The A-Troll
A strange toboggan ride this week. Strapped in to the cockpit was the resolute Nick Carr, ready to do battle once more against the arrayed gigolos of blogdom. Like a Commodore Perry wiping the grit from his goggles, Our Nick lay ready in wait for the nincompoops of the net.
It wasn't always like this, you know. There once was a time, back in the murky Hard Drive of History, before WikiPedia and Calacanis, when men were men and women were willing to put up with it. Back then, a job was worth having; school was for dummies, not punishment. Back then, there was a back then. Now, nothing — no distinction, class, ivory or otherwise tower — just the dull thump of mortar rounds from the proletariat into the forward positions.
Who is this Arrington to question the assholity of Our Nick? The boy has balls, Nick admitted. In truth, if Nick would let himself go there, he saw more of himself than he cared to ignore. Arrington represented that most annoying characteristic of the Super Right, the ability to believe totally in oneself with not a shred of supporting evidence. Web 2.0, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy — all convenient lies that bound the essential truth in a glow of inevitability deserving of the Patron Elite.
Our Nick slowly released the hand brake, marveling at the efficient design, the simple perfection of the mission, the apparently endless run-on of metaphors trailing from his muscular thighs. Time to put the bums in their place. So what if they were too ignorant to know it, too drunk with their own integrity to understand the futility of the Permanent Poor. The irony, as always was inescapable yet oddly wasted on these fuckheads, pinboys, wackers, comic book sharing towheads from the darkness beyond the Aware.
For in truth Our Nick was Good. Pure, wrong, but good. Armed with the obvious, cloaked in the inevitability of entropy, propelled by the Magic of Rabbit Pulled from Hat, the glint of insight rendered in gun metal against the dawn of resignation and boredom. Good, though. That which infuriated the most: Our Troll. The A-Troll.
August 18th, 2006 at 7:26 am
[…] Gillmor dubs Arrington the A-Troll. […]
August 18th, 2006 at 8:55 am
I think you mean “assholiness.”
Personally, I liked Mickeleh’s take:
“Just remember that, anatomically speaking, the asshole is still way ahead of the long tail.”
August 19th, 2006 at 1:30 am
Is that what the A in A-List blogger stands for?
August 19th, 2006 at 5:08 am
Enjoying the show and glad to see the Gang progressing to new hieghts. Not sure why you make it difficult for people to find your blog, but I’m happy to discover it. I don’t quite like the segmentation of the podcasts into ‘part1′, ‘part2′, etc. Maybe just stick to a programme length that’s acceptable for your distribution outlets.
August 20th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
It’s really a strange discourse (like any discourse about Nicholas Carr).
I made some small cartoons:
cartoon 1
cartoon 2
Bye,
Oliver
August 21st, 2006 at 11:48 am
For whom the bell trolls
Einstein asked in 1954, “Can we visualize a 3D universe which is finite yet unbounded?”
Steve Gillmor answers a resounding yes, unleashing a Big Bang that may mark the moment in history when the uncleansed masses bought their liberation fro…
August 24th, 2006 at 2:08 am
Nick versus Arrington is not a fair death match imho