I was leafing through the October 31 Time magazine yesterday when an essay by Joel Stein caught my attention: "Who Speaks for the 1%?"
Actually, the first item to catch my attention was the page's title, The Awesome Column. The haughtiness of the page title seems to reflect the hubris of certain politicians and talk show commentators. I'm not a subscriber to the mag but believe based on 40 seconds of Google research that The Awesome Column used to be a staple of Time and has re-appeared. I draw that conclusion based on a 2006 question at Yahoo, What happened to Time Magazine's awesome column? - Yahoo! Answers
After reading several additional sidetracks I've concluded that Joel Stein enjoys tweaking noses and being contrarian. So naturally he saddles up and leads us into the current fray called Occupy Wall Street. He's a good writer. Here's the opening...
I don't like the top 1% of anything. Intelligence? Boring! Fun? Exhausting! Thoughtfulness? Annoying! Hairiness? Too hairy!
So I get why the Occupy Wall Street protesters gained momentum with their slogan WE ARE THE 99%. Everyone loves the 99%. You can have a beer with the 99%. You can eat with your hands in front of the 99%. You can talk about TV shows with the 99% without them telling you that while they don't think there's anything wrong with TV, if they had one, they would watch it literally all the time, so it's better to just not keep one...
Stein goes on to say that for the most part the top 1% are interesting, generous and charming. These are the folk who started Time magazine, founded Stanford where Stein went to college, and have built the art museums that the public enjoys. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was started by a one per center, as have many other such endeavors.
If there is a pecking order of people to despise in this world, it would probably be the 1% of the 1%-ers who are jerks that embarrass the rest of the 1%-ers.
To read more, pick up a Time magazine at your local B&N* ($5.99) or head over to the online home of this awesome column.*If you own a B&N Nook, you can download my first novel The Red Scorpion for $2.99. Or click the book cover to the right for the Kindle version.
Monday, October 31, 2011
In Defense of the 1%
Labels:
1%,
Awesome Column,
Defense,
ennyman,
Joel Stein
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
Are you familiar with the Georgia Guidestones? When someone first mentioned it to me I thought it both interesting and strange. Located...
-
One of my favorite Woody Allen lines is, "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens." Death ...
-
ExpectingRain.com was one of the pioneer Bob Dylan sites on the Web featuring all things Dylan including Dylan's influences, lyrics, r...
-
At the Beacon Theater, 2018. Courtesy Nelson French Bob Dylan is just past the midpoint of his ten shows at the Beacon Theater in New Y...
-
The origin of the line "Curses, foiled again!" is from the wonderful and hilariously popular cartoon show, The Adventures of Rocky...
-
Anyone half paying attention will have noticed a lot of new Dylan books have been appearing in recent years. What's interesting is how e...
-
In 1972 Don MacLean's American Pie was the number 2 song on the hit parade. At the time I remember trying to decipher it, and like most ...
-
Madison Square Garden, 1971 For Dylan fans it was one of his rare public appearances between the Woodstock motorcycle incident and th...
-
ar·a·besque /ˌærəˈbɛsk/ [ar-uh-besk] –noun 1. Fine Arts . a sinuous, spiraling, undulating, or serpentine line or linear motif. 2. a pose i...
-
"Whatever gets you through the night, it's alright, alright." --John Lennon I read the news today, oh boy. Yesterday ...
6 comments:
Didja know that Joel Klein is working for Murdoch, conducting an "internal investigation" of the phone-hacking scandal?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Klein
Nope, didn't know that.
Just a sec... Wasn't the article about Joel Stein?
Oops. Was tired, I guess.
Well, they're both named "Joel". :)
... and they're both in defense of the 1% ... so, there you have it. :)
Nice to know I am not the only one who makes mistakes.
Post a Comment