Why Glenn Beck is a Genius

Now, let me be clear...I don't think what he says is genius-level discourse, but what he does, wow. I wish I'd thought of it first.

In business, we always say that you should find a need and fill it. Well, there was a clear need -a need to give a voice to all the ignorant, illogical, slightly racist, overly histrionic tinfoil-clad conspiracy theorists in America, which my ass scientifically estimates to comprise 43% of the population. That's a LOT of people who just want to be able to nod their heads in agreement with someone on the moving picture box, something they can never do while watching eminently reasonable people like Rachel Maddow or Jon Stewart.

So Mr. Beck goes to work, rants his head off with ludicrous statements about how the president hates white people, that Al Gore's global warming campaign is like Hitler rounding up Jews, and Obama is trying to create an "Oligarhy" because he has deciphered the hidden code (Obama + Left + Internationalist + Graft + ACORN-Style Organizations + Revolutionaries + Hidden Agendas).

Commentators rip Beck and the blogosphere cackles as cable modems all across America's basements-where millions of unemployed college graduates wait to hear back on their internship applications-buzz with connections to digg.com to register the purest form of white-hot Internet outrage. And they're all right.

But you know what? At the end of the day, Glenn Beck comes home to this. As degrading as it might be lying and spewing nonsense all day, I've realized that it's no less degrading making Powerpoints for your bosses, and for a shitload less money. And my principles aren't paying my credit card bills. I know that's a cynical, money-centric valuation of life, but let's be real here, you're not going to be finding a lot of "love" or "fulfillment" out there if you're homeless. So what if you have to agree with crazy people all day? I already do that at my job. So what if half of America hates you? If you're a minority, gay, religious, atheist, Republican, or Democrat, half of America already hates you.

Okay, obviously, I don't really think Glenn Beck is a genius. And I don't, in fact, think money should be one's monolithic life goal. But it genuinely irritates me when people who do really believe that money is the most important thing in life still excoriate him. Judge everyone by their money or judge everyone by their principles. Don't judge Beck by his principles and me by how much money I have.