Wednesday, September 26, 2007

How about Inebriate? That's from the Latin -- Inebros, God of Drivel

In journalism ethics we were talking about in which categories most journalists should be placed. We talked about:

* optimist
* pessimist
* realist
* meliorist
* cynic
* skeptic
* idealist
* pragmatist
* utilitarian
* empiricist
* hedonist
* narcissist
* whore
* old used-up whore
* revolutionary

Personally, I prefer existential hero, crushed by the burden of freedom but rising under it, making the doomed choice rather than knuckling to the machine lords, living by the code of truth-telling though no one listens.

It is a serious question, all joking aside. Perhaps, the answer most often is corporate drone, though I'm not sure that's a philosophical position.

P.S. I forgot anti-intellectual. The highlight of my most recent lecture was apologizing for one of those moments when I went breezing past some convoluted philosophical tidbit with a journalist's shrug and mug. Fact is at my age less seldom do I blame myself and my native intelligence when I cannot decipher some thick bit of theory. This is a healthy tendency, but you can overdo it, you really can.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I suggest:
- cynic and
- Ambrose Bierce, redux

Or is that redundant?

Greg Pabst