More Gordon Exegesis -- Wherein I Get to the Point I Started Out to Make, or Some of It

So let me get to the pronunciamiento that's I've been meaning to pronunce now for a couple of years, teasing the Confessor quite rudely in the meantime:

Gordon Keith is The Great Ticket Moderate.

See, unlike a lot of his critics who deride what they perceive to be his pseudointellectualism, I believe that Gordon is, in fact, an intellectual.

Before I get pounced on by the many, many Confessors who think Gordon is only a pretend sophisticate who just reads some popularization of the latest pop-psycho trend, let me tell you what I mean by "intellectual."

I've spent some time in the academy among people who most would regard as "real" intellectuals, and I have to tell you that if that's the case the state of our intellectuals is pretty, pretty sad.  The academy, much of it, is in the grip of ideology, of "theory," and I wouldn't give you a nickel for the opinions of the lot of them on The Way the World Really Works, or Should.

He may not have a lot of university book-larnin', but I will stack his analytical skills up against pretty much any of today's liberal arts faculty. He's a perfect spokesman for Half-Price Books. When I call him an "intellectual," I mean he has a thirst for learning, and when he acquires it, he digests it in a very non-ideological way. He sometimes plays the Muser Liberal, but I'm not buying it. If you really listen to his (admittedly rare) serious broadcasting on issues, I daresay you would have a difficult time pegging him as a liberal or as a conservative. Hell, he's even had some kind words for Rush Limbaugh, recognizes what is powerful and appealing about the man (and what is bombastic and offensive). He's skeptical of government, the control of the many by the few, but exhibits what I, at least, hear as sympathy for those whose unfortunate condition is out of their hands. Gordon is what I would call a "classical liberal" -- remember, the Enlightenment philosophers behind the American Revolution were "liberals" -- as opposed to today's "social liberal." I don't know who the guy voted for, but I sure don't hear much admiration for Obama, nor did I hear much contempt for Romney. I really do think that if you make a serious effort to discern what Gordon "really thinks," you're going to find a guy who listens to all sides and uses plain old common sense to make up his own mind.  Unlike many of today's "real" intellectuals, academics, pundits, those types, Gordon is not in the grip of ideology.

This, I think, is the foundation of his comedy.

I used the word in the previous post: Gordon Keith is observant. He is a watcher, a listener. He soaks it up and writes it down, without judgment. The whole world is fodder for his voice and pen. This may sound obvious and treacly -- all comics are observant -- but Gordon couldn't do what he does, certainly not in the volume he does it, if his mind only bent a certain way.

And now I'm going to go out on a limb (surprise).

I think Gordon's bottomless curiosity has a price.

I sense a deep but distinctive streak of melancholy in Gordon. It doesn't come out, often, in his comedy. As I write this, I realize I don't really have much in the way of evidence for it. But the observer who is also a reporter (I mean a reporter through comedy, not a Muse/News reporter) with Gordon's wide range of subjects can find it difficult to keep contacts with any of the many worlds he mines for material:  male/female, right/left, black/white/brown, young/old, rich/poor.  His humor, because it is so wide-ranging, so "moderate," if you will, isolates him.

I know nothing, absolutely not one thing, about his personal life.  But I would be surprised if he does a lot of palling around with palsy-walsies, belongs to organizations, has a whole bunch of close friends.  I don't mean he's a complete loner strange-o, yeah, he has friends, sure.  But I think his intellectual and comedic restlessness manifests itself in restlessness generally -- and what we know to be a certain lack of personal organization, an unwillingness to plan ahead.  And not exactly a fear of commitment, but a wariness of what commitment to anything or anyone means -- it means drawing a curtain across a window to observation, blocking off a comedic avenue, settling on something that needs continuing evaluation.

So I would invite the Confessor to give Gordon a break.  I thank those commenters who have observed that with Gordon the P1 has been given a very great gift.   We don't have to like everything he does, and I don't.  But what he does is hard work, he does it incredibly well most of the time (and again -- at an extraordinary pace) and, I am suggesting, he performs it at a considerable psychological cost.

I think Gordon Keith is a good guy.  I consider it a privilege to hear him every day and read him every week.

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Do I have a second?  All in favor?  Hearing no objections, I declare Gordon Keith Week at a close.  

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I will be away all week.  Take good care of the joint.  I'll be checking in probably once daily to chase away the babyarm people but other than that not back for a bit, maybe toss in a comment.  Anything dramatic happens on the air, please let us know. Be kind to one another.

And hey, you Gordon-dislikers.  Your opinion is respected here.  All I ask is that you keep things civil.

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