FELLOW SUFFERERS

People who know me personally are aware that I have a number of facial tics and twitches that, as I have explained in my Autobiography, have been with me since I was five years old.  This fact makes me sensitive to, and sympathetic with, others who have analogous minor afflictions that do not rise to the level of crippling disabilities.  I reflected on this today as I was reading Paul Krugman's latest blog post.  He and most of his colleagues in the Economics profession have a language disorder that manifests itself, so far as I am able to tell, not only in their speech but also in their use of written English.  I refer, of course, to their curious inability to pronounce or write the words "Karl Marx."  It is unlikely to be an inherited trait, and it seems equally unlikely that it is a consequence of their physical surroundings, but it may very well be something in their social environment.  My tics, I am told by doctors, can only be treated by medications whose side effects would be more serious than the tics themselves.  I suspect that Krugman and his associates confront a somewhat similar dilemma.  The impact on their economic well-being of overcoming the disability would probably be enormous, although simply being able to say the words from time to time might bring some immediate relief.  My heart goes out to them.