Jill Lepore Acknowledges Pond Scum

TheRaven suspects that after a long Massachusetts winter, prize-winning historian and Harvard professor Jill Lepore has forgotten what pond scum looks like. It's kind of round and pasty, evidences lack of higher education, years of alcoholism & drug abuse, all of which is shaped by years of morning zoo radio. What makes Ms. Lepore's transgression especially egregious is her acknowledgment of ridiculously lucky pond scum:

Ms. Lepore's NewYorker blog post is admittedly tongue-in-cheek, but very high brow. She gently characterizes Glenn Beck as ridiculous and faintly amusing but doesn't provide the context of his audience. By addressing Beck's wackiness on its face ("Glenn Beck likes to give history lessons") without consideration of who follows this fool, Ms. Lepore implicitly caters to the twisted-Right's dismissal of people who know better as "elitists". By not considering Beck's audience, she implies that they can't be reached with reason.

That may be true, but TheRaven suggests that Ms. Lepore has a better shot than most historian/intellectuals. Ms. Lepore coauthored Blindspot, a well-crafted work of fiction published in 2008. Blindspot has strong cinematic qualities. Ms. Lepore proved that she can reach beyond ivy league academia and touch the common man. (that's somewhat funny if you've read Blindspot, otherwise, just go read it......there's some naughty bits!) God knows the Beck faithful love fiction. Perhaps truth disguised as fable could wean them off incoherent babble.

Here's a link to Ms. Lepore's Newyorker blog post: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/03/glenn-beck-eugenics-and-history.html#ixzz0k6Rm6G2n.