"She doesn't really think about herself, her thoughts, her feelings about the world almost ever.... Diane says insightful things. She's considerate-- always considerate.... How did she have that insight? She doesn't look inside.... 'Well, since you started asking me about this, I've been thinking about it.... So walking into the grocery store the other night, I was walking in, and I was just like, what would I be thinking about if I were introspecting right now? And I had no idea.
I was like, what could you possibly think about besides, there's some red shopping baskets. I'm going to take a red shopping basket. Oh, this is a spinach mix. Is it just spinach, or is there kale? That's literally all that's going on in my head. I can't imagine what else you could be thinking about.'... Here's what I think about at the grocery store. I think, there's a red shopping basket. Should I get a basket or a cart? I don't like the rickety ones. I can't imagine shopping for a big family. I wonder if I'll ever have a big family. That ship has probably sailed. It must be expensive. Why did my mom always ask the person bagging groceries to help her to her car? Whatever happened to Volvos? I bit that hole in the headrest of her Volvo when I was five. Or was I four? She was so sad. Why was I like that?
Is that guy looking at me? Is he mad? What's he mad about? I wonder how much that cashier makes? Are people nice to her? It must take a long time to memorize all the codes to the produce so you don't need that sheet anymore. I'd be bad at it. Do people ask her if it's hard? Would she like that question or find it rude?
A lot of my thoughts are just imagining other people's thoughts and feelings, all tangled up with my own. It's probably like 95% of what I think about. Diane says she doesn't do that — at all."
The word we're given for what the one woman does is "introspection," but no word is used for what the other (Diane) does. Did they deliberately avoid saying "mindfulness"? Isn't that mindfulness? At the end of the segment, the first woman (Lily) tries making her mind behave like Diane's but never opines about whether it's good or bad and never connects it to anything like "mindfulness" or Zen. I'm guessing — as I introspect — that they must have noticed this larger context but decided not to complicate the presentation that was just about 2 women noticing their minds were different and finding a connection — not with the larger world — but with each other.
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Whatever happened to Volvos?
Whatever happened to Saabs?
And that's barely scratching the surface.
Red basket, madeleine.
It's important to know that, though her current job is staffer at "This American Life," Diane — Diane Wu — has a PhD in inorganic chemistry from Stanford.
You get to live again. You get to design the person that will be you. There are various binary options: You can choose a Lily-type mind or a Diane-type mind. Which one do you pick?
The introspection that says if Trump says grab them by the pussy you shouldn't react like a woman but vote like a man, or the country won't work, would be good.
Chemistry tends to attract pre-med women. Helping others.
Notice she spent zero time thinking about how all that fresh produce was brought together there for her to shop from, no wondering how a “100% renewables” utopia would still supply those groceries or the red basket or the wheels for the cart or the bags her groceries went into for the ride home, and certainly not the refrigerated pre-chopped salad packed in a nitrogen-filled bag with nylon or another vapor barrier laminated to keep everything fresh. Why would she consider any of THAT when she can project her feelings of underpaid anxiety onto others instead?
Wow. That was exhausting. Who can be that introspective.
And what about Saturns. You hardly ever see a Saturn on the road anymore. I wonder why that is. Could it be because....Oh never mind said Emily Litella. Hey? Why doesn't Saturday Night Live seem funny anymore. The Blues Brothers were funny. Maybe I should rent that movie again. I need to get some popcorn though and our store for some reason doesn't carry Orville Redinbacher anymore. How is it that Orville's popcorn is soooo good. Is it the processing or a special kind of corn. I used to have a close friend who lived in Oroville Calif. He probably is dead by now....so sad............
What about that one shopping cart wheel that just rapidly quivers side-to-side for no apparent reason as you push forward?
Maybe it just proves I'm a geezer, but I hate the current lingo of saying 'I was like, XYZ,' instead of saying 'I said XYZ.' People trying to talk like valley girls, when they are supposed to be adults. The transcript of this podcast is FULL of 'was like' used to mean 'said.' It looks even worse in print than it sounds when spoken, but it's all bad, at least to me.
