I interview a lot of people who are on the margins of Acceptable speech because of their position re Israel/Palestine. Some of them were Insiders, and now are outsiders. Some can't get work. Some are up for prestigious jobs and get turned down. Some are like Norman Finkelstein, and hunted by others. And I can tell you that a theme of the personal conversations that go on in this crowd are, You better have a good marriage, or money, or something to fall back on, because you can lose your mind. Start to feel you're truly crazy. There is a tremendous psychic cost to these efforts.
Michael Crichton just died at 66, cancer. I just watched excerpts of five interviews Charlie Rose did with Michael Crichton over the years. The guy looked hale and hearty for the first four, incredibly successful, and then in the last one he was completely different. Grayer, and not nearly as positive. He had the year before or so published a book stating that he doesn't believe in global warming. State of Fear. 2004. He couldn't believe the anger and vitriol directed at him, wasn't ready for it. Staggered. His second to last book. An impish thought, but I wonder if this played any part in his demise… We are social animals and to violate consensual ideas has a biological element. (Not that I think he's right…)
