My friend and sometimes collaborator Matthew Bradley sent me a link to the Onion piece about Noam Chomsky this morning, "Exhausted Noam Chomsky Just Going To Try And Enjoy The Day For Once."
Wrote Matt: "Hate and love this sort of parody all at once..."
I reluctantly forwarded it to Chomsky: "If you haven't already gotten 237 emails about this."
Chomsky: "Now 238. I'll have to look at it I guess, but the title sounds like an original idea."Me: "Perhaps it would be funniest if you didn't read it. I could write up alittle blog post about it. (which you wouldn't have to read)."
Chomsky: "OK, deal."
So, done.
This morning I saw a news flash about 80 killed in Iraq (now over 100). I stared out the window for a minute, then went on writing a couple of news releases about Elena Kagan -- because what happens to that may have an impact on whether the next war happens. I think many people find real joy in friends and family, in nature and in art. But many people's emotional lives are tied up in how cute and funny it is that Thurgood Marshall called Kagan "shorty" according to Obama from the "news" conference this morning. Several years ago, I began a discussion with a friend named Thomas, who works down the hall from me. Thomas' contention was that it's basically useless to try to "fight the system". "The horse is out of the barn," he'd say about ecological and other disasters. "Drink lots of wine, have lots of sex." I mentioned this to a couple of activist friends. One noted leftist replied: "Tough to argue with that." But I think whatever the superficial circumstances of one's life, a large part of the issue is feeling a connection to other people, many or the vast majority of whom you'll never know; many of whom are yet to be born. The joy I feel by writing my best approximation of the relevant truth everyday in a news release and try to reach the public mind with that I think gives me a bigger jolt than Thomas gets from varied "pleasures" (not that I'm pretending to be a stranger to them). That's when things go well. When things go badly -- when things seem useless, when some sense of love doesn't seem to be pushing things forward, when I feel isolated -- then the tiniest bit of work seems like drudgery.
This morning I saw a news flash about 80 killed in Iraq (now over 100). I stared out the window for a minute, then went on writing a couple of news releases about Elena Kagan -- because what happens to that may have an impact on whether the next war happens. I think many people find real joy in friends and family, in nature and in art. But many people's emotional lives are tied up in how cute and funny it is that Thurgood Marshall called Kagan "shorty" according to Obama from the "news" conference this morning. Several years ago, I began a discussion with a friend named Thomas, who works down the hall from me. Thomas' contention was that it's basically useless to try to "fight the system". "The horse is out of the barn," he'd say about ecological and other disasters. "Drink lots of wine, have lots of sex." I mentioned this to a couple of activist friends. One noted leftist replied: "Tough to argue with that." But I think whatever the superficial circumstances of one's life, a large part of the issue is feeling a connection to other people, many or the vast majority of whom you'll never know; many of whom are yet to be born. The joy I feel by writing my best approximation of the relevant truth everyday in a news release and try to reach the public mind with that I think gives me a bigger jolt than Thomas gets from varied "pleasures" (not that I'm pretending to be a stranger to them). That's when things go well. When things go badly -- when things seem useless, when some sense of love doesn't seem to be pushing things forward, when I feel isolated -- then the tiniest bit of work seems like drudgery.