In the last article I went round and round and didn’t get to the point.
This blog format is good because it puts the conclusions on top.
What I am advocating, my intellectual dream world, would be where people like you would realize who you are.
You are not some tiny elite of people who CAN be what you are. You are a tiny elite of people who want OTHERS to be what you are. There are millions of people you ache to teach if they would listen.
Take farriers, for instance.
The average farrier maker of horseshoes is, as Elizabeth pointed out, also a maker or medically correctional horseshoes. This is NOT unskilled labor.
But the range of farriers is very wide, as Elizabeth is well aware.
Too many farriers are bored drunks.
Elizabeth or I could give you some stories on that, and E is welcome to do so if she remembers any.
It’s been a long time.
But I could tell after a few minute’s conversation whether a farrier was in our intellectual class, and some of them are. You and I are not looking for some etherial, exclusive group that calls itself “intellectual.”
We are looking for people who can think and say what they are thinking.
And we want to make them do so.
In my ideal world the person who can THINK would despise those who get paid for commenting and professoring. If they claimed expertise he would demand RESULTS. If they are getting a salary, he would demand to know why he couldn’t get that salary for memorizing the same predictable crap.
You can GET a job as a farrier by showing that you have been in the field for years.
But you can’t KEEP a job as farrier unless you make good horseshoes.
Why in God’s name can’t farriers apply the same rule to the people they pay to be professors or commentators or experts in other fields?
What we desperately need in this country is some good solid VOCATIONAL self-righteousness.
“What have you done for me LATELY?”
That’s the ticket!
#1 by joe rorke on 01/12/2006 - 9:24 pm
See? This piece is a perfect example of Bob being not funny. This piece is packed with powerful stomp your brains out truth. Can’t beat it. Can’t find it anywhere else. It’s right on the money. That tradesman thinks the cat in the suit is a better man than he is. That’s one of his mistakes. The cat in the suit is more likely a lesser man than the cobbler, the carpenter, the horseshow maker. Almost definitely he’s hurt more people than the tradesman. I imagine “Why Johnny Can’t Think” shows that to be true.