Respecting the Dude

Great NY Times piece on new realm of scholarship--the Dude Lebowski!  Just as scholars have tried to understand the implications of Harry Potter for International Relations (and we picked up a book two days ago at the Natural History Museum that applies science to HP and vice versa), there is a burgeoning cottage industry that seeks to analyze and apply the implications of the Dude's philosophy and popularity.

One of Mr. Gaughran’s students came up with this summary, and it’s somehow appropriate for an end-of-the-year reckoning: “He doesn’t stand for what everybody thinks he should stand for, but he has his values. He just does it. He lives in a very disjointed society, but he’s gonna take things as they come, he’s gonna care about his friends, he’s gonna go to somebody’s recital, and that’s it. That’s how you respond.”

 Does this make the Dude the Jeff Spicoli of the 21st century?  After all, Jeff said "We need some cool rules ourselves or we would be bogus, too."