Re: In the mailbag
Lance,
Read your post on your own blog as well.
When I was a young man I frequently attended Grateful Dead concerts. The smugness was almost as thick as the patchouli & hippy hay smog. They thought themselves independent and highly individualistic as well. They disdained the rest in "Babylon" as many often referred to the rest of the nation.
However, they all conformed real closely to an identical dress and behavior code.
After I grew out of the "grungy-clothes is cool and individualistic" stage of my life I was sitting with a friend who never did grow out of that phase (alas, some years later he was found hanging – a successful suicide). He was whining about having his car searched each and every time he was pulled over. I asked him if a fellow dressed like me approached him at a show and asked to have a mutually beneficial exchange of money for goods, he looked at me and said no way, I would think you were a narc. I then pointed out to my friend he was too was in uniform.
No, the people at fighting bob fest for the most part will be every bit as conformical as any other group. True and pure individualists are rare and few if any will be found at Fighting Bob Fest.
Also, what is so bad about the herd? Jonah Goldberg noted herding is defensive mechanism. The fish that gets out of its school is eaten. Wolves, lions, etc work to split off a herd member from the herd, what happens to that split herd member? They get eaten up.
Read your post on your own blog as well.
When I was a young man I frequently attended Grateful Dead concerts. The smugness was almost as thick as the patchouli & hippy hay smog. They thought themselves independent and highly individualistic as well. They disdained the rest in "Babylon" as many often referred to the rest of the nation.
However, they all conformed real closely to an identical dress and behavior code.
After I grew out of the "grungy-clothes is cool and individualistic" stage of my life I was sitting with a friend who never did grow out of that phase (alas, some years later he was found hanging – a successful suicide). He was whining about having his car searched each and every time he was pulled over. I asked him if a fellow dressed like me approached him at a show and asked to have a mutually beneficial exchange of money for goods, he looked at me and said no way, I would think you were a narc. I then pointed out to my friend he was too was in uniform.
No, the people at fighting bob fest for the most part will be every bit as conformical as any other group. True and pure individualists are rare and few if any will be found at Fighting Bob Fest.
Also, what is so bad about the herd? Jonah Goldberg noted herding is defensive mechanism. The fish that gets out of its school is eaten. Wolves, lions, etc work to split off a herd member from the herd, what happens to that split herd member? They get eaten up.
posted by Marcus Aurelius @ 8:31 AM
<< Home