And what about Saturns. You hardly ever see a Saturn on the road anymore.
My Saturn needs a ring job.
what would I be thinking about if I were introspecting right now?
Isn't that an example of introspecting?
What about that one shopping cart wheel that just rapidly quivers side-to-side for no apparent reason as you push forward?
Just abandon it in the store and get a new cart. No rule says you have to keep using it. If someone steals the groceries in your abandoned cart by the time you get back to it...You didn't need that stuff anyway. Rethink your shopping priorities.
Probably the next run through the store will give me better choices. And they may have restocked the shelves by then with that olive oil that I really like. I wish they had the white balsamic vinegar that I like from the Hill Country area of Texas. Hope they aren't freezing right now. That would be sad for the olive trees and the people who are working there. Thinking of moving at some point. That seems like a nice area. Perhaps I should put that area on my Zillow search. But..nope.. by the time we are serious that house would be gone. OH.. look here is the salad dressing my husband loves... I remember when.....
Introspection is fun!!!
(I would have to sedate myself if this was how my mind really worked...or use duct tape as my husband has often suggested. 😁 )
"2 women noticing their minds were different and finding a connection"
It's, it's, it's . . . well, it's amazing. This has never happened before.
Is the excerpt meant to prove that introspection reveals the flow of triviality that makes up even smart people's mental substance?
Or that, to convert mindless introspection into something meaningful, you have to be like an artist or something, like, James, or Joyce, or something?
You can choose a Lily-type mind or a Diane-type mind.
Do you really believe that?
Cooking tip: adding instant mashed potatoes to any soup makes it better. Think of soup as mashed potato flavoring. #organicchemistry
The cart wheels at Home Depot work great. The guys there know how to fix stuff.
Living for oneself tends to turn us inward. What navel gazing.
RE: Mindfulness
Evidently there's some extraordinarily mindful people, who are rather thoughtless.
I thought that was actually pretty funny stuff. But then, I drive a Volvo.
Diane is extreme at one end, Lily seems extreme at the other. Most of us fall somewhere in between. I tend towards Diane--I try to pay attention to what I'm doing. I do more then I'd like of Lily's "why did I do that when I was 4?" I beat myself up over things I did a long time ago, even insignificant things that I know it's crazy to even remember, let alone care about. I wish I didn't, but generally, overall, the particular mix of Diane vs. Lily doesn't matter so long as you are comfortable with what you are.
That sounds a little like Dostoevsky's idea of the "overconscious man" expressed in Notes from Underground. The overconscious man broods incessantly over the ways of the world and his own injuries, while the normal, healthy bull-like man proceeds directly to his goal and achieves it.
You can tie the idea in with the whole Russian or Slavic tradition of futility and failure from privileged "superfluous men" to Jewish Luftmenschen to peasants who may not have been overconscious, but still managed to not behave in the purposeful, goal-directed way of the Western Europeans. In the 1950s a line was drawn from Diderot's Rameau's Nephew through the Notes from Underground to the beats and beatniks of the day. And, yes, 60 years ago in the "Age of the Crisis of Man" (and even 30 years ago) the talk was still about "man" and "men."
Half my family was goal-directed and not particularly introspective and the other half was brooding and obsessive. Three guesses as to which half I belong to. My brother was also brooding and introspective. He explained to me how SAAB went out of business, but I don't remember and can't ask him now.
*
"Mindfulness" is a funny thing. It appears to mean emptying the mind through meditation in order to somehow be full of mind at the end. I don't understand that, but maybe I don't really understand what the word means.
When asked what a man is thinking about, the reply, "Nothing" is usually both honest and true.
Introspection morphs into procrastination. I spend a lot of time there.
Wasn't "mindfulness" a Hillary hobby-horse for a while?
That's all I remember.
