Quick story time.

Last night I went to a CLP at FU that was basically a guy claiming that capitalism is the only moral economic system. So right away you know that the whole "we're better than you are" thing is going to be controversial. And it was.

At the end, my old philosophy professors (who believes the exact opposite of what the speaker was ranting about) kind of gently challenged one of his points, and the speaker blew up. He starting screaming about random things that had nothing to do with his lecture, and people in the crowd started yelling at him things about how Cuba's mortality rate is lower and people live longer there. At one point, the speaker said the CIA has "its head up its ass."

Finally, he just said "I'M NOT GOING TO CONVINCE YOU! THANK YOU!" and stormed out of the room.

It was the best lecture I've seen in a long time.

Afterwards I emailed my old philosophy professor who was really nice and polite throughout the whole craziness, and he said:

Hey Mike,

Thanks for your kind words. I have to say I was a little taken aback by the speaker's agressiveness (since that's not the way good scholarly discussion happens, and we are at a university to engage in scholarly activity), but only a little. Basically, i really enjoyed the presentation, but more in the sense of theater than in the sense of a good, solid, scholarly presentation. It's been a very long time since I've heard anyone advocate a pure laissez-faire version of capitalism -- very bracing indeed!

all the best,
dig

And now I have to shower.