Psychologist Emil Flasside has been turning heads, raising eyebrows and jostling academic wigs with his provocative new Mandela-Wilson Postulate. Based on an idea he had while kite-fishing off the coast of Guam, Flasside’s groundbreaking work has been featured on CNN, ABC News, and the recent big-screen reboot of Donahue.
Popwell recently recieved an advance copy of Flasside’s new book, Mandela, Wilson and You: Bound by Honor, Betrayed by Blood. We eagerly delved into its creamy-white pages, devouring the contents like lemurs at a firefighter’s fandango. In the end, we found the book a bit of a letdown.
Flasside’s main idea is that Nelson Mandela and Woodrow Wilson represent the two poles of every human’s personality. Mandela represents the aspect of one’s persona that joins underground organizations of freedom fighters and ends up being jailed for terrorist activities, only to be exonerated and released to worldwide fanfare and acclaim. Later, that aspect becomes president of South Africa.
On the other hand, Wilson represents the aspect of one’s persona that becomes governor of New Jersey, is elected President of the U.S., then ends up on the rarely-seen one hundred thousand dollar bill. This is also the aspect of our personality that enjoys rhubarb.
According to Flasside, we all oscillate wildly between these two poles, one moment planning the murder of an apartheid supporter, the next spending ourselves on a tasty meal at In-N-Out and receiving about ninety-nine thousand dollars in change.
We feel that Flasside makes some good points. The chapter involving Mandela’s roadside chocolate plantain stand was quite interesting, and we all loved the hilarious section in which Wilson stands in for John Ritter during an episode of Three’s Company.
In the end, though, we feel that the Mandela-Wilson Postulate doesn’t truly account for the diverse spectrum of human personality types. To name but one example, neither Mandela nor Wilson enjoyed Nicholas Sparks novels…but somebody’s buying them!
Good day to you, Mr. Flasside!
Emil Flasside will be reading excerpts of Mandela, Wilson and You: Bound by Honor, Betrayed by Blood, on Friday, August 21 at the Humane Society Ballroom. Light refreshments will be served.
This is entirely too lucid and rational for any reply or comment. And thanks for the overpowering In & Out craving.