Any friend of the Horny Wordsmith knows my disdain for Michael Bloomberg having been employed in his gulag on Park Avenue (a story for another time). Lately, it appears the old blowhard has been running his mouth off. For one thing, he has been going around accusing the New York State Senate of trying destroy the city schools, and in fact used the term "destroy us," which is a bit of an over-statement of what the buffoons of Albany seem to be accomplishing.
Yet the worst of his tyranny was seen a few weeks ago on May 28, 2009. The mayor reacted quite sorely to a legitimate question from a member of the press. The City Room blog has a transcript:
At a press conference in Queens on Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg was asked if an economic turnaround would undermine his initial reasoning for rewriting the city’s term limits law and seeking a third term, which was that a city in financial turmoil needed his steady hand and business background.
Mr. Bloomberg interrupted the question, from the New York Observer reporter Azi Paybarah, having deemed it unworthy of his time, and even called the reporter “a disgrace.”
Here’s how the exchange began:
Mr. Paybarah: If the economy is turning around, as you said, does that mean that the rationale for extending term limits–
Mr. Bloomberg: I don’t know why … why don’t we just get serious questions here …
At this point, Mr. Paybarah tried to finish his question, but he was cut off by the mayor.
Mr. Bloomberg: The rationale for extending term limits is, the City Council passed it and the public’s going to have a chance on Nov. 3 to say what they want. And I don’t think we have to keep coming back to that. When you have a serious question about the economy I will be happy to answer it. Anything else?
After that, the mayor concluded his press conference, looked directly at Mr. Paybarah and said, “You are a disgrace.”
Mr. Paybarah asked a legitimate question, and certainly did not deserve to be classified as a disgrace. My theory as to why this question elicited such an angry, despicable answer from the mayor is thus: the mayor has never demonstrated that he is better at dealing with the economy in the city than any other politician, and this truth is the greatest threat to the mayor's continued grip on the city. The fact is that New York City's government has been in a financial decline since 2001, and the mayor has yet to prove he can turn circumstances around. Year after year city agencies struggled with budget problems, including such important agencies as the New York Police Department and the District Attorneys in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. The real disgrace is the mayor, who for whatever reason maintains he is the economic savior of this city all the while allowing his beloved town to slip into decline. His only luck is that there is no suitable contender to replace him, and frankly this situation is more a disgrace than anything else.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A CULTURAL CRISIS OF A PERSONAL NATURE
Last week The New York Times reported that today’s young adults are in danger. Apparently, because of one cultural shift or another, our youth are no longer impressed by the ultimate tale of teenage disillusionment, and have added to their roster of irreverence J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece, Catcher in the Rye.
This, to be sure, is a tragedy of elephantine proportions (Mrs. Wordsmith shares this opinion). The novel’s main character, Holden Caulfield, embodied the absurdity of adolescence with such depth that generations were forever changed after a single reading of the novel. Apparently, that time has passed, and as the Times reports, young readers identify with Holden less and less.
To understand why I find this trend so troubling, the Horny Wordsmith must share with my readers my own experience with Catcher in the Rye. I read this novel at the transformative age of 15. So great was this novel’s effect on my personality, that I credit it with setting my intellectual life on the trajectory it still follows today. Further, it initiated an identity crisis where my mental state hit the rock bottom Erik Erikson describes as the basis for rebuilding oneself into a great man of history.
Age 15 was a tumultuous time in my life. The Horny Wordsmith, like Holden Caulfield, had led a life where there was little to complain about. The byproduct of this relative ease was that everything in life as a child appeared so simple. It was easy to fall into idealism. Every problem had a solution. Anything wrong or evil could be stopped. Ugliness could be excised. Honesty, excellence and love are easy to achieve. These are the ideals the adult culture communicate to children, and until some jarring circumstance comes along to disrupt these virtues, one continues to function oblivious to the true ugliness, complexity and unhappiness adulthood carries.
At some point around the time I read Catcher in the Rye I started to become aware of these complexities. There was no great jarring event, but I recall that in discovering the fact that my peers began experimenting with drugs, alcohol and sex I started to see some of this adult ugliness. I also began to feel the weight of obligation that comes with adulthood, and that produced a certain amount of anxiety.
