The Man Who Knew Too Little<br />“So, do you associate Charlottesville” — I would say the name deliberately and with emphasis — “with anything besides your sister?”<br />I think he really didn’t know about the Nazis.<br />A close friend from his Nike days, Parinaz Vahabzadeh, didn’t think he was quite serious at<br />first and, in the early days of The Blockade, kept dropping little hints about politics.<br />The fact that it’s working for him — “I’m emotionally healthier than I’ve ever felt,”<br />he said — has made him question the very value of being fed each day by the media.<br />Mr. Hagerman commits as hard as a method actor, and his self-imposed regimen — white-noise tapes at the<br />coffee shop, awkward scolding of friends, a ban on social media — has reshaped much of his life.<br />“The calendar completely booked.”<br />But three years ago, he decided he had saved enough money to move to a farm, make elliptical<br />sculptures — and, eventually, opt out of the national conversation entirely.
