I know that there are people in the world for whom Ben Carson has been an important, even life-altering, inspiration. I respect that. I really do. And I’ve wondered about how those people are dealing with Carson’s transformation into a buffoon. Someone finally got around to writing an article about this, and I guess too much time has passed by because I no longer care.
After all, I remember the late 1980’s when Donald Trump inspired countless people to go into business. Those days are so far in my rearview mirror that we might as well talk about horses and buggies.
Fools are fools and grifters are grifters. If this is a story about disappointment, well, we all get disappointed from time to time by people whom we once respected and idolized. There are people in the world who are rich today because they read Donald Trump’s book and it motivated them. There are people who listened to Ben Carson talk about his path to becoming a great neurosurgeon who are now great neurosurgeons themselves because his example gave them strength and courage.
Yet, when we look at these two aspiring Republican presidential contenders today, all we see is something more depressing than a bad joke.
Carson is out of his field and clearly shows that one can excel in one field and be totally lost and naive in others. He is out of his league and to arrogant to accept it.
I don’t know. I think both he and Trump are far too smart to believe even a fraction of the shit they say.
I wonder. Trump is an attention whore so I sort of get the motivation to make a fool of himself constantly. But Carson seems more rooted. My guess is, having pulled himself out of poverty, he’s lost empathy for those who got lost along the way or didn’t have the chances he did. Remember it’s not just about poverty. Some are raised by more emotionally supportive parents than others. Some are more sensitive than others to the various challenges and distractions they face. Some are born with disabilities that get in their way. And it’s easy to forget where one comes from, thinking one’s own experience universal.
Carson was a great neurosurgeon and a great role model for his determination in the face of challenges. But he’s not particularly enlightened or empathetic. In other words, yes, very much out of his element. A great man in one domain who isn’t at all smart or insightful in another.
Surgeons are thought to be lower in empathy than other doctors, with neurosurgeons the lowest of the bunch. That lack of empathy translates well into Republican politics, so I’m surprised there aren’t more Ben Carsons.
Do I need to list some of the insane things this man has recently said?
You’d never let such a person load your groceries, let alone operate on your brain.
That is, if you thought he was being sincere, which I don’t.
More than a little off-topic here, but Jimmy Breslin wrote a little book about his own experience with brain surgery, “I Want To Thank My Brain For Remembering Me”. Someone told Breslin the doctor he was going to see was kind of arrogant, thought he was the best in the world. Breslin writes that’s exactly what he wants in a brain surgeon—someone who’s really good at what he does and absolutely confident in his own abilities. The last thing Breslin wanted was for the guy who (literally) was going to have his brain in his hands to start trembling with self-doubt.
I don’t know anything about Dr. Carson’s personality or temperament, but it’s not uncommon for surgeons (and especially, neurosurgeons) to be the kind of person you’d trust to operate on your brain but wouldn’t want to load your groceries.
BooMan, my mother was a surgical nurse for many decades. The frequent and extreme assholish behaviors of surgeons provided a constant stream of stories for us at home.
It’s amusing that you propose that a person’s assholism would undermine their professional credibility. One might suppose or wish this to be true, but it has not been so for many powerful professions. Mom dealt with surgeons who grabbed her ass in the dressing room, sexually propositioned her in the middle of surgeries, and chucked whole trays of instruments at her while screaming at the top of their lungs. They were frequently the surgeons who she had to work with most often.
There are professions which attract unusual personality types. The jobs of politicians and surgeons each attract extreme egotists. It’s kind of a chosen trait for these strange professions.
Or a trait that is allowed to flourish because it’s tolerated?
Both. It’s a little less tolerated than it was during my mom’s career, particularly the sexual harassment, but preposterous behavior is tolerated. Challenges:
Again, it’s gotten a bit better over the years.
In the case of Carson, he is being rewarded socially and financially for being an asshole, so there’s not much to restrain him now.
Rich neurosurgeon does not like taxes or threats to his lavish income stream.
Rich property developer does not taxes or threats to his lavish income stream.
Tell me exactly where the public service that is at least the song and dance of politics comes in.
Both of them are “I did” and “my money”.
In both cases they deceive themselves, although Carson has the better case for arguing for what he accomplished himself (with money from where in what time in history).
Carson graduated from high school the year after Martin Luther King was shot. Consider what his prospects would have been if he had been born a decade earlier. Or two decades later. Or four decades later.
For me Ben Carson is just a dude – I suppose I can see how for some he may have been inspirational – especially if they had an interest in medicine – but it’s not like he’s ever been some kind of for-my-people pioneer. He’s just a dude. And when some dude turns out to be a douchebag then I’m not particularly pressed, just like if some dude turns out to be exceptionally noble – good for him, now when does the game come on?
I have no heroes so I have no disappointments when people turn out to be fallible human beings.
Big Ben is probably a rapist? OK, when does the game come on?
Troy Polamalu is almost literally a saint? OK, when does the game come on?
Have I mentioned before how much I dislike vanity POTUS candidates? But at least recently they’ve only been screwing with the heads of Republican voters and increasing the odds for ultimate TPTB choice.
It’s the rare physician that can also be a good elected office holder for the public, and none of them are Republicans. Here’s the Congressional Doctors’ Caucus from a couple of years ago. Former Rep Paul Broun was one of the stupidest members of Congress — and there’s a lot of competition to make it into that club.
Also, let’s not forget about the former Senate leader, Dr. Bill Frist. The guy that declared from a video that Terri Schiavo wasn’t brain-dead.
Many of the GOP leaders who launched the most insane and fact-free attacks on the ACA are physicians. That has provided a jet-black form of humor during these exceedingly strange years.