Q: What about the charge that you simplify things…?
A: I don’t simplify things. I try and explain complicated things in simple
language. That’s an entirely different enterprise. I find it offensive, this
notion that things are too complicated to explain to an ordinary reader –
again, this coterie, this club-mentality…. To say that things are too
complicated to explain is just not good enough. They must be explained.
Experts love to hijack various aspects of an issue…and carry them off to
their lairs where they guard them against the curiosity of the interested
layperson. But it’s not rocket science. It’s about our daily lives. All these
things must be understood, connected up and explained – simply and
cogently. … Not explaining something is a way of wresting power and
holding onto it. It’s a way of making yourself seem important, of trying to
sound cleverer than you are. Of course I understand, there’s jobs and
money in that. But beyond a point, it becomes vulgar…