I learned a new word yesterday - paracosms. I found it on the editorial page in David Brooks column. He built a very interesting case around the word using the example of how Spanish youth exhibit a great deal of enthusiasm for Bruce Springsteen and his music. As Brooks says, there they were singing the words along with Springsteen to the song "Born in the USA." They were neither born in the USA nor even born at the time he made it a hit. Maybe it had something to do with the sad state of the Spanish economy, but they had built, in their minds, a hankering for our life.
The dictionary definition for the word: a detailed imaginary world, or another, a fantasy world invented by children and can have a definite geography, language, and history. There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, I think it is pretty normal since I've practiced the phenomenon from time to time, and not necessarily while a child. There was a time when I really dreamed big (and unrealistically)! As a teen-ager I thought Alaska was the land of opportunity, and I thought I would be a big rancher. So I wrote the Agriculture department in Juneau inquiring as to the possibility of establishing a large-scale cattle operation in that state. I must have laid it on pretty thick and excited some bureaucrats up there since I received a very welcoming letter in return.
My little granddaughter is in a little princess phase, and in their new house in Fargo they are decorating her new bedroom with that theme, complete with a mini-crystal chandelier handing from the ceiling. It should be fun!
But back to Brooks's thesis. He tells the politicians not to be everyman. "Don't pretend you're a member of every community you visit. Don't try to be citizens of some artificial globalized community..." He ends with the simple advice that candidates should just be themselves. Voters recognize phonies.
The dictionary definition for the word: a detailed imaginary world, or another, a fantasy world invented by children and can have a definite geography, language, and history. There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, I think it is pretty normal since I've practiced the phenomenon from time to time, and not necessarily while a child. There was a time when I really dreamed big (and unrealistically)! As a teen-ager I thought Alaska was the land of opportunity, and I thought I would be a big rancher. So I wrote the Agriculture department in Juneau inquiring as to the possibility of establishing a large-scale cattle operation in that state. I must have laid it on pretty thick and excited some bureaucrats up there since I received a very welcoming letter in return.
My little granddaughter is in a little princess phase, and in their new house in Fargo they are decorating her new bedroom with that theme, complete with a mini-crystal chandelier handing from the ceiling. It should be fun!
But back to Brooks's thesis. He tells the politicians not to be everyman. "Don't pretend you're a member of every community you visit. Don't try to be citizens of some artificial globalized community..." He ends with the simple advice that candidates should just be themselves. Voters recognize phonies.
