"Why, When He Worked Here He Was Never Anything But A Smart-Ass White Boy!"

[Gary Freedman]

Last week, the Nobel Prize Committee announced its decision to award the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama. Many Americans were shocked. "What has he actually done? What concrete things has he accomplished to promote peace among the nations?" I would ask: Isn't it possible that because President Obama is one of our own -- he is a fellow American -- we are incapable of appreciating his greatness? Isn't it possible that only foreigners, as outsiders, can objectively measure the true value of President Obama? Perhaps we cannot see what is clear to some people in other countries. Perhaps.

I am reminded of the following anecdote about Sigmund Freud:

After I had lived with the Frankels several weeks in 1921, the old Mr. Frankel thought it was part of his duty as a host to come and ask how I was enjoying my sojourn in Vienna. He asked, "What are you doing here?" And I told him I was studying with Professor Freud. He said: "Professor Freud? Never heard the name." And he added: "Moreover, I should know, because my son-in-law is a professor at the University, and I know all the professors in the University of Vienna. But on the other hand, that name does sound familar." Then he disappeared for a minute or two and came back with a little book, the pages of which he was fumbling and reading down the line: "F, F, F, Freud, Freud, here he is, Freud, Sigmund, Berggasse 19, a lodge brother of mine!" Mr. Frankel was reading from the Vienna catalogue of the members of the B'nai B'rith Abraham.

When I told Freud this story, he was greatly amused. "You see," he said, "a prophet is never known in his own country." Abraham Kardiner, "Freud--The Man I Knew, The Scientist, and His Influence."

[caseyjo]

I also enjoyed it...Thankyou.

[Kittycat]

:) Thanks, Gary. That was good.

[Gary Freedman]

The above anecdote was reproduced in historian Peter Gay's essay about Freud titled: "For the Marble Tablet."