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Midas
by Russell Andrews
by Russell Andrews
The thing about conspiracy stories is that you have to have a secret admiration of and faith in the competence of the conspirators. Now, I, being a realist, know perfectly well, that no group of people in government or business, have anywhere near the requisite skills to pull off fixing a tricycle let alone manage a widespread conspiracy involving hundreds of people, most of whom have difficulty tying their shoes and holding their beer, let alone keep a secret.
Now that I have that off my chest, I'm as bad as the rest of you, and love a good conspiracy story where the little guy takes on the world and beats everyone even though he (rarely a she) has one hand tied to an ankle and with the opposition holding a firm grip on his (see why it's not a she?) testicles.
Maybe it's all the nifty details about planes, bombs, etc. that I always enjoy. Or the idea of a police sergeant (female) in a tight uniform, and a small town police chief who is friends with a mob hitman. Did I mention, it's good to suspend rational thinking?
Ah, hell. It was a hoot. Nice fast, fun read. And I have no idea what genre it belongs to. Grin.
Now that I have that off my chest, I'm as bad as the rest of you, and love a good conspiracy story where the little guy takes on the world and beats everyone even though he (rarely a she) has one hand tied to an ankle and with the opposition holding a firm grip on his (see why it's not a she?) testicles.
Maybe it's all the nifty details about planes, bombs, etc. that I always enjoy. Or the idea of a police sergeant (female) in a tight uniform, and a small town police chief who is friends with a mob hitman. Did I mention, it's good to suspend rational thinking?
Ah, hell. It was a hoot. Nice fast, fun read. And I have no idea what genre it belongs to. Grin.
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Brad
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May 27, 2009 07:38pm
It's good to see you having some trashy fun, Eric. Not your usual serious reading material. Testicles and tight uniformed police sergeants all in the same review. That's a winner to me.
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Eric wrote: "Now that I have that off my chest, I'm as bad as the rest of you, and love a good conspiracy story where the little guy takes on the world and beats everyone even though he (rarely a she) has one hand tied to an ankle and with the opposition holding a firm grip on his (see why it's not a she?) testicles."It is interesting how certain tropes, plot lines, myths, stories, narratives, and so forth are so universally compelling. I've been thinking about this a bit lately. I like when I stumble upon things like this that bind human beings, put us in the same basic boats, etc. It reminds me of the list put together by an anthropologist (I forget the name at the moment) of universal moral principles that are found in every culture known throughout all human history, throughout the globe (there were something like 200 or so, I think). It seems to be rather similar when it comes to basic narratives as well.
I found the list. It was compiled by the anthropologist Donald Brown (and I remembered it as being referenced by Michael Shermer in his fantastic book The Science of Good and Evil and apparently was also referenced in Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate):http://condor.depaul.edu/~mfiddler/hy...
The list that Shermer has in an Appendix of the aforementioned book is not the same list as the one in the link. But it's impressive on its own nonetheless. I rediscovered that the list I was thinking of is actually comprised of
373
moral principles found universally amongst all human cultures spanning both time and space. I just can't find a link to that one...
Ok, I just figured out that Shermer himself had identified 202 of the 373 traits as being moral principles.
When I was a kid, I loved to go off on pessimistic tangents with my sister, She would then accuse me of being a pessimist, which was not an unfair assessment. My response: "I'm not a pessimist; I'm a realist." At this point, her head would explode with frustration. Anyway, very funny review. The "being a realist" line really resonated, for the reasons outlined above. And re: conspiracy theories: I always liked the Mark Twain line, "Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead." I'd argue that it would take three deaths to make this true, because I'm a realist myself.
