BY TOM TOMORROW
A philosopher agrees:
As someone who gets paid to do philosophy, I have to say that I have no favourite philosopher. Indeed, I consider asking about a favourite philosopher (as well as having one) the sign of a dilettante. If someone asked me who was my favourite philosopher I, probably, would also stumble (dumbfounded by the inaneness of the question) and then would try to end the conversation.
A year ago I called the head of a prominent liberal think tank to ask him who his favorite philosopher was. If I’d asked about health care, he could have given me four hours of brilliant conversation, but on this subject he stumbled and said he’d call me back. He never did.
Let me say up front that I think the question is pretty obnoxious no matter who’s asking it, and says more about the self-satisfied upper class elitism of the questioner than anything else. Nonetheless, it’s bizarre for David Brooks to bring this one up as a way of whacking liberals over the head, given that the most famous answer to that question in modern times was George W. Bush’s faltering “Jesus, because he changed my life” bit — and that’s certainly the first thing that will spring to mind for 99% of people reading the column. Everybody misses the obvious now and again, but Brooks is really in a class of his own when it comes to this sort of cluelessness. And every column he writes, he just seems to dig himself in a little bit deeper.
(Semi-related note: like a lot of Bushisms, that answer is best described by a British term I ran across recently — it’s “dog whistle politics”, meaning that it sends out a signal that’s only intended to be heard by a certain segment of the audience.)
Also: I don’t know enough about Brooks’ history to know if this is a standard part of his bio, but in the same column, he mentions in an offhand way:
If I were a liberal, which I used to be…
…which explains a lot: he’s a Yoosta Bee. (Though unlike most Yoosta Bees, he freely acknowledges that he is, in fact, a partisan Republican — give him that much…)
Classified ads are live (over in the right hand sidebar).
You’ll notice from the house ads that the shop has been updated. Posters are mainly there by popular demand — they’re a very low-profit item for me, and reformatting the files is a pain in the ass, but a whole lot of you have requested them, so there they are. My gift to you. Pillows just struck me as funny. I don’t usually keep a lot of my own artwork around the house — oddly enough, I don’t find it relaxing to be surrounded by too many reminders of work and deadlines — but I’ll probably get a couple of these for my own couch.
Other bidness: ad revenue has really dried up since the election, so I’ve lowered my prices a bit. Also, I’m adding classified ads to the right hand sidebar. (Should show up as soon as BlogAds processes whatever it is they need to process.) These will be text only and very cheap.
(Good months, I hope to earn a few extra dollars from this site, but even during the slow months, I’d like to at least cover the hosting costs. Which are probably too high — I moved to a high traffic plan when I was getting whacked on bandwidth awhile back — but I don’t have the time to deal with moving the site again right now.)
Tomorrow’s the birthday, hitting the double-four. Thanks again to everyone who sent something off the wish list. It is much appreciated.
Literally and metaphorically. It has officially been One of Those Weeks, for about two weeks now. Early next week the birthday hits, and I think lightness of posting will continue at least until then.