The Billiken's Bluff

Things said like:

What type of experience do you have?

Don't worry it'll at least be good experience.

Yesterday. Imus in the Morning. Imus tells the listener that Sid Rosenburg, the loud-mouthed WFAN sports radio personality, has 'resigned', i.e., he has relapsed and has finally been fired. Sid has battled addiction to crack cocaine, alcohol, and gambling. Sid has been on hiatus before. This time it looks permanent. Don Imus has experienced jail, drug rehab, addiction he speaks from a place of knowledge. He understands what Sid is going through. Imus let Sid back on his show after his last stint in rehab in March. The others on the morning show defer to Imus in this instance. It is outside their range to comment on addiction as strong as Sid’s.

Nick Shay, the main character in Don DeLillo's Underworld shot and killed a man at the age of 17. He is sent to a Jesuit reform school. Strangely, the Jesuit headmaster, sees value in Nick's life experience:

Jesuit: "Rage and violence can be elements of productive tension in a soul. They can serve the fullness of one's identity. One way a man untrivializes himself is to punch another man in the mouth."

"You can't doubt this, can you? I don't like violence, it scares the hell out of me. But I think I see it as an expanding force in a personality. And I think a man's ability to act in opposition to his tendencies in this direction can be a source of virtue, a statement of his character or forbearance."

Nick: "So what do you do? Punch a guy in the mouth or resist the urge?"

Jesuit: "Point well taken. I don't have the answer. You have the answer," he said. "But how serious can a man be if he doesn't experience a full measure of appetites and passions of his race, even if only to contain them or direct them, somehow, usefully?"

I wouldn't say I'm adamantly anti-gun, but I am adamant that everyone in the NRA is dumb. Dumb to care so much about owning a gun that they form an association (and pay dues and carry membership cards) to protect their right to hunt small woodland creatures with rifles and 12-gauge shot guns and whatnot. So I'm anti-pro-gun. I would not own a gun myself; I would not want one in my house.

But, I was in Cambodia and would have liked to fire a gun at one of their ranges. Just to have the experience. To know that I fired a gun, to know what it felt like. To have more of a frame of reference to speak from when someone asked me - Are you for gun control? Like the Jesuit from Underworld asked, how are you really going to know your boundaries if you've never pushed yourself close to them?

I would be able to draw on that memory of having fired a gun. Part of this desire for experience is selfish - I want to exclude others by having experience that others don't. I want to separate myself. Distinguish myself. Me and them. The experienced and the inexperienced.

This idea was explored on Idle @ Work. Speaking about THE events of the past 4 years - September 11th, Iraq, and Hurricaine Katrina:

Unless you were there, and saw the shit with your own eyes, like we did, how could you possibly know? Everyone I know had a connection to someone who died that day. I, personally, knew nine people who were killed and had some connection to dozens more. If you live in Albuquerque, sure, it's an affront to you as an American, and it's impossible for someone of good conscience not to sympathize with such a degree of human suffering, but unless you've been to war, you've got nothing to tell me about 9/11 if you weren't there that day. Nothing at all.

My experience with the attacks is why I have nothing to say about Hurricane Katrina. I'm detached. I've never been to New Orleans, and I sure as hell have no idea what people are going through there right now.

This quote generated 21 comments. People feel passionately about first hand experience, or lack thereof, and if it determines whether or not you were qualified to speak on a particular topic.

Mike Brown head of FEMA was relieved of his duties because he did not have enough disaster management experience to respond to Hurricane Katrina. David Paulison replaced him. Paulison was a fire fighter with over 30 years experience handling disasters.