All I know is that I hate it when I'm shopping and deep in thought, and some dork comes out of nowhere and says, "are you findin' everything ok?" and interrupts my train of thought. As if most of us don't like the adventure of hunting and finding things on our own. Besides, if I can't find it then usually they can't either. "Looks like we're out, Ma'am." No shit.
Come t think of it, they don't do that anymore. Corporate must have sent the word out.
Dust Bunny Queen: TIL there exists white balsamic vinegar .
Volvos didn't go anywhere. Still around, it's just that the niche Volvo inhabited both evolved and became more crowded. In the 70s and 80s Volvo had the safe, unflashy, durable Socialist transportation category pretty much all to themselves. Also key- in the era of corrupt American cites where chop shops were a leading industry a Volvo was one of the only cars you could get insured. I remember a time it he 80s when you walked down Commonwealth Ave and every other vehicle parked at the curb was a 70s vintage Volvo.
I don't think you can actually "choose" to have one kind of mind or the other, but you can try to twist or bend your thinking to bring it more to a happy medium. I wonder if Diane did better on her Math SAT and the Lily on her Verbal.
Also, putting thoughts into words on a page in this "stream of consciousness" way exaggerates and distorts the way introspective people think. It seems more natural and less disconnected when it's going on in your own mind. Maybe Diane also has those thoughts, fears, and returns of memory but doesn't give them a second thought, let alone try to put them into written words.
I haven't been to a grocery store in at least two years. I sit with my phone or computer and click on "Load my cart with my usual stuff." Then I check out the specials, add whatever I want, delete anything I don't need yet. Click "Checkout" and pick a delivery time. The big refrigerated truck from the store pulls up right on time, and a nice young man brings my groceries to my front door. Before the pandemic he put them on my kitchen table. As many deliveries as I want for $100/year. Tipping optional. I live out in the middle of nowhere so if I can get this kind of service, why would anyone not check to see if they can? Then wobbly wheels on a grocery cart become "Not your problem'. My groceries come right from the warehouse. They're as fresh as anything on the shelves. I save the hundred bucks easily by eliminating impulse buying and gas for the car.
"I'm guessing — as I introspect — that they must have noticed this larger context but decided not to complicate the presentation that was just about 2 women noticing their minds were different and finding a connection — not with the larger world — but with each other. "
Really, how can they "find a connection . . . with each other" without finding a connection to the "larger world". The only way to get out of one's private world is to connect to the real world, to the reality of things-as-they-are. Of course, that connection is fuzzy and difficult, and that vagueness must be respected. Without this connection to what is real, how can two people, much less women :-), "connect"? Holy metaphysics, Batman.
Blogger tcrosse said...
My Saturn needs a ring job.
That's better than Uranus needing a lube job.
I don’t find the latter woman to be particularly introspective. Introspection is about examining your thoughts and feelings and actions. Neither of them are doing that. I tend to more matter-of-fact, like the first woman. But if I am being introspective, it tends to be a deliberative process. Not a flood of incoherent thoughts and memories.
Be here now.
Isn't it weird that being mindless is what to send people call mindfulness?
Whatever you are doing, try to make it a fun game.
I would prefer the Diane style of thinking. If I’m doing something like shopping, or say the dishes, it’d feel really boring to have no thoughts except for the many thoughts you have solely about the task at hand.
"Do you really believe that?"
Do you have the type of mind that doesn't understand hypotheticals?!
Yeah, why is it called mindful? It should be called mind-not-full.
Did you ever notice how seeing a stream of consciousness written out can remind you of Andy Rooney segments on “Sixty Minutes”?
Too much thinking, not enough swish-swish.
I am Laslo.
Schrodinger's Ego?
tim maguire said...
Diane is extreme at one end, Lily seems extreme at the other.
I think the Zen masters would tell you that the important thing is balance. Sometimes one needs to be "in the moment", other times one needs to reflect and analyze past experience for wisdom.
Howard said...
(citing Blogger tcrosse)
My Saturn needs a ring job.
That's better than Uranus needing a lube job.
