The End Of Reason: The Mad Are In Charge - The Firing Of Don Imus

[update: This post was written in haste. I have emended it at 5:29 pm EST]

Breaking news is sometimes breaking. Sometimes it is broken.

Moments ago I heard on the radio that Don Imus has now finally lost his radio program. CBS has fired Mr. Imus. It is broken news. Desperately broken. And to think he has been fired for calling one women's basketball team "cute."

I wonder, have you ever read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged? If you haven't, you are missing one of the most prescient books ever written. In brief, the villains of Atlas Shrugged, all with the noblest intent, steal the wealth of those who actually produce wealth. By the latter I mean that there are indeed folks who generate enormous wealth -- for themselves and others. Exxon-Mobil, for example, is a wealth producer, as is General Motors or Ford Motor Company or Microsoft. For all of these companies generate massive payrolls; they employ hundreds of thousands of people.

Compared to these wealth-makers, there are indeed those who are essentially the parasitic villains who resent and envy the success of those who, practically speaking, are infinitely capable of making wealth for others, of turning healthy profits. Such parasitic villains protest and legislate and gesticulate to much public notice; and they succeed in extorting wealth from the wealth-makers and, finally, forcing the wealth-makers to withdraw from society. The result? The parasites die helplessly and desperately, for they do not know how to make money for themselves.

In the Ayn Rand sense, Al Sharpton is an economic parasite: he, and his minions, have forced a wealth-producer out of business. For Don Imus generates massive wealth for many people; not just for him and his aides, but for the company he worked for and those companies who advertise their wares on Imus' program. Millions and millions of dollars, doled out in payrolls, health care, and property taxes, are produced by Mr. Imus and his work. From the books peddled by Mr. Imus and the music he has promoted, Don Imus has proven that he contributes enormously to the economic vitality of many.

On top of that, Mr. Imus generates massive amounts of cash for all sorts of charities. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for all kinds of incredibly important causes.

Al Sharpton is exactly the opposite of Mr. Imus. Mr. Sharpton is an extortionist and hanger-on; he is economically parasitic. He does not generate wealth. None at all.

Even Shame has turned his back on all of this.

This, believe it or not, is not the end of Don Imus. He is too big to be lost in this controversy. The losers here are going to be race relations in America, and Al Sharpton.

But the biggest loser is freedom. For now.

©Bill Gnade 2007/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.

Technorati tags: Imus, Racism, Sharpton, Don Imus,
Rutgers Basketball, Language, Censorship, Charles McCord, Bernard McGuirk, Al Sharpton, Sid Rosenberg