I apologize for the lack of activity here for two long weeks. I’m working on other projects and haven’t taken time to post anything fresh here.  Yesterday, Independence Day, I heard someone sputter about “group think”, a  common phrase these days. But when I heard the words yesterday, they set off that frustrating feeling you get when trying unsuccessfully to pull something from another part of your head. Then, as sometimes happens, the target was identified, something Michael Chrichton had written years ago, a sketch of one of his characters, and a likely suspect. I pulled out my copy of Rising Sun and there it was. Here’s how Chrichton described that particular character.

I found myself thinking of Lauren. When I knew her, she was bright and ambitious, but she really didn’t understand very much. She had grown up privileged, she had gone to Ivy League schools, and had the privileged person’s deep belief that whatever she happened to think was probably true. Certainly good enough to live by. Nothing needed to be checked against reality.

She was young, that was part of it. She was still feeling the world, learning how it worked. She was enthusiastic, and she could be impassioned in expounding her beliefs. But of course her beliefs were always changing, depending on whom she had talked to last. She was very impressionable. She tried on ideas the way some women try on hats. She was always informed about the latest trend. I found it youthful and charming for a while, until it began to annoy me. Because she didn’t have any core, any real substance.  She was expert at watching the TV, the newspaper, the boss – – whatever she saw as the source of authority — and figuring out what direction the winds were blowing. And positioning herself so she was where she ought to be. I wasn’t surprised she was getting ahead. Her values, like her clothes, were always smart and up-to-date.

As many of you know, Michael Crichton graduated from Harvard Medical School and published his first bestseller,The Andromeda Strain, before he graduated from medical school. He was a giant physically (6 feet 9 inches tall) and intellectually (summa cum laude, Harvard), and erudite to the extreme, not to mention immensely productive. His books, among them Jurassic Park sold over 200 million copies. He created and produced the popular television series, ER, a show derived from his medical background. But now back to my point. I applaud Chrichton for vividly sketching a member of the group think crowd.