The consumer focus testing didn't go well when GM floated the idea of Uranus for its hip new car division in the late 80's. Though consumers liked the idea of not having to haggle over Uranus, and generally thought they fit well inside Uranus, they were not ready then to say that they were comfortable having Mr Goodwrench probe Uranus when it needed service (yes, including a lube job). They just weren't ready for that yet. Only exceptions were the San Fran and Provincetown, MA focus groups who showed great enthusiasm for the idea. So GM chose Saturn instead.
My internal dialogue is curse-heavy.
Saturn's weren't bad cars, but the interiors started to disintegrate after about 5 years of driving.
Pratchett, in his wonderful Tiffany Aching books, describes all this very well.
"First Sight means you can see what really is there, and Second Thoughts mean thinking about what you are thinking. And in Tiffany's case, there were sometimes Third Thoughts and Fourth Thoughts although these...sometimes led her to walk into doors." ― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight
Second Thoughts are the thoughts you think about the way you think. People who enjoy thinking have those. Third Thoughts are thoughts that watch the world and think all by themselves. They're rare, and often troublesome. Listening to them is part of witchcraft.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky
Oh, this is a spinach mix. Is it just spinach, or is there kale? Do I actually like kale? I remember a time where no one seemed to be concerned about kale, and then everyone became concerned about kale, and because everyone became concerned about kale I did too, but I don't really remember choosing to care about kale, yet now I feel it needs to be in my spinach mix or I will feel a sense of disappointment even though I might be happier without kale if I thought about it some more...
And what happens when people move on from kale? Does moving on from kale mean my consumption of kale had nothing to do with my personal choice, but rather a choice I absorbed from others? Should I be keeping an eye at the produce section of the store and see who is bypassing kale so that I can determine if they are who I would associate with as they pursue the next thing, at least on a leafy vegetable level? What if people move on to rhubarb: I don't like rhubarb, but maybe I am mistaken, maybe I would like rhubarb better if I knew I was supposed to like it, maybe others have it right and I need to self-correct, I don't want to be misguided just because I think I don't enjoy something...
There's a lot that I don't enjoy that I know I actually still like - kinda like my Peleton bike. Is my Peleton bike like kale, and I need to keep an eye out for when people move on? Because I like it but I don't think I enjoy it, and maybe other people feel that way, too, but if they feel like me they won't say anything about it to anyone, just like me, and so I have to look for clues to see when things might change in a less-than-obvious manner...
Anyway, I hope I don't get the cashier that gives me that look when she rings up my spinach-kale mix followed by my two pints of ice cream. I think everyone believes that people eat an entire pint at a time, at least that's what I think she's thinking. I mean, sometimes I do eat an entire point at a time, but not always, sometimes I leave some for later, it's just sometimes later is only twenty minutes, so is that really later, or just a brief pause in one serving? Maybe I should pause thirty minutes, because it feels like that should be a difference, but I don't know if other people would think it would be a difference, and those are the same people who might be moving on from kale...
I am Laslo.
Nassim Taleb uses the word "Flaneuring" to describe something like this.
Meta-extrospection disguised as introspection.
Observation of what is outside oneself -- "but look at how I notice it."
Also throw in some garden-variety middle-aged solipsistic neuroticism.
Blogger mikee said...Dust Bunny Queen: TIL there exists white balsamic vinegar .
That's EXACTLY the one! The lemon infused vinegar mixed with virgin olive oil makes the best salad dressing. 3 parts oil 1 or 1.5 vinegar. (I like it more vinegary) Over butter lettuce, with orange slices and pine nuts. You won't regret it!
Plus, Uranus kept failing emissions tests. Drove the introverts crazy.
If she's thinking about her own thinking she's introspecting.
Philosophers do introspection to understand the mind. It never works. Language goes on holiday.
Try this experiment: say the numbers from 1 to 12. Now look at the dial of your watch and read them. - What was it that you called "reading" in the latter case? That is to say: what did you do, to make it into reading?
