The Man Who Knew Too Little
“So, do you associate Charlottesville” — I would say the name deliberately and with emphasis — “with anything besides your sister?”
I think he really didn’t know about the Nazis.
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.
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.
Mr. Hagerman commits as hard as a method actor, and his self-imposed regimen — white-noise tapes at the
coffee shop, awkward scolding of friends, a ban on social media — has reshaped much of his life.
“The calendar completely booked.”
But 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.
