By Ira Katz
May 19, 2026
In response to my last article on LRC, Talented Friends, I received the following comment via email (note that I removed the "uck"s).
Subject: Nobody wants to hear about your lifelong priveledges
Who, reading your today's article, wants to hear about your "talented friends." Like it's some special genetic trait. Who cares who you roomied with at f*%#ing Duke.
Nobody wants to hear about your born into luck and prosperity, Jewboy.
F*%# you.
A couple of years ago I wrote, "As I am just a voice from the hoi polloi, I can't believe what I write has any impact on the world. But I do feel privileged to be an author listed among the important writers that Lew Rockwell assembles six times a week." I also wrote in that article: "As a non-writer writer, I am ambivalent if people read what I have written. I used to send select friends long letters to appease my urge to write out what I thought. I even wrote articles that never left my computer. But I must admit that receiving feedback from readers is gratifying. For that I thank you, LRC readers, as well." Thus, I can wholeheartedly agree with the subject line of the commentator's (TC's) message about my "privileges," why would anyone want to hear about this or anything else I would happen to write about. More on my privileged life below.
TC becomes more specific, citing his indifference to my friends. I agree, this article was pure indulgence on my part. I cannot help praising my friends, talented and otherwise. For example, I am effusive about my friends who own restaurants and pubs (see Nostalgia). Even more, I have been extremely privileged to have had their friendship. I thank God everyday for these blessings in my life. Anyway, certainly my family thinks I am often boring so TC is on point.
And TC is right again about my roommates and "f*%#ing Duke." I confess that it just happened to occur that these three books came my way at about the same time. Perhaps TC is using the adjective "f*%#ing" to express his disdain for elite schools. I agree again ! The company I worked for sponsored a gifted German student to do her PhD in Boston with a lab associated with Harvard and MIT. I told her that she would be among the most brilliant people in the world. But not to forget that they are the same people who had ruined the country. Certainly today I would not support my daughter to go to Duke for undergrad. I went to public schools and then the University of Florida for my undergrad. At Duke I never paid a penny in tuition. It dawns on me that perhaps TC is a North Carolina Tar Heel fan. Tar Heels rightly hate Dukies, like Dukies hate Tar Heels. As a grad student that animosity never developed in me, but I understand it. Furthermore, I often had more in common with my townie friends than Dukies. However, I confess that I loved all of my days there.
The insightful TC is perfectly correct that my "luck and prosperity" is only my business. I didn't consciously write about myself, I just wanted to sell a couple of books for my friends. But when I have written about the great gifts I have been given in life it is to express gratitude for these blessings such as my brother, my mother, those pubs, and life in general even though they entail much about sickness and death. I have never felt poor a day in my life. But that is because my mother raised three boys alone with depression era frugality after my father died at 42. My first car was at 19; I received a hand-me-down Ford Pinto from my brother. Again, it was by sheer luck that I came to live in France and have a family. I could go on and on but TC would rightfully scold me again.
In a bit of a non-sequitur TC calls me "Jewboy." The only Jewish reference in my article was as part of the story of The Bicycle Messenger. But the author Joan Bauer is a devout Catholic. Her uncle was a Jesuit priest who served as the president of Marquette University for many years. Is this anti-semitism. She explains the Jewish connection and me in this post; Mysterious Antecedents - Recent Reads.
Of course, my name is very Jewish. But I have explained in another self-indulgent article that I was baptised into the Catholic Church about 30 years ago. While I am not at all ashamed of my Jewish heritage, it does make me squeamish when I hear of the Israeli defense minister named Katz. As I understand it, I actually know very little, my grandfather Katz took the name at Ellis Island. However, I don't think of myself as Jewish. Several years ago a US physician interviewed with my company in France. He requested we eat lunch privately. I did not understand his request, I did not know him, I was not participating in the interview. He wanted to ask me how Jews were treated in the company and in France. I was dumbfounded because it had never crossed my mind. I have never noticed any anti-semitism directed against myself, anywhere or anytime. Is TC's message anti-semitic?
I have written about Israel in this past: Diplomacy, wars for Israel, manifest destiny. My definition of genocide is ethnic cleansing accompanied by indiscriminate mass murder. So evidently Gaza is an ongoing genocide. The Israeli pursuit of vengeance and victory instead of justice and peace, in my opinion, is bound to rebound into ultimate defeat and perhaps annihilation.
TC ends his message with "F*%# you." I was once on a train in Ireland. I struck up a conversation with two young engineering students going back to school. As I was an engineering professor at the time we had plenty to talk about. I found them both quite intelligent and well spoken except for one quirk. Like an LA valley girl might interject the word "like" in every sentence, they interjected the word "f*%#". This word is not agreeable to me, but I certainly hear it often enough these days that it is not at all offensive. Perhaps today saying "F*%# you" is like saying "have a nice day."
TC caught me by surprise with his comment. I sensed anger in his message. Am I wrong ? I am not on any social media. Is TC following the current understanding of polite protocol online ? If TC is angry over such an innocuous article like mine, I am concerned for the future where anger is such a pervasive emotion.