Wittgenstein, who actually is mocking introspection as a philosophical method.
Rush has been out for a long time, after a show when he said he was pretty much fatigued after the second hour (apologizing for the third hour).
But Mark Steyn hasn't been back, their best guest host. They must be auditioning others, all of whom suck so far.
none of them -- Ann, DIanne, or Lily really knows what introspection means.
Which Side of the Mask Am I On?
Don't slip in the snow. I'm not putting this mask on till the last minute. Washing station - probably the germiest place in store if we knew. Small cart or big. Always need a cart these days. Wish I could go to a gymn. Choke on mask if I breathe hard. D--- them. List. Lemons. Look big but that's all skin. Outpost. Green onions. Outpost. Bread aisle coming up Gluten-sensitive gauntlet. Don't look. AIEEE. Stop whining. Doughnuts. In New Hampshire Dunkin' was open all through the pandemic. Values. And you got them and you're still alive. Just stop. Cracker section. No. Overpriced anyhow. No beer, fat, no exercise, D--- Them. Wine? Have some. Mexican Coke, treat replacing doughnuts. Cracked ice, cherry coke, soda fountain, grown-up at last. V-8. One serving of vegetables a can. Broccoli. Kale. Beet tops. Turnips. Unknown greens. Avoid all. Can of V-8. Dandelions - ate them once, bitter. Mom, Mary liked them. Gone. Roy. Gone. Wild drunken wake. Years ago. Cart completely blocking aisle, new guy, they get over making it handy for themselves. Oops, turned back too quickly, got inside zone, "Sorry," of, yes, a Karen, look, shrinking back into shelves, pathetic, still, be nice, remember the zone. "One thing I remember, spring came on forever." Yes, buy the orchid plant today. Eggs, milk and get out fast, you're way off list. I'd like to make one bloom again next year.
THAT was introspection?
Ho Lee Katz (my Jewish/Korean Uncle) might say you need to look inward to discover what you don't know about introspection.
When I was a cashier I made no conscious effort to memorize produce codes. Most people are buying the same dozen or two dozen vegetables and after the first week you know those codes without looking them up, or rather your fingers do because you are keying them on a pad. (I found that I didn't consciously know the codes, instead I knew how to enter them and if someone asked me what the code was I'd have to imagine keying it in.)
If you're an adult and don't know what introspection is, you need to take a look at yourself.
Armstrong and Getty
My grocery store inner monologue is: "Why are there so many people here? Get out of the way."
Very present moment. Sometimes I wonder if my anti-social phobia will prevent me from finishing my shopping list, so I could also classify as introspective.
Chemistry tends to attract pre-med women. Helping others.
Not inorganic chemistry. Humans are carbon-based.
Some scifi scribbler once wrote that an empty mind is one of a man's greatest satisfactions, and I tend to agree. But only up to a point.
I recall two lady journalists many years ago discussing the new Ford Probe. They predicted dismal sales, especially to women.
Narr
Not sure how that came out
That monologue reminds me of the book "Push" by Sapphire, which was the basis for the film "Precious". The book is almost entirely an inner-monologue like this one: introspective yet shallow.
The excerpt from that article above reads like part of the book, at least as I remember it.
p.s. It was an incredible, great book. I gave copies to several people. The film did a pretty good job bringing it to the screen, too, although I'd say the book had more of a weight of sadness about it.
Ann Althouse said...
"Yeah, why is it called mindful? It should be called mind-not-full."
Truth in advertising isn't always a great marketing strategy.
Describing Inner Experience: Proponent Meets Skeptic, by Hurlburt and Schwitzgebel, is a very interesting collaboration by a psychologist and a philosopher describing, discussing, debating the results of an experiment that used Hurlburt's descriptive experience sampling method, in which the subject is cued by random beeps to describe her conscious experience.
Reading that book transformed my understanding of introspection.
