Obviousness, Redux
Mitch has had a run-in with
someone who appears to be a legend in his own mind, but who probably would
not thrive in an Obvious
Society:
Richard
Bennett posts inaccurately and insultingly about me.
For an Obviousness mind bomb, compare two posts. The first is from the Home
Recording Rights Coalition (linked from BoingBoing by
Xeni Jardin):
How Mr. Rogers Saved the VCR
In ruling that home time-shift recording of television programming for private
use was not copyright infringement, the Supreme Court relied on testimony
from television producers who did not object to such home recording.
One of the most prominent witnesses on this issue was Fred Rogers.
The
Supreme Court wrote [1/17/84]:
" Second is the testimony
of Fred Rogers, president of the corporation that produces and owns
the copyright on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The program
is carried by more public television stations than any other program.
Its audience numbers over 3,000,000 families a day. He testified that he
had
absolutely no objection to home taping for noncommercial use and expressed
the opinion that it is a real service to families to be able to record
children's programs and to show them at appropriate times."
(Excerpt
from Mr. Rogers' trial testimony: ) "Some public stations,
as well as commercial stations, program the 'Neighborhood' at hours when
some children cannot use it. . . . I have always felt that with the advent
of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the 'Neighborhood'
off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the 'Neighborhood' because that's what
I produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of
their family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people
being programmed
by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been 'You are an
important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.'
Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows
a person
to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way,
is important."
And then we have the reaction of Mr. Bennett to the passing of Mr. Rogers:
Our long national nightmare is over
At
long last:
Feb. 27, 2003 -- Fred Rogers, who for more than 30 years touched
the lives of children and parents as host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood,
died of stomach
cancer Thursday at age 74.
Thank God. Now we can raise a generation of
children who don't believe each and every one is "special" even
if they never do anything special. Fred Rogers' legacy is narcissism,
nothing more and nothing less. His special
effects really sucked, too.
Posted by Richard Bennett at 3:03
PM |Comments
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Look at me! I'm Outrageous!
The miracle of the web and the obviousness beyond is that, as in meatspace,
Who we are leaks through our words, speaking so loudly no one can hear what
we're saying.* Mr.
Bennett's web site raises narcissism to new heights—his archive is labeled Richard
Bennett's Omphalos, The navel of the blogosphere, mother of all blogs,
and vainest of the vanities.
His writings come off as
look-at-me ad
hominem attacks
on, seemingly,
everything he hasn't personally authored. This inspired me to Google the possibility
of positive comments on the blog. From a search
for "fine" and "excellent" on
Bennett's site, I found only 143 hits, and only a handful as expressions
of
the quality of other people's work. Most were references to the many recipes
on his
site
calling for spices to be ground "fine". Many others were user's comments,
yielding only a dozen or so that hinted at a positive rating of another's work.
The surprise discovery from the search was the excellent
curry recipe collection on Mr. Bennett's
site—21 tempting dishes.
These kinds of statistics will be obvious and explicit someday, and will allow
us to route around those who say grand things about themselves and harsh things
about others. Perhaps, it's already working. Mr. Bennett's site notes that
he's currently interviewing, and his resumé (pdf) indicates he hasn't worked
since last year. That alone would give you a negative attitude and the time
to trash
busy people with a positive agenda.
2:36:09 PM 
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