Yesterday I gave a talk for GMU TV (pre-recorded; not sure when it will broadcast). My host declared that I would have made a “great ’60s radical” and compared me to reading Eldridge Cleaver. The big message of my book, on his reading, is “Question yourself.”
I guess he’s right. Did I miss my decade?
P.S. After reading his Wikipedia entry, I’d prefer not not be compared to Cleaver! Yuck.
READER COMMENTS
Jan
Nov 30 2007 at 4:48pm
I don’t think you would have fit in the 60’s. Your hair is way too short, you don’t say groovy and far-out, you’re not mindless protesting big government, big business and religion.
Mike
Nov 30 2007 at 5:18pm
Right Arm!! Farm Out!! Dude!!
Mike
Nov 30 2007 at 5:20pm
Oops … forgot one
Out a spite!!
Don’t taz me bro!!
Selfreferencing
Nov 30 2007 at 5:42pm
Look, look, we all know what happened during Rothbard’s time on the left. You would face a similar fate, I’d bet.
Your hard-headed rationalism may keep you out of Rothbard’s left and right periods. You’ll keep it plumb-line, I’m sure.
Although, Rothbard was a rationalist … and it didn’t stop him.
Selfreferencing
Nov 30 2007 at 5:48pm
Are you more like the early Cleaver or the late Cleaver? You seem utterly dissimilar from either.
Stan
Nov 30 2007 at 7:01pm
Dare I say, you are AHEAD of your time…
Danny L. McDaniel
Dec 1 2007 at 7:49am
One compliment is worth 15 minutes of fame. The old saying of the ’60’s goes, “if you remember the 60’s you weren’t their.” Remember, you weren’t their and you should thank your lucky stars you weren’t. There has been alot of revisionist history published on the period of late. I can’t believe how many people never got mentally out of that decade and relive it constantly. Which reminds me of an a quote from Bill Murray in Caddy Shack: “On your death bed you will gain full consciousness.” Alot of people who are serial relivers of the 60’s will have that experience on their expiration date. If you were compared to Clever don’t take it as a compliment.
Danny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana
Matt C
Dec 1 2007 at 10:29am
I see you as too independent and too much of an intellectual to be a 60s radical. I wasn’t there, though. Maybe it wasn’t that bad.
You’re willing to be controversial and advocate ideas well out of the mainstream, which is maybe what your interviewer was getting at.
This is part of what makes Econlog so good. You’re the Mad Scientist and Arnold is the Advocate for Practical Policies. Put you together and you have the best econ blog evar.
Barkley Rosser
Dec 1 2007 at 11:01am
Actually, Bryan, I think you would have been more the Huey Newton type, you know, having pictures taken of yourself with bandanas of bullets and holding guns in provocative ways. Would have fit in with your credentials as a strong supporter of the Second Amendmsnt, :-).
Danny L. McDaniel
Dec 1 2007 at 7:32pm
Matt C,
You made Bryan and Arnold sound like Lennon and McCartney. How can he have a flashback to period he wasn’t even in born in? The 60’s weren’t the flashpoint many people make them out to be. The decade was the exhaust port for the 20th century. Way to much excessive everything: hair length, shirt collars, pant legs, colors, drugs, etc.
Gary Rogers
Dec 2 2007 at 12:25pm
The only similarity I can see is that you both challenge conventional wisdom. For someone whose depth of thinking amounts to “Whoa dude, that’s deep!” there certainly would be a point of comparison.
SheetWise
Dec 2 2007 at 12:36pm
The first thing that comes to mind when I read your work is sex/drugs/rock-n-roll. Yeah — you missed it. Those things are so out these days.
TGGP
Dec 3 2007 at 10:40am
This is off-topic, but what do you think of Politicians Don’t Pander?
bt
Dec 3 2007 at 11:22am
Frankly, being compared to self professed rapist is an insult not a compliment. I agree YUCK!
-bt
Comments are closed.