You’ve seen John Hodgman, even if you don’t know who he is. His appearances as “PC” in a certain fruit-flavored tech industry firm’s ads have permanently cemented his place in pop culture. He’s done a bunch of other things as well – minor acting gigs, cameo appearances in obscure pop songs, and authoring several almanacs of false, though completely authoratative reference material, including canonical lists of hobo names and US Presidents with hooks for hands. I’m sure it’s no surprise that I’m a fan.

In promoting his latest tome, More Information Than You Require (paperback edition), Hodgman, in an interview with The Pitch in Kansas City, he touches upon the cultural divide between “jock culture” and “geek culture”, the way these two universes intersect, how they view the world differently, and while the jocks are currently dominant (“the invisible hand is apparently always adjusting its jock strap and not rolling a twelve-sided die”), things are changing.

Quoth the Hodg-man (at length – for the whole interview, well worth the read, click the link above – bold emphases are mine):

I think that we are necessarily moving toward a geek culture. The health of our society is going to rely on information technology. It’s going to rely on a familiarity with math and science and technology. Geekery in general is founded on questioning and proof via analysis of the actual world and not the world as we wish it to be. By contrast, jockdom — not sports — jock culture proceeds from a certainty you create in your mind: ‘My town is the best because the incredibly wealthy owners decided to keep the team for now.’ Or, ‘My political team is the best because it was my dad’s and they best stoke my primitive fears,’ as opposed to ‘They have the best policies for me and my family.’

Jockdom is very noble. It’s not deliberative. It’s certainly the best way to win wars. It’s the best way to motivate teams of people to fulfill a goal — not just war, but getting things done. The most important way to motivate a factory floor. But as you know, we’re not as much of a manufacturing society as we were before. China and other big industrial nations are rewarding their nerds and technicians rather than creating a culture that makes fun of them — it would be wise for us to embrace the book-smart as much as our culture has traditionally embraced the street-smart, the jock-smart. I’m not saying nerds must have their revenge; I’m just saying the time for wedgies is at an end.

Once again, the professional writing person is able to put into words exactly what I was thinking (get the hell out of my head!); there is room for both the jock and the geek in society; in fact, without both, society doesn’t reach it’s potential, and sadly, America tends to elevate one over the other, and we continue to do so at our peril.

…or maybe I just got one too many “slushy baths” as a youth. Either way, this message resonates with me.