Bob W
--- Chuck <chuck at mutualaid.org> wrote:
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> > Man, is Ralph Nader odd up close. His funereal
> demeanor almost never
> > lifts except when he's laughing at his own
> occasional jokes. The
> > laughter of children leaves him uncharmed. He had
> some factotum
> > running around announcing when he'd be holding
> audiences - he'd come
> > to tables in the bar at 10:30 and disclose that
> Ralph would be
> > speaking in the library in 10 minutes - when
> almost everyone was
> > interested in chatting and having a nightcap. He
> refused to come to a
> > speakers' dinner last night because the restaurant
> would be too loud
> > to have a "substantive" exchange - by which I
> suppose he meant listen
> > to Ralph hold forth, because we were all having
> quite pleasant and
> > intelligent conversations. Instead he stayed on
> the ship. One of the
> > people who'd joined him for a bit coughed, and
> Ralph, alarmed, asked
> > if she had a cold. She said she had a little one,
> so Ralph demanded
> > she re-seat herself on the other side of the table
> and never looked
> > up for the rest of the time she was there. This
> confirms my suspicion
> > that his trade obsession really is at base an
> anxiety about
> > contamination by foreign pathogens. He's a very
> smart guy, and has
> > done some admirable things in his life, but is
> really kind of a dick.
>
> I saw Nader in person several years ago at the Luna
> Cafe in D.C., which
> is just East of Dupont Circle. I think this must
> have been around 1999,
> before he ran for President in 2000. This was the
> middle of the
> afternoon and Nader and his friends were leaving.
> Nader seemed to be
> joking and bantering with them, so to me it seemed
> like he had some
> personality.
>
> Is it possible that Nader has something like
> Asperger's? He remembers
> lots of facts and has odd social skills.
>
> I would rather think that Nader comes across cold
> because of his fame.
> When you are a famous person, you are in the public
> eye all of the time.
> It's like being on stage constantly, hence the
> tendency to be more
> reserved and standoffish.
>
> This happened to me around the time of the
> post-Seattle movement. You
> get some press coverage and all of a sudden people
> treat you
> differently. If you are doing politics, you get
> attacked by people all
> the time, which leads one to be more defensive and
> circumspect.
>
> I always thought I was a personable and open guy in
> person, but my
> public persona changed to the point where several
> friends have pointed
> it out to me. One best friend told me that she
> thought I was very
> standoffish and impersonal when she first met me. I
> think my initial
> coldness to her was because I was a bit put off that
> a middle-age white
> woman was attending a black bloc meeting.
>
> Nader is probably a complex person like the rest of
> us. In the big
> picture, his personality is irrelevant.
>
> Chuck
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