About half way through this blog post, I began wondering why I was reading it and stopped. Navel gazing that isn't my own is so fucking boring. It isn't surprising to me that Diane is a PhD chemist by training.
As rule, you don't get a PhD in anything to go to med school, but you especially won't do one in inorganic even if you were weird that way.
Being that inundated by a torrent of disconnected thoughts sounds like torture and maybe even a mild form of mental illess. Even if you could somehow find the answer to all those random questions ... it still wouldn’t matter!
" Piss on you! I'm working for Mel Brooks!"
Nothing says "upper-middle-class white chick" quite like the word mindfulness with the possible exception of wellness.
If I were to truly introspect, I would ask how the insights of Gertrude Himmelfarb deteriorated into the lack of insight of her son, Bill Kristol. Of course, that's studying other people, not introspecting, but I greatly admired Gertrude Himmelfarb and at one time considered getting a degree in Victorian Studies - meaning by that being a scholar like her. That didn't work out and in some ways the obstacles foreshadowed a cultural change, to which I think maybe Bill Kristol adapted all too well. This is vague and it was vague back then. It might be clearer if I understood just exactly how the Bill Kristol generation of conservatives dropped the Irving Kristol-Gertrude Himmelfarb conservative values without noticing any loss. But kept the job of editor of National Review. I'm sure that keeping jobs and status is part of it and also I'm sure that Gertrude Himmelfarb would think that was a lazy, shallow answer and do better if she were starting over now.
Lily is producing about a tenth of what I "introspect" on any such excursion. Sometimes I am working on a larger intellectual issue, sometimes reminiscing, sometimes rehearsing what I might say in a given situation. I like the radio that plays in my head, actually. Quite entertaining. As I am a father of five grown sons and worked as a social worker, I think that is considerable evidence against the theory that such people don't "live for others."
My wife's brain operates much more like Diane's, and so needs something playing to listen to if she is not reading or engaged in a project. She has no radio playing in her head. I would never choose that.
Mindfulness is a word that is popular but doesn't seem to mean much.
@ Jeff Brokaw - yes it would matter. Having a guess at what the people around you might be facing and whether they are compensated well helps with compassion, and with political and cultural insights, just as an example. How stores are stocked and why that has changed can help you see patterns about products and delivery, which can be useful in understanding how economies and culture changes.
I just call it "thinking." I don't try to do it, it is just what my brain does, collecting information and seeing if it connects to any other information I have.
People hear seem to think that anyone who thinks in a different way than they do are just wrong. Is there any rational basis for that claim? There's something to introspect about.
"You get to design the person that will be you. There are various binary options: You can choose a Lily-type mind or a Diane-type mind. Which one do you pick?"
Why? Seriously. Why do I only get TWO choices? Why can I not mix and match? I prefer a combination of the two rather than such a categorical choice.
Binary choices lack precision. Why not the various options be measured with continuous variables? That way, a simple measure of mindfulness can be assessed: the more internal consistency among the n-dimensions of the option matrices, the fewer statistically significant factors will emerge from the Factor Analysis, and the more mind-full consciousness is with respect to those things that matter.
Thoughts, in no order:
1. As I read through that, I was reminded of the genre of cartoons that feature a couple, usually in bed or driving somewhere, with an agonized woman's mind filled with anxious, racing thoughts and the man's mind either empty or occupied with a single, extremely concrete or mundane thought.
2. My mother suffered from a severe case of hoarding disorder, enough that she could have been a notable subject of the tv show if it had been around back then. While "the stuff" is the most visible effect of hoarding disorder, the condition is less about the stuff, per se, and much more about the way someone thinks, makes decisions, and experiences anxiety. I'm not at all saying that Lilly suffers from hoarding disorder or any other disorder, but the pattern of thinking she described definitely reminded me of my mother and is very common among hoarders. It can be extremely exhausting to do even the simplest of tasks with a person on the extreme end of that spectrum. Jeff Brokaw's 1:16 comment is on target: "Even if you could somehow find the answer to all those random questions ... it still wouldn’t matter!"
