Gary North's pitchman

I see that Gary North has joined the 9/11 Truthers.

http://lewrockwell.com/north/north1027.html

http://lewrockwell.com/north/north1028.html

North is a very bright guy, but I think that’s his snare. He’s too enamored with his own intelligence. He feels the need to constantly prove that he’s the smartest guy in the room, and the way he does that is to challenge the conventional wisdom.

Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with challenging the conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom is often circular, self-reinforcing groupthink. Like an urban legend. No one remembers who started the rumor, but once it goes viral, sheer repetition lends it unquestioned credibility.

The problem, though, is that to maintain his reputation as the smartest man in the room, North has to constantly cook up alternative explanations for the real reason things are the way they are. Simple, obvious explanations are disdained because anyone can think of the obvious. What’s obvious doesn’t give you an opening to flaunt your superior intelligence. No, you must uncover something ingenious and nefarious to brandish your brilliance.

While we’re on the subject of Gary North, I often wonder to what extent Ron Paul is the front man or pitchman for Gary North. They have a longstanding association, and many of Paul’s outlier views parallel North’s positions.

I don’t know if anyone has studied the extent to which Paul is channeling North. You have organizations like TheocracyWatch and the Southern Poverty Law Center that take an interest in this sort of thing, but that’s a case of one fringe group monitoring the activities of another fringe group. One tinfoil hatter denouncing another tinfoil hatter.

It’s not something I’ve bothered to investigate myself. I’m just struck by the suggestive circumstantial evidence.