It's really interesting and informative to listen to Progressive Talk Radio
Jacksonville. One caller, on the subject of the oil spill, railed against the
unregulated free market with an exhortation to read Sinclair Lewis. From the
tenor of his call, I thought he probably meant Upton Sinclair, who wrote 'The
Jungle', about horrible conditions in the Chicago meatpacking industry.
Sinclair was a socialist who despised the free market and 'The Jungle' was a
work of fiction. So we're supposed to take our policy from a work of fiction?
I have not read the book but from eveything I read about it, it is like most of
his other works, long on sensationalism and short on character and plot
development. His work is not highly regarded in literary circles today from
everything I have gathered.
Sinclair Lewis was either given Sinclair, in honor of Upton, as his middle name
and used it as his first, or took it, in honor of him but in either case, he
also despised capitalism and the free market. In high school I
read 'Arrowsmith' and we were mentored in it with our teacher hawking the
trendy anti-profit motive in good socialist education tradition. We were
specificaly told that Lewis modelled the admirable research center
after Rockefeller University, and that Arrowsmith's antagonist's boss was by
(HORRORS) money, ironic in that John D. Rockefeller gained his fortune from oil
profiteering.
And so it goes. God forbid that anyone pursue profit (other than a liberal of
course, such as through talk radio).
Roderick T. Beaman,D.O.
Board Certified Family Physician
Protect freedom. Disarm the government.
