Economists in 21st century America bear an uncanny resemblance to physicians in 17th century France. And it so happens that there is already a classical body of dramatic work satirizing those arrogant, "dysfunctional" doctors -- that of Moliere. So here's an idea I'm working on. If somebody steals it and beats me to it, well, c'est la vie! I have in mind a reworking of a play by Moliere -- interpolating an excerpt from another play -- whose title would be "An Economist in Spite of Himself".
In the Moliere original, Sganarelle is a woodcutter whose abused wife tricks a pair of passers-by into believing is a brilliant but eccentric doctor who has to be beaten before he will consent to practicing his art. So they beat him up and he eventually relents and goes on to improvise a treatment for a lovesick young woman patient. In addition to substituting economist for doctor and making several other appropriate changes in the cast of characters and storyline, I would insert the scenes from another Moliere play, "Love is the Best Doctor", in which five doctors carry on an absurd "consultation" regarding yet another lovesick patient. On 3/18/08, Eugene Coyle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > When 95% of a "profession" are disfuntional, why have a separate > category for idiots? > > And 95% + of economists aren't professing anything-- they just are > trained repeaters of bullshit. > > Gene Coyle > > > > On Mar 18, 2008, at 10:42 AM, Jim Devine wrote: > > > maybe economists should start calling themselves Ekon and then > > copyright it so that it has to be capitalized. But I hope they (we) > > don't, since the book I'm writing uses "Ekon" to refer to the idiots > > of the profession. > > > > On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 10:40 AM, Dan Scanlan > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> > >> On Mar 18, 2008, at 10:31 AM, Jim Devine wrote: > >> > >>> (Why > >>> does Firefox tell me that "Realtor" should be capitalized?) > >> > >> Because Realtors are members of a professional organization. It's > >> illegal to call oneself a Realtor if not a member of the Board of > >> Realtors. Newspaper reporters are used to the distinction, like the > >> difference between a boat and ship, pistol and revolver, burglary and > >> robbery, copying and Xeroxing. > >> > >> Dan > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> pen-l mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own > > way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. > > _______________________________________________ > > pen-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Sandwichman _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
