Mary:
I doubt that he owns any part of the Clear Channel radio network; if I were in his position I wouldn’t own any of it. Clear Channel is not now enjoying particularly robust economic health…. in fact without the advertising revenues induced by ditto heads it might well be in serious trouble. So Rush has it by the economic throat with his $300 million contract! As bad as Limbaugh is, he fills a need… a need which is the real problem. He thrives because of the emotional needs of his ditto heads…. we’re he to disappear, these people would seek out other demagogues to tell them things they want to hear; political, religious and business demagogues with simplistic answers to life’s questions, answers filled with enemies that they can tear down to make themselves feel superior. For example, religious demagogues focus on the devil, or on abortion, rather than on the more complicated and uncertain task of seeking and loving God and our neighbors.

I particularly like your comment that Limbaugh “never laughed.” One of my favorite philosphers, Eric Hoffer, a self-educated man who was an itinerant farm worker in the 1930′s, wrote a little masterpiece “The True Believer” over fifty years ago. In it, a study of fanaticism, he pointed out that fanatics are intense about their beliefs without any playfulness. Healthy people, in contrast, are simultaneously intense and playful about the most important beliefs of their lives. I believe that playfulness is also the basis of tolerance and of creativity and ultimately of personal happiness.

Ed Lee

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