Every time I see something written about the silliest levels of our culture I wish Mike Royko were still alive and writing (He'd have been 83 last Saturday if he was; he'd probably be telling me to let him off the hook already so he could retire).
But he's not, so in the meantime I'll be grateful for Matt Labash, whose work this space has previously extolled. Labash has the cover story for the Oct. 5 Weekly Standard, covering what he calls the "Cocked Fist Culture" of modern society's obsession with division, privilege and microaggressions.
Weekly Standard leans conservative, and one sees the expected and justified ripping of the silliest dimensions of the microagression obsession, from its historical roots to today's surreal manifestations. But Labash is a reporter and a great writer who realizes that if he's going to take digs at a way of thinking that reduces real people to mere sums of their racial, sexual, economic and whatever other attributes, he should probably not overlook talking to real people. So he does, and his article is far richer for that personal encounter, and well worth the read.
I always loved Royko's suggestion of what to do with loud "boom" cars - drive 'em out to the desert and blow 'em up, while the owner had to watch.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'd love to see his take on the madness that the world seems to have fallen prey to in recent years.
I imagine he could offer some interesting insights on the Chicago political scene that nurtured President Obama.
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