Al Parker asked obliquely what my opinion was on White Rabbit. Well, I wear the tee shirt Horus sent me.

Horus, BBG, Lord Nelson, Truck Roy, BGlass, all would have plenty to argue about but all are making their own places in the intellectual job BUGS is doing.

But the problem with FOLLOWERS as opposed to seminar members is that you have to compliment them or be their Grand Inquisitor. I spent a whole career dealing with constituents — followers — and that is a major burden it is a relief to put down.

A person who makes his living the way I did has to come up with an approach to every single issue. But no matter how obsessive compulsive a person may be, can he actually have opinions, or even a point of view, on everything?

If you don’t you are damned with that worst of all statements, “So you just don’t CARE about” abortion/ starving children/ the environment or what ever else was in the newspaper yesterday.

Not only do I care about very few questions, I no longer HAVE to. I spent a LOT workaholic years getting to be retired, and one of the privileges of that status is that I don’t HAVE to act interested in the musings of constituents or congressmen whose entire heads are crammed full of this week’s newspapers.

When I made my living this way I had to worry about giving each person his due. I don’t give White Rabbit his due. I don’t give Trucker Roy his due. I don’t’ give Lord Nelson the praise he deserves. Hell, I can’t even fit in all the people a good PR man or politician or even a good fanatic should note.

Clearly the people who stick with me are not greatly offended. Another thing one is supposed to be is Militantly Modest. But I have retired from the semi sainthood one had to maintain as a Public Figure which required a total abrogation of Self and all that other crap.

Some people give Dave a hard time for praising me so often. Dave remembers that I criticized him for getting off OUR subject and I said that I would be happy if he would just keep mentioning my name. It’s a good trick for forcing yourself back from wandering away intellectually,

But also now that I am no longer a professional politico I can admit that it is not just my constituents’ egos that need a little boosting. I can’t imagine that anyone is so naïve he doesn’t realize that while overdoing it turns people off, everybody needs some ego boost.

I do not want to create a Whitakerism. But in BUGS, I like the way people keep using my name where it fits. This is BOB’S Seminar. We have a VERY wide-ranging set of ages and education and all the rest, so the only point of unity is the Old Man.

And my ambition as I keep repeating, is to have Bob’s Seminar go on long after Ole Bob dies or is put in the funny farm. That will be when your understanding of exactly where I fit in the pattern will be absolutely critical. You are well aware of how groups split when the central character is no longer there.

This is the home of the Mantra. This is the central point of Mantra Thinking. Bob is connected to THAT.

I am not a subtle person and my statements are deliberately about as obscure as a hand grenade. My basic points are few but you can apply them to anything. Nobody has less trouble than BUGS readers in telling when a commenter has wandered off the point and is trying to his own personal world view on things, rather than BUGS logic.

What you can use is my approach, not my opinion. Long after I am dead one should not read my BUGS writings for my opinions, but for my way of thinking.

That, and ONLY that, is the reason Ole Bob’s name is important here.