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You are here: Home / The best and the brightest

The best and the brightest

by DougJ|  August 5, 20112:12 pm| 70 Comments

This post is in: Our Awesome Meritocracy

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Reader B sends along news of David Brooks’ book deal (don’t have a link, he got it via email):

NYT columnist and #1 NYT bestselling author David Brooks’ two new books, the first on humility, looking at the gale force wind of self-preoccupation, self-celebration, and self-enhancement that has come to dominate every aspect of our lives, and at how the idea of humility, defined as the opposite of self-preoccupation, and informed by a new and more accurate view of human nature, can open up new and better foundations for community, commitment, and life purpose in a changing world, again to Will Murphy at Random House, by Glen Hartley at Writers’ Representatives (World).

Reader D sends along an Atlantic magazine job listing:

Atlantic Media recruits for two personal attributes in its candidates. The first is force of intellect – reflected in discipline and rigor of thought as manifested, often, in exceptional academic performance. The second is a personal spirit of generosity – a natural disposition towards service and selfless conduct.

Kthug explains how many arguments about economics work these days:

I don’t have time right now to track down all the examples, but if you look at how many freshwater macroeconomists have responded to Keynesian arguments in this crisis, you find over and over again that they resort to assertions of privilege — basically, I am a famous macroeconomic expert and you aren’t — rather than really addressing the issues. And this is so ingrained a response, apparently, that they use it in situations where it’s truly ridiculous: Lucas accusing Christy Romer of not understanding basic macro, then demonstrating that he doesn’t understand Ricardian equivalence; Barro belittling the credentials of yours truly, just after forgetting that there was rationing and investment controls during World War II.

This what American public discourse has devolved into: an undeserving, unbelievably self-absorbed “elite” telling the rest of us bitch better recognize, while lecturing the rest of us about how we should be more humble.

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Reader Interactions

70Comments

  1. 1.

    schrodinger's cat

    August 5, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    If David Brooks represents the brightest and the best we are truly doomed.

  2. 2.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2011 at 2:17 pm

    The second is a personal spirit of generosity – a natural disposition towards service and selfless conduct.

    Whuh? And these people hired McMegan.

  3. 3.

    Chris T.

    August 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    So Brooks’ theme is: “if you were all as humble as I am, you’d be as great as me too!”?

  4. 4.

    piratedan

    August 5, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: well lets face it, even flaming assholes deserved to be ranked and Brooks does deserve credit for being a flaming asshole, where you put him on the list with Eric Cantor, Michelle Bachmann, Grover Nordquist et al is purely a matter of measurement.

  5. 5.

    Special Patrol Group

    August 5, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    Elitist fuckhead is as elitist fuckhead does.

  6. 6.

    keith

    August 5, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    From the headline I was expecting something on Rick Perry’s Aggie transcripts. Summary: yes, he is W on steroids.

  7. 7.

    Windy City

    August 5, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    Is David Brooks the least self-aware motherfucker on the planet or what?

  8. 8.

    Jamie

    August 5, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    Wow. Bobo wrote a book on humility? He obviously had a ghost writer

  9. 9.

    Linda Featheringill

    August 5, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    I would comment but I wouldn’t want to rise above my station.

  10. 10.

    A Mom Anon

    August 5, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    I’d rather gouge out my own eyes with a rusty teaspoon than read ANYTHING Brooks writes,including his fucking grocery list.

    I guess the good news is that most people don’t know who this smug little shit is,but damn it pisses me off that he’s well off(and continues to be published and on teevee) while so many others who work WAY harder are barely getting by.

    I honestly think that it’s going to take massive reaction on the part of the public to at least get some of this crap to tone down. Switchboards flooded with calls,letters emails,responses on social media and a massive downturn in ratings and buying of books,etc. Several thousand people showing up at company/media outlest and headquarters wouldn’t hurt either. The bastards aren’t scared of us,maybe they need to be.

    Ack.

  11. 11.

    Cat Lady

    August 5, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    I wonder if David Brooks has ever read anything written about him, or any of the comments to his column. Is it possible that he can flit through his entire life being that clueless as to how he’s perceived by literally millions of people? Don’t public personas Google themselves all the time on the hunt for libel and other potential PR problems? How does his fucking mind work to filter out so much stinging Bobo contempt? I think the same way about the Fonzie of Freedom, too. There’s another delusional prick who needs a 2×4 to the side of that big head.

  12. 12.

    jl

    August 5, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    Will Brook’s humility book be more fantasy U.S. history?

    Because self preoccupation and self celebration were just not done in early America?

    Those Jackson Democrats, back in the day, were very humble, right?

    U.S. citizens were always world renowned for humility.. that is, until something, somewhere, went all wrong. Everyone knows that.

  13. 13.

    WereBear

    August 5, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    @Windy City: No, I’d give the Barely Sentient (Not Self-Aware) to W.

    He didn’t know how stupid he was.

  14. 14.

    beltane

    August 5, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    And yet it has been quite a while since we have produced a truly original, first-rate thinker who has managed to influence society by the force of his/her awesomeness. All we have now are is an insipid bunch of hacks and poseurs who never met a cliché that didn’t give them starbursts. The decline of empire is often accompanied by this type of intellectual decay.

