Notice how Mojo, by cunningly adding that clip of Mister Rogers, by virtue of association can now reap the benefits of people thinking that maybe Mojo, too, might be a nice person. Because, sadly, it is my experience that that's often really about as far as people think. So all it often takes is some schiester to quote someone else, and poof! Instant cred! Because, if people have a problem with them--like, say, you disagree with something Mojo has written--Mojo can now respond with something along the lines of "What? You HATE Mister Rogers? You are really THAT heartless? You know what? I feel sorry for people like you. I really do. What a sad, loveless life you must lead."

Which is really GREAT, because the proverbial red herring argument redirects everyone's attention away from whatever complaint they have with Mojo and now suddenly they look like a dead-Mister-Rogers-hating monster.

People are always hitching their wagon to someone else, no matter how spurious the connection. Probably the most-abused one is the quote usually attributed to Schopenhaur, but sometimes to Shaw, Gandhi or whoever is most convenient at the moment:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

Uh, huh. This morning I was listening to a New Age type guru as I drove (for entertainment purposes only, although this particular one is determined to put me to sleep at the wheel) and amidst the soft-spoken platitudes it suddenly struck me that, for all this person's followers know, they could end up being just another bunch of Millerites, utterly convinced in whatever the person says. I'm sure a hundred years ago a lot of people laughed at the Millerites, too. And guess what? They were correct to laugh. The Millerites were a bunch of deluded idiots sitting on a mountaintop waiting for the world to end. Hasn't happened yet, although with the sudden popularity of reality television I've gotta believe it's not that far behind.

Another perennial favorite of people co-opting someone else's authority is Einstein. Man, you could write a book on all the Einstein quotes people use to bolster their arguments. This is my personal favorite, and the favorite of crackpots everywhere:

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

Mojo just wishes to point out that the operative word here is "great". Yes, I have no problem with Einstein's quote, just that what constitutes "great"? And let me say, right here and now, some New Age guru spouting vague aphorisms and charging people lots 'n' lots of money to hear their pearls of wisdom are probably not "great spirits". Neither is a ripoff artist. Great businessmen, perhaps--only, really, it's so easy to part idiots from their money it doesn't even require anything "great" except a great lack of conscience--but great spirits? I'm thinkin' not.

Of course the beauty of all of this (as well as Mojo's perennial escape hatch) is that Mojo may very easily be wrong. But a Great Spirit such as herself hardly ever is.

What's that, you say? You disagree? What, you think you're SMARTER than EINSTEIN?????

Mojo