3. I have a fair amount of experience with chemists, including inorganic chemists. As a group, I rate inorganic chemists as among the most focused, direct, concretely oriented people I've ever encountered. Very much at the extreme end of a particular bell curve. (No value judgment intended; just an interesting example of the range of human experience.)
PS. Nothing about how Lilly's thinking was described made me think of the word "mindfulness." In fact, I'd argue that pattern of thinking would actively interfere with reaching a sustainable state of mindfulness.
@Assistant Village Idiot - it’s just a blog comment, pithy is preferred. You’re over-thinking and reading in far too much into what I said.
(I found that I didn't consciously know the codes, instead I knew how to enter them and if someone asked me what the code was I'd have to imagine keying it in.)
Very Zen. People tend to think that Zen is some kind of a shortcut that can be accessed if they are clever enough, but really Zen is something that is achieved through a lot of conditioning, not so much through thought, though thought can guide the conditioning. It’s like a great golf swing. You can’t have one if you think about the parts while swinging the club, you can only get one through guided conditioning. Once you have it, it then seems very Zen when you access it.
Goin' with Howard on this one. Girl goes into a supermarket, focuses on the red basket. No introspection. None needed. Be here now.
And then there is Narr talking about the Ford Probe. I lived with a girl who was a District Manager for Ford around that time. (Maybe it was Regional Manager, I forget the Title) There was some pushback on the name. Probe. Ooooh, how will women react? The Probe did well.
Which leads me to my cabdriving days. I pick up a couple of girls from a nightclub one night, goin' home alone. They're talking about how horrible men are. One girl says lesbianism is all the rage. The other girl says, no, I like to get poked. My ears pricked up. Problem was, the girl that wanted to be poked was the first drop-off.
I suggested an alternate route to drop off the 'Questioning' girl, so I could help the girl who wanted to be poked. No...they both knew the 'poke girl' location was closer. So I ended up with the lesbian-curious girl. Turns out, she wanted to get poked too.
Women just talk, talk, talk. When all is said and done, they want to get poked.
Be Here Now.
I don't introspect. I think.
There's a thing inside my brain. There is a thing inside my brain.
And in the brain, inside the thing, inside my brain, there is a thing.
And in the brain, inside the thing, inside the brain, inside the thing, inside my brain,
There is a thing.
And in the brain, inside the thing, inside the brain, inside the thing, inside my brain, there's a lot more space than I get in this text box.
Narr
No telling how long that could go on
I have recently had the unwelcome experience of being stopped from thinking by a dog. I am sharing a house with a small poodle that has a shrill, shrieking bark that totally stops my brain from working. My mouth can be open in the middle of a sentence, when that dog starts barking and I cannot remember what I am saying until a few seconds after it stops. I have never experienced a mental distraction like this before and I am 73 yrs old.
Where did I read you, Joanne Jacobs? San Jose Mercury News? Arizona Republic? Wherever it was, I enjoyed your voice. "In all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world..."
We all end up at Althouse.
If I were to truly introspect, I would ask how the insights of Gertrude Himmelfarb deteriorated into the lack of insight of her son, Bill Kristol.
It must have been tough growing up Brooklyn or the Bronx in the Thirties. Maybe books and learning were all you really had to keep you going. And there was so much to learn: Marx, Freud, Einstein, Picasso. If you went to Brooklyn College or CUNY and managed to get into academia, you likely had more drive and less pretentious than the Ivy League graduates you were competing with had. Maybe more knowledge, too.
Now imagine growing up in Manhattan intellectual circles in their heyday and going on to get three degrees from Harvard. Odds are you are conceited and full of pretensions. You think your elite education means you are brilliant and you think you got there on your own because of your brilliance. If your whole life revolves around a role in the meritocracy you are probably uninterested in people whose lives are different and tend to dismiss them. Also, I think Bill takes after his father, who may have had a flippant, cocky side -- deservedly so in the father's case, much less so in the son's.
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