[EL] An ill omen: The Amazing Randi is dead at 92

[Gardner, James]

Dear Colleagues,

I pass along the sad news, if you haven't seen it, that James Randi, jaw-dropping magician and prophet of debunking, has died.  The NYT has an obit here<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/obituaries/james-randi-dead.html?referringSource=articleShare>.  This is, sadly, actually relevant to election law.

The Amazing Randi, for those too young to have seen him, was a world-class magician (I remember him as an incredible prestidigitator) who made a second career as a debunker of all kinds of fraud, but especially claims of the paranormal.  He had, for example, a longtime feud with one Uri Geller, a prominent charlatan who claimed, among other things, to be able to bend spoons with his mind, and purported to do so on live television.  Randi was on all the talk shows debunking frauds by revealing the professional tricks they used to hoodwink people.  I first encountered him when I was perhaps 12 or so, and he appealed instantly to my inner Holden Caulfield by demonstrating how certain kinds of adults were flagrant phonies.

That the last of the great Rationalists has passed two weeks before the election strikes me as a demoralizing symbol of where things stand today.  The Amazing Randi clearly lost his battle against fraud.  Phonies not only still exist, but have proliferated to the point where they seem to have choked off reason from large segments of the population - to the point where many people seem entirely unacquainted with it.  Maybe that has always been the case, and it just wasn't quite so visible.  And maybe Randi's spirit survives in the plethora of fact-checking organizations that now exist.  But the battle has been trending for some time now in the wrong direction, and Randi's passing seems to me a troubling reminder of that alarming fact.

Best regards to all, and a prayer that you retain your sanity and equanimity in these extremely anxious times.  I know mine are getting quite ragged, and the more press I do the more of a basket case I become.

Jim
___________________________
James A. Gardner
Bridget and Thomas Black SUNY Distinguished Professor of Law
Research Professor of Political Science
University at Buffalo School of Law
The State University of New York
Room 514, O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
voice: 716-645-3607
fax: 716-645-2064
e-mail: jgard at buffalo.edu<mailto:jgard at buffalo.edu>
Faculty page: https://www.law.buffalo.edu/faculty/facultyDirectory/GardnerJames.html
Papers at http://ssrn.com/author=40126


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