Garry Reed
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SUNNI: Seems to me this goes back to something we touched on earlier; your writing tackles serious subjects, but not in a ponderous way. You often poke fun at the bureaucrats -- oh, and your idea of coining new "-crat" words was pure genius! I've had a lot of fun with that -- medicrats, transpocrats ... Have you seen a lot of response from that essay?
GARRY: Hey, thanks for the genius moniker [laughs], but I can't take credit for the idea, since some words like educrat were already out there. I just applied the technique of reductio ad absurdum. -Crat is a loaded suffix that's instantly recognizable as a pejorative for "government employee" at all levels, from Cabinetcrat to County Commissionercrat. I've seen more and more of it in other people's writing, so maybe that's an indirect response to my article, but of course I really have no way of knowing that.
SUNNI: Which of your essays has gotten the most positive responses, and which has brought in the most negative ones?
GARRY: In terms of direct response such as emails, I receive very very little response. At best, one or two emails for any given article. Because of that, I go on net-surfing expeditions from time to time and I find my articles in all sorts of unexpected places, posted and discussed on bulletin boards or quoted on someone's web site. In my unscientific review, two articles have gotten by far more attention than any others. One is Libertarianism for Dummies, the very first article I ever wrote for the net, on NewsGuy. The other was Scrooge McDuck Capitalism, which was a big hit with the traditional conservative crowd. So, in the world of the internet, the sincerest form of flattery is getting reposted, quoted, linked, excerpted, reprinted in newsletter emailings and, in at least two cases that I know of, Xeroxed and passed out by a teacher to the students in his classroom.
SUNNI: Cool! Can you tell me more about those cases?
GARRY: Well, my virtual filing system is so efficient that I can't find the notes and follow-ups I always save. But the most recent occurrence was in February when a high school econ teacher passed out 35 copies of my Corporatcrats article (there's that suffix again) and spent 40 minutes reading and discussing it in his classes. Which is weird because economics is probably my weakest subject. Beyond being able to make change for a dollar I'm severely economics challenged.
SUNNI: I am too -- and it shows pretty much every time I open my mouth on the subject. Has the prospect of negative feedback ever led you to avoid a subject, or temper what you write?
GARRY: Since, as I've said, I get very little feedback of any kind, I haven't been tempted to temper my writing. If anything, negative feedback would probably just egg me on. In one article I wrote that the Supreme Court is not the final arbiter of all things Constitutional, to which a respondent responded that Marbury v. Madison said that they were. I then wrote another article that countered with jury nullification, civil disobedience, Constitutional amendments, and a long list of presidents from Andy Jackson to Abe Lincoln to FDR who simply defied the Constitution. To that list we can now add Bush2 and his "The Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper" quote.
SUNNI: Your lack of feedback is rather surprising, Garry. Given the ruckus raised by my blog post on the Lost Liberty Hotel project, I'd've thought your Lost Principles Hotel article would have gotten some similar attention.
GARRY: Well, yeh, come to think of it, that one did create more feedback than anything else I've written. But even then it was only about a half dozen emails, and they pretty much split down the pro and con middle. The real problem I have with feedback is this: sometimes I'll write what I know is the greatest article since sliced cucumbers and the silence is deafening. Then I'll just slap something together at the last minute and people will write in and say, "Hey, that was your best one yet." So you go figure.
SUNNI: Wish I could, Garry, but I see the same pattern in my writing. Will you be addressing Bush's constitutional comment in an upcoming essay? From where do you get your inspiration?
GARRY: Everybody has been addressing Bush's constitutional comment. I usually try to address something most others are not addressing. It may turn up as a jab somewhere, though. As far as inspiration, It's always a news article. Almost every day I scan Freedom News Daily on the ISIL web site and Plug Nickel Times looking for news articles that will trigger a story idea. But they can come from anywhere. Not long ago I pulled an article right off of the Sunni and the Conspirators blog and scribbled out a satire based on it.
SUNNI: Wow! I'm flattered -- even if the post wasn't mine.
GARRY: [Laughs] See, there's that sincerest form of flattery again.