In the novel Holden makes excessive use of the word “phony,” which looking back I recognize I gave my own meaning. Phonies were those that tried to mask harsh reality from others, either through obfuscation or inanity. My initial reaction was that of Holdens. I met this phoniness with scorn. I resented others, felt helpless and sunk into depression because I did not know yet fully understand what I was confronting. Like Holden, I kept hoping I could run away to a place where I would be away from the phonies and the ugliness and I could be happy once again.
One day, however, I returned to the world. I was no longer upset, and I began to have a more nuanced view of society. I realized it was possible to have complex emotions, to be happy and unhappy in the same moment and thrive on the complexity of terrifying circumstances. I dare say my whole life has now been built on confronting the dreadful, first in my study of journalism and history and later as a criminal defense attorney. Everyday of my working life I meddle in the complexities of truly horrifying events, and I am in part ready to do so as a result of that identity crisis I suffered when I was 15.
So upon reading that similarly situated young people either do not understand or do not identify with Holden Caulfield pains me because I wonder if they have missed that wallowing, pitiful experience that could make them stronger human beings.
On the other hand, these youths may understand the novel without understanding it. Holden’s attempt attitude and attempt should be ultimately rejected. But without the extensive emotionally crushing experience the whole novel is lost on them. At least they have Harry Potter.
This, to be sure, is a tragedy of elephantine proportions (Mrs. Wordsmith shares this opinion). The novel’s main character, Holden Caulfield, embodied the absurdity of adolescence with such depth that generations were forever changed after a single reading of the novel. Apparently, that time has passed, and as the Times reports, young readers identify with Holden less and less.
To understand why I find this trend so troubling, the Horny Wordsmith must share with my readers my own experience with Catcher in the Rye. I read this novel at the transformative age of 15. So great was this novel’s effect on my personality, that I credit it with setting my intellectual life on the trajectory it still follows today. Further, it initiated an identity crisis where my mental state hit the rock bottom Erik Erikson describes as the basis for rebuilding oneself into a great man of history.
Age 15 was a tumultuous time in my life. The Horny Wordsmith, like Holden Caulfield, had led a life where there was little to complain about. The byproduct of this relative ease was that everything in life as a child appeared so simple. It was easy to fall into idealism. Every problem had a solution. Anything wrong or evil could be stopped. Ugliness could be excised. Honesty, excellence and love are easy to achieve. These are the ideals the adult culture communicate to children, and until some jarring circumstance comes along to disrupt these virtues, one continues to function oblivious to the true ugliness, complexity and unhappiness adulthood carries.
At some point around the time I read Catcher in the Rye I started to become aware of these complexities. There was no great jarring event, but I recall that in discovering the fact that my peers began experimenting with drugs, alcohol and sex I started to see some of this adult ugliness. I also began to feel the weight of obligation that comes with adulthood, and that produced a certain amount of anxiety.
In the novel Holden makes excessive use of the word “phony,” which looking back I recognize I gave my own meaning. Phonies were those that tried to mask harsh reality from others, either through obfuscation or inanity. My initial reaction was that of Holdens. I met this phoniness with scorn. I resented others, felt helpless and sunk into depression because I did not know yet fully understand what I was confronting. Like Holden, I kept hoping I could run away to a place where I would be away from the phonies and the ugliness and I could be happy once again.
One day, however, I returned to the world. I was no longer upset, and I began to have a more nuanced view of society. I realized it was possible to have complex emotions, to be happy and unhappy in the same moment and thrive on the complexity of terrifying circumstances. I dare say my whole life has now been built on confronting the dreadful, first in my study of journalism and history and later as a criminal defense attorney. Everyday of my working life I meddle in the complexities of truly horrifying events, and I am in part ready to do so as a result of that identity crisis I suffered when I was 15.
So upon reading that similarly situated young people either do not understand or do not identify with Holden Caulfield pains me because I wonder if they have missed that wallowing, pitiful experience that could make them stronger human beings.
On the other hand, these youths may understand the novel without understanding it. Holden’s attempt attitude and attempt should be ultimately rejected. But without the extensive emotionally crushing experience the whole novel is lost on them. At least they have Harry Potter.
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