Worms in Horseradish

By David Snyder

I recently picked up a copy of What the Dog Saw, a collection of Malcolm Gladwell’s essays from his tenure at The New Yorker. I love Gladwell, the eclectic Canadian, a character seemingly interested in everything under and above the sun. He’s as wonderful to listen to as he is to read; his work is done with a tangible giddy manner, which is what it’s all about, really.

A sentence in What the Dog Saw made me stop dead in my tracks and smile like a damned fool. “To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish.” I read that line from left to right no less than a dozen times, beaming at its ridiculous specificity but it’s never the less poignant notion. In many ways, that line is what I’ve been trying to say for the past year in relation to our delightful slew of candidates running for the Big Office.

I think that line helps to explain a good deal of the way the country is feeling at the moment. There’ve been plenty of studies, however scientifically credible they may be, that have found that we Americans aren’t feeling as safe as the grizzly’s cub these days. Despite countless assurances by the people in the know about the matter, and a brilliant book by Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, the overwhelming evidence that the world is as safe as it’s been at any time isn’t quite sticking. Why’s this? Well, to a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish.

We all have an echo chamber at the ready these days. Whether your cup of tea is cable news, the blogosphere, or the social networks, it’s never been easier for one to stay within their ideology and convictions. Take, for example, the average progressive. He or she can watch their cable news on MSNBC, read their editorials on the New York Times website, the Daily Kos, or Salon, and get their reporting from their favorite journalists on any given social media site. This is wonderful for the progressive, as he or she is constantly being affirmed, his or her ideas being celebrated by seemingly everybody. The same goes for the conservative.

This is, as I’m sure is clear, not ideal. We’re all, despite our best intentions, worms living in horseradish, even if the world is actually a sweet ketchup or a spicy mustard — and maybe even, dare I say, a tangy soy sauce!

The world is indeed a much safer place than it was a decade ago, especially in the big cities. However, when, and I don’t use this term to offend, the worms are told things are all going to hell and the end is nigh, well, good luck convincing them that the world isn’t horseradish at all. This is a lovely little trick to help understand the rise of a certain tanning both addict.

My personal horseradish is a work in progress, thankfully. At the moment, the horseradish is mostly podcasts, Game of Thrones, over-caffeination, and the company of good folk. Sure, the chipper friends I cast my lot with have a liberal angle on most things, but, and I hope I’m being fair, we all do our best to peek our heads out of the horseradish now and then. I hope the same for the nation. I hope that come November we all poke our heads out of the horseradish, if only for one brief, shining moment.