbrella. If this is the boring lifestyle of the retired, then I'm all for it.

Williamson is something of an acquired taste. His rhetorical style is often peppered with slights of one form or another. Not unvarnished name calling, he just writes dismissively about a number of subjects. On those occasions when he disrespects something with which I am passionate (he isn't much of a fan of law enforcement as he suggests it is currently practiced) I express - sometimes directly at him - my displeasure. He, as he writes in his book, ignores me and others as beneath his dignity. 

He writes really well. Williamson's work stands as an example of something from which I can, sometimes grudgingly, learn a thing or two. His series on poverty in Appalachia is especially heartbreaking, and informative.

Among the topics Williamson addresses in Minority is censorship. He notes, in passing, that the American government is not in the censorship business, strictly speaking. Most of the time, a person's right to freely express themselves is infringed by "the mob." As opposed, I assume, by "The Mob," which lent a certain finality to its efforts at censorship (the cornfield scene in Casino comes immediately to mind). In Williamson's view, the mob takes on many forms. One, in which I apparently ran afoul in an unsuccessful attempt to post a review of The Smallest Minority, are "standards" imposed on many social media venues.

Swearing - I'm sorry...profanity - is not permitted on Amazon. I suggest that it might be one of the only places it is not permitted (ride the Light Rail lately?) but then Amazon has not called me lately asking for advice on their standards. I post, herewith, my review in its entirety:

    I read a review of a book written by Nassim Taleb to the effect that he is an asshole, but one often right. The same applies to this author. He's often a jerk, but is totally worth reading. This is a really good book.

My authority on profanity is the late commentary titan Dr. Charles Krauthammer. In an essay appropriately titled "The Deuce," he describes an encounter between two politicians whose disdain for one another was epic. Apparently, their conversation deteriorated to the point where one of them, then Vice President of the United States, chose "the deuce." It became something of a scandal.

If you've ever read Taleb (Black Swan, Anti-Fragile) you would immediately understand my meaning. Taleb is openly contemptuous of anyone with the temerity to disagree with him, noting on one occasion that if you are reading his book, it doesn't really matter if you are enjoying the experience. He has already gotten about as much mileage out of you as he expected, going in.

Williamson believes something of the same, at one point suggesting that most human beings are foul, disgusting and stupid. Be that as it may (a friend once commented, as we dealt with yet another workplace shit show, "Have you ever wondered how human beings became the dominant species on this planet?") I'd at least assume for the moment the reader was smart enough to tuck into his book.

But, Minority is an extraordinary book for its era. As someone who spends a lot of time on social media (for a variety of reasons, not the least of them that I'd like to have gotten you this far) his observations are spot on, if lacking compassion, wisdom or humility. He notes that individuals and organizations have often fallen victim to torrents of criticism merely because they expressed (or, were thought - erroneously in many cases - to have expressed) opinions that do not follow the mob's. 

He notes several examples of individuals adversely affected by the social media mob. One of them, well thought of at an important organization, got on a plane for vacation, made an innocuous remark on Twitter (and then shut off her various devices) and then, oblivious to the Twitter firestorm that had ensued, gotten off the plane at her destination unemployed, and unemployable. He maps the effects of greed, envy and outcastism. At one point, using many more words than one of my grandsons, he describes inter-tribalistic disagreements as... Well, my grandson, upon witnessing demonstrators and counter demonstrator in DC, said he thought he understood the dynamic. "One side says 'You suck' and the other side says 'No, you suck.'"

And so, to appease the mob (and sometimes foreign governments) organizations like Amazon impose "standards," so as not to offend. Offend whom, Williamson knows not. But, there you are. It's ironic, don't you think?

This is my blog, a place for adults to read, to be entertained. If you don't like it here... Well, Dr. K has some advice for you.