A grand unified theory of one's own

Well, we've been found out. Reader Mark Wallace, AKA blogger Gulf Reporter, refers us to an article of his published in Salon a couple of years back called "Crackpot authorities." He mentions that our last two posts reminded him of several of his subjects in that article:

A good crackpot authority will have dreamed up a thesis that explains virtually all of our everyday experience at one shot. And he will manage to do it with style . . .

Therein lies another secret of the crackpot authorities: They generally save the best for last. No dummies they, these writers are aware that a skeptical public may not be ready to buy the near-lunacy they seem to be serving up. It is only through the aggregation of facts and observations that they can hope to persuasively make their points. And it is in these facts and observations, if not always in the arguments they support, that the value lies. The reading of such authors should be approached as an exercise in the opening of the mind. Who among us, after all, has not suddenly been gripped by a flash of insight, only to scratch our heads later and wonder just what we were thinking. The crackpot authorities had the courage to follow their insights to their (il)logical ends. It is best, in such cases, to suspend judgment, and observe while a great mind works out the kinks of a questionable theory. Even if nothing is really "learned," the reader will be greatly rewarded, and not a little entertained.

Laughing out loud as we read Mark's piece, we, too, felt greatly rewarded, and not a little entertained.

Comments

[Mark Wallace]

Thanks, Sissy. Who knows what other great rewards and little entertainments lurk out there in the blogosphere? Now there's an article...