IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

I checked YouTube and found that the video of my first lecture had drawn 138 views by 3 p.m. today.  I was elated.  Then I noticed that videos of my old UMass Marxist economist colleague Richard Wolff doing his monthly reports on the economy were drawing 40,000 or 50,000 views each.  I was depressed. 

But I bethought myself of the lovely old [1991] Gerard Depardieu movie Tous les Matins du Monde, and was comforted.  The movie tells the story of a great musician, the viola da gamba player St. Colombe, who retires to the countryside with his two daughters and spends his time in isolation perfecting his art and striving to raise the playing of the viola da gamba to previously unattained heights of pure musical beauty.  The young, eager, ambitious Marin Marais [Depardieu, played as a young man by Depardieu's son] shows up hoping to be taken on as a pupil by St. Colombe.  Marin Marais flourishes, makes his way at court, and becomes the king's favorite musician, but he does so by selling his soul.  St. Colombe continues in isolation, seeking musical perfection.

Now, all of this is wildly unfair to Rick Wolff, of course, who is merely vastly more popular than I, not less pure.  Indeed, if anything, Rick is a more plausible candidate as keeper of the flame than I.  And 138 views in twenty-four hours is not bad,  After all, I would have been happy during my active teaching career to draw a fourth that many students to a course on Ideological Critique.

And yet.

The Cloud is a stern mistress.