The man who knew too little disc12/24/2023 “So, do you associate Charlottesville” - I would say the name deliberately and with emphasis - “with anything besides your sister?” While he and I were talking, I looked over at him at every mention of Charlottesville to see if the name of the city, home to perhaps the ugliest weekend of the Trump era to date, made him flinch. He spoke several times about his sister, Bonnie, an assistant professor, who lives in, of all places, Charlottesville, Va. Hagerman can have a Rip Van Winkle quality. “It’s actually nice to not talk about politics.”Ĭonversations with Mr. They now speak on the phone several times a week, but never about the news. I know you don’t agree with my wishes but I do expect you to respect them.” “As you know very well I don’t wish to hear about current events. “I’m now officially cross with you,” he wrote. “I was needling him,” she said.Īnd in response, she received, for the first time, a stern text message. She had only recently become a United States citizen, and she was passionate about the immigration debate. The new administration compelled her to engage more deeply in politics, not less. A close friend from his Nike days, Parinaz Vahabzadeh, didn’t think he was quite serious at first and, in the early days of The Blockade, kept dropping little hints about politics. “Our baristas know where he’s at so they don’t engage him on topics that would make him uncomfortable,” said Angie Pyle, the coffee shop’s co-owner. (He used to listen to music, “but stray conversation can creep in between songs.”)Īt Donkey Coffee, everyone knows his order, and they know about The Blockade. To make sure he doesn’t overhear idle chatter, he often listens to white noise through his headphones. He goes early, before most customers have settled into the oversize chairs to scroll through their phones. Hagerman begins every day with a 30-minute drive to Athens, the closest city of note, to get a cup of coffee - a triple-shot latte with whole milk. Hagerman says he throws away the quarterly updates without reviewing them. As for money, a financial adviser in San Francisco manages his investments. He lives alone and has never been married. ![]() “The calendar completely booked.”īut three years ago, he decided he had saved enough money to move to a farm, make elliptical sculptures - and, eventually, opt out of the national conversation entirely. Before that, he had worked digital jobs at Walmart and Disney. Just a few years ago, he was a corporate executive at Nike (senior director of global digital commerce was his official, unwieldy title) working with teams of engineers to streamline the online shopping experience. He can go days without seeing another soul. As the sun set over his porch, turning the rolling hills pink then purple then blue, he held forth, jumping from English architecture to the local pigs’ eating habits to his mother’s favorite basketball team to the philosophy of Kant. I recently spent two days visiting his farm on the condition that I not bring news from the outside world. He is witty and discursive, punctuating his stories with wild-eyed grins, exaggerated grimaces and more than the occasional lost thread. Behind the Blockadeįor a guy who has gone to great lengths to essentially plug his ears, Mr. He decided that it would be called The Blockade. “Tiny little boats of information can be dangerous,” he said. Hagerman has created a fortress around himself. He considered The Embargo, but it sounded too temporary. “And I never did anything with it.”Īt some point last year, he decided his experiment needed a name. “I had been paying attention to the news for decades,” Mr. Why do we bother tracking faraway political developments and distant campaign speeches? What good comes of it? Why do we read all these tweets anyway? ![]() The fact that it’s working for him - “I’m emotionally healthier than I’ve ever felt,” he said - has made him question the very value of being fed each day by the media. Hagerman has done the opposite of all of them. Others have been inspired to action, making their first run for public office, taking local action or marching in their first protest rally. Others dwell online in the thrilling place where conspiracy is indistinguishable from truth. Some subsist on the thin gruel of political cartoon shows and online impeachment petitions. version of moving to Canada.ĭemocrats, liberals and leftists have coped with this first year of the Trump presidency in lots of ways. Extreme as it is, it’s a path that likely holds some appeal for liberals these days - a D.I.Y.
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