Although they may not explicitly acknowledge it -- even to themselves -- Friedman and his minions know intuitively that they are re-telling old folk tales. Each time they retell these tales the audience nods appreciatively, "that's how it goes! that's how it goes!" Neither the audience nor the storyteller distinguishes between the conventional story and "how it really is" and for good reason: no one can say how it really is. "That's how it goes" means little more than that's the way we've heard it so many times before.
Critics don't have a story. They have to settle for poking holes in the myth. The holes are soon glossed over and easily forgotten. Myth is memorable and critique is not. Critique is hard work and has to begin again each time. Those who have their own, non-conforming story are cranks. Because no one has heard their story before, they feel they have to "prove" it; something that can't be done. The surest sign of a crank is insistence on the obviousness of what nobody else sees. If you have to insist, you're probably deluded. The tellers of the old tales don't have to insist because people readily recognize the old tales. How could they not? They've heard them so many times before. The smirk comes from the self-assurance that one's opponents are either critics or cranks, or more precisely that one's opponents will likely be seen by the audience as critics or cranks. Nobody loves a critic, no one takes a crank seriously. There's no fraud like an avuncular old fraud. Tom Walker 604 255 4812
