— On Assholes

In a grave oversight, the taxonomy in my book wholly neglects this especially charming asshole type, as exemplified, most prominently, by the flashy, uber-controlling, and litigious Bikiram Choudhury, discussed mainly here, but also here.

The type bodes ill for the human social condition.  Rare as they may be, even a few such instances show that any social context can produce an asshole or two.  If yoga’s take-care-of-ourselves-in-loving-acceptance-and-grateful-harmony-with-each-other-and-the-cosmos culture can’t stop an asshole from rising, what culture will?

Excerpts from a book excerpt on the Wizard of Fox News, here:

…One day during the 2012 primary season, Newt Gingrich complained that Fox News’s support for Mitt Romney was responsible for Gingrich’s poor showing. Rick Santorum had made a similar claim when he dropped out of the race. Gingrich and Santorum had been Fox commentators before getting into the race, and Ailes found their complaints self-serving and disloyal. Brian

During a recent concert in Paris, he offered:

“I am Picasso. I am Michelangelo. I am Basquiat. I am Walt Disney. I am Steve Jobs.”

(Link to the youtube video can be found in this article, here.)

In the book, I classify West as a Delusional Asshole, on the grounds that he’s not (so I say) talented in the way Picasso was.  Is that right?

If, that is, he usurped presidential prerogatives from W., as various stories suggest he did.  We now have further evidence of this, on the day of 9/11, where it appears he gave orders to shoot down the hijacked airplane.  One version is recounted here, by Maureen Dowd, in the NYTimes:

[Cheney] no longer feigns deference to W., whom he now disdains for favoring Condi over him in the second term, and for not pardoning “Cheney’s Cheney,” Scooter Libby.

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On Berlusconi, and the delusional culture that is enabling his return to power.  Excerpts from a NY Times opinion piece (here):

In the run-up to the elections that begin today, he has promised to abolish the stiff property tax that was introduced by the previous government and is largely responsible for bringing a little credibility back to the country’s finances (and that he voted for himself when it was introduced). … The announcement, despite coming from a man who has repeatedly failed to turn even the most promising political and economic circumstances into anything resembling the collective good, earned Mr. Berlusconi a considerable leap in the polls.

Here [in Italy] someone is found to have abused their position of public office — given jobs to relatives, accepted bribes, spent public money on personal pleasures — but does

With yours truly, and United Academics, here.

Let us proceed in an intuitive way, without the aid of our theory.  Let us ask whether freshman U.S. Senator Ted Cruz qualifies for the designation “asshole,” in light of–and while simply taking for granted–the claims made here in the NY Times.  Accordingly, we simply go with our gut reaction as to whether or not the term applies:

Just six weeks since his arrival on Capitol Hill, he’s already known for his naysaying, his nit-picking and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him, who have sacrificed more than he has and who deserve a measure of respect, or at least an iota of courtesy. Courtesy isn’t Cruz’s métier. Grandstanding and browbeating are.

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[A book review for Literary Review, by Michael Bywater.]

With Americans, it’s bottoms, bottoms, bottoms. ‘Get your ass out of the sling’; ‘Let’s get our asses into gear here, guys’; ‘Okay, dudes, let’s go kick ass’, and so on. They need a euphemism. If every time they mentioned asses a Goatse (pronounced ‘goat-see’ and if you don’t know what that is DO NOT GOOGLE IT because – really – you will be sorry) sprang to the American mind, they’d soon change their ways. Which would be a shame, particularly when it comes to the full, metaphorico-anatomically explicit version: not the ass but the asshole.

Before we continue, let’s clarify one thing: an arsehole is not an asshole. My edition of S J Perelman’s letters begins with a majestic declension of Yiddish insults, from the humble shlemiel to the malign and virulent paskudneh. Many of these – the klutz, the shmendrick, the shlemazl, the trombenik, just for starters – are subsets of the arsehole. But none of them are assholes.  …. Continue reading here.

Namely:

(1) Accept that he probably won’t listen or change;

(2) Affirm your own worth;

(3) Ask politely;

(4) Stage a small protest;

(5) Mildly retaliate.

I elaborate here.

The mechanical engineer Thomas Midgley (1889–1944) did some pretty unsavory deeds with the help of his scientific reputation. If his promotion of climate-changing CFCs was an honest mistake, the same cannot be said of his brazen advancement of “anti-knock” lead additives. Midgely arguably knew there was compelling evidence that auto workers were suffering dearly from exposure to the neurotoxins. Yet he offered misleading public demonstrations of their supposed safety anyway, knowingly exploiting the public’s trust in science for personal profit. …  Continue reading  here.