Chicago Boyz

Jonathan sent me this, and this essay by Thomas Sowell, on the 20th anniversary of the death of Eric Hoffer. I read Hoffer’s book The True Believer a few weeks after 9/11, based on an essay in the WSJ. I’d had a copy on the shelf for years but never gotten to it. Hoffer put Catholicism and Nazism in the same category — delusional beliefs for the weak. Ouch. So wrong for so many reasons. A silent prayer for the repose of his manifestly well-intentioned soul is an appropriate response, which I am happy to provide and repeat as I type this. But this type of thing happens throughout the book, which is a mix of clever and wise insights commingled with historical and factual error and over-generalization. It makes the book a lot weaker than it ought to be. Hoffer was trying to do too much. Instead of just describing the membership of modern mass political movements, which he understood pretty well, he tried to write a book which spanned all of history. And he did not know enough of all of history to do that very well.

Sowell’s affection for Hoffer seems to turn mainly on Hoffer’s uncompromising stand against the stupidities of the day which were rampant in the 1960s, at least as much as on the quality of Hoffer’s books. I have read almost everything by Sowell, who is usually very solid. His more recent books are not as good as his earlier, meatier work. For example, Knowledge and Decisions is excellent. (I just noticed that my copy seems to have disappeared … . All is not always orderly here at Fortress Lex.) Sowell’s books are better than his punditry, which can occasionally be superficial. All in all, Sowell is a better writer and thinker than Hoffer was, at least based on my sampling.

Thomas Sowell writes:

Insurance companies are in the business of reducing given risks and transferring them, for a price. Non-profit advocacy groups are in the business of maximizing fears from given risks, in order to attract the donations that keep them going. Yet because the latter’s income is not called by the dreaded word “profit,” they are considered to be doing something more noble.

Beautiful day, sunny, breezy, not too hot. Stuck at the office most of the day, responding to a muted but chilling observation from on-high that I need to be more “proactive” — but made it back before the whole thing was over.

Today was the day of the block party. Street blocked off. Kids riding bikes in the street. Gangs of children I don’t even know appearing on my porch and demanding glasses of water, or to use the bathroom. People standing around drinking beer. As I type, karaoke out front. I can hear my wife singing “hey hey hey, goodbye”. After three bottles of strong and yummy Pilsner Urquell (the Czech Republic’s gift to the world) I took my turn in the karaoke barrel. I did a horrible version of “White Rabbit”. I then made partial penance by doing an on-key a capella version of Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home”. Then I quit while I was ahead. Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock’N’Roll” beckons, if someone gets more beer. (Now someone’s doing Whitney Houston. Bad call. Whitney doesn’t even sound good doing it, and she’s hitting the notes.)

One of the guys down the street wants to go see the new Matrix movie. Our wives said, in unison, “you two can go”. I’m going to treat that as an evening pass, and run with it.

My two year old was so tired she was falling down, but fought like a tiger not to have to go to bed. Once I got the dirt and snot and chocolate wiped off of her, and got her into a dry diaper and a pj, she fell asleep like a rock.

Got good news the other day that Los Straitjackets are going to be playing walking distance from Lex’s pad on the 4th of July. Woo hoo.

Work looks to get ugly. Plus I’m trying to get the doc to give me some medicine and he won’t return my calls. And my kids are beating me into the ground. And other stuff going on for the next little while. Can’t say for how long. But God is in His Heaven and all is right with the world. Still, I’ll have to trust the other ChicagoBoyz to pull the train for a while.

Meanwhile, this Robert Kaplan interview(cited by Instapundit) is brilliant. The article from the dead tree magazine is even better — and will be online pretty soon, so be on the lookout for it. Currently reading Copse 125 by Ernst Junger, and Right Face: Organizing the American Conservative Movement 1945-65 by Niels Bjerre-Poulsen. Just finished David Hackworth’s book Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts. Also read Russia’s Chechen Wars 1994 – 2000: Lessons from Urban Combat by Olga Oliker. These are all excellent. Figure on “book reports” here as soon as I can focus. I have a bunch of other good ideas for posts, too. There’s a lot going on in the world and as always, I’ve got opinions longer than you have time to listen or read.