Monday, April 13, 2009

Cyberspace, Meatspace, Meat-Eating

wolf-pic.jpg

Four of the most interesting libertarianish types I know have blogged less this year, while a fifth admits he mostly blogs photos of his plants lately (and with DC Comics’ climactic “Final Crisis” storyline mostly over, reading about comics seems kind of pointless, too).  The Onion also seemed a bit perfunctory the first few months of the year.  I blame the dispiriting economy for this lull — and don’t think I regard my own circa-March entries as my best work, either (Helen, by contrast, will make up for the lull by writing regularly for American Spectator this summer).

I get nervous whenever Virginia Postrel goes too long without blogging, frankly (I’m not the only one, I’m sure).  I knew she was scheduled to end her year-long chemo treatments around late February, when her VPostrel.com blog posts stopped for a long time, but I see she’s done an Atlantic piece since then, posted items on her DeepGlamour blog, and is probably busily finishing writing her Glamour book as well, so things are OK on that front.

Luckily, even when cyberspace doesn’t offer enough material to foster quality procrastination (if, for instance, one is trying to avoid finishing up one’s taxes, the same weekend one has an anti-government letter on NYTimes.com), one can always resort to hearing ideas debated in meatspace.  And thanks to a generous Gerry Ohrstrom, Helen and I got to see linguist and evolutionary psychology popularizer Steven Pinker live in conversation with Tom Wolfe yesterday, a great excuse for not finishing the taxes just yet.

Pinker would also sympathize with the pro-animal position in our oft-mentioned upcoming upcoming May 6 Debate at Lolita Bar.  Wolfe, I assume, is as carnivorous as his namesake — and one of my biggest influences.

1 comment:

Todd Seavey said...

Speaking of that letter in the Times, I see the same topic — the recent Tea Party protests — is the focus of Paul Krugman’s column today. The tiresome, intellectually-dishonest bastard has chosen to go with the “AstroTurf” theme, that is, saying that the Tea Party protests — no matter how big the turnout by unpaid sympathizers like me — don’t really count because a non-profit group in DC, FreedomWorks, organized them.

I guess leftist events, by contrast, happen because each participant awoke that morning and, as if by telepathy, arrived spontaneously at the same protest location, no organization spending a dime on banners or signs because money and tactical organizing are immoral. Also, there is no George Soros.

Does anyone really think that in a world of “networking,” these sadly New Left-sounding distinctions between “authentic” and “inauthentic” political protests still resonate? Retire, Krugman, and use the time to polish your Nobel:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/opinion/13krugman.html?_r=1