  15. 15.

    schrodinger's cat

    August 5, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    David Brooks is humble like Uriah Heep was.

  16. 16.

    themanintheguyfawkesmask

    August 5, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    @Cat Lady:

    I wonder if David Brooks has ever read anything written about him, or any of the comments to his column. Is it possible that he can flit through his entire life being that clueless as to how he’s perceived by literally millions of people?

    No. Yes. SATSQ.

    Also, Bobo book about humility. irony, thou art dead.

  17. 17.

    Librarian

    August 5, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    Let me predict that in Brooks’ book, “humility” will be portrayed as a conservative trait and “self-preoccupation, self-celebration and self-enhancement” are liberal traits. I could practically write the book myself.

  18. 18.

    beltane

    August 5, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    Did anyone ever find out what David Brooks earns in a year? The NYT could save themselves an awful lot of money by ditching the overcompensated Brooks and replacing him with our very own Reality Check, who would gladly work for Cheetohs and Happy Meals.

  19. 19.

    keith

    August 5, 2011 at 2:42 pm

    B-b-but what about American exceptionalism? We can still be the best country in the history of the world, right?

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    @themanintheguyfawkesmask:

    Also, Bobo book about humility. irony, thou art dead.

    I don’t know; it seems perfectly appropriate to me. Oh shit, the book is about humility? I thought it was humiliation. Never mind.

  21. 21.

    jl

    August 5, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    @11 Cat Lady

    Well, some say that Brooks makes stuff up and passes it off as reporting and objective analysis. And when one writer asked Brooks about it, he thought it was an uncivil, unfair, and perhaps even unethical thing to do

    The makes stuff up allegation is below, and I think this is the article where writer asked Brooks about problems in his supposed non fictional reporting and analysis and Brooks expressed deep concern about what the writer was doing.

    Boo-Boos in Paradise
    Wayne-bred David Brooks is the public intellectual of the moment. But our writer found out he doesn’t check his facts

    By Sasha Issenberg
    http://www.phillymag.com/articles/booboos_in_paradise/

    Issenberg seems like a good reporter who can collect data and information, analyze synthesize and evaluate evidence, and reach a conclusion and report it out very nicely. Why no NY Times column for Issneberg?

    Edit: the article by Issenberg is a real hoot, as old coots would say, and very informative about Brooks’ methods. I highly recommend it.

  22. 22.

    Howlin Wolfe

    August 5, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    @A Mom Anon: Several thousand people showing up at company/media outlest and headquarters wouldn’t hurt either. The bastards aren’t scared of us,maybe they need to be.

    EX-cellent advice!

  23. 23.

    bart

    August 5, 2011 at 2:45 pm

    Yes, Krugman is the pot calling the kettle black here.

    His post has the obligatory, “I’ve done this a few times myself, but…” paragraph which I guess he thinks makes the column acceptable to write.

    When in reality, that paragraph is the tip off that the column should not have been written at all.

  24. 24.

    PeakVT

    August 5, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    NYT columnist and #1 NYT bestselling author David Brooks’ two new books, the first on humility, looking at the gale force wind of self-preoccupation, self-celebration, and self-enhancement that has come to dominate every aspect of our lives,

    So humble of Brooks to offer us his opinion on humility.

    ETA: Not to pile on or anything.

  25. 25.

    jl

    August 5, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    @17 Librarian

    I disagree. I predict (note the time and date, folks) that humility will be defined as going along with whatever Brooks’ paymasters want to do next.

  26. 26.

    kdaug

    August 5, 2011 at 2:49 pm

    Subtitled “Avert your eyes, pleb, and shuffle along”.

  27. 27.

    MarkJ

    August 5, 2011 at 2:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: And Andrew Sullivan, for that matter, though he’s no longer there. I was thinking the same thing Re: McCardlebargle – libertarianism = selflessness does not compute.

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2011 at 2:49 pm

    @PeakVT: Humility for thee, but not for me.

  29. 29.

    tbogg

    August 5, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    I have Bobo book quotes up here.

    Bobo has much to be humble about. He makes Chunky Bobo personal experience porn look hawt.

  30. 30.

    beltane

    August 5, 2011 at 2:52 pm

    Maybe David Brooks will be writing about humidity, not humility. Given the protected, hot-house environment that is the Village, humidity is a subject he might know something about.

  31. 31.

    jl

    August 5, 2011 at 2:58 pm

    I don’t have the link, but I once read an interview with Brooks where he talked about his rationale for choosing his career path in college. Which was (as I remember) that a person who went into opinion journalism could get pretty good return in money and lifestyle for a very modest investment in effort and learning.

    I don’t remember anything subsequent in that interview where he talked about how he currently regarded his initial thinking about career choice, regretted it, or was amused by his youthful cynicism, or had gotten wiser. As I remember he just kind of threw it out there. Maybe he was showing humbility through self defamation or it was a little self reflective snark, or what.

  32. 32.

    Librarian

    August 5, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    jl @ 25- You’re probably right. Since they are now trying to get rid of social programs, he will portray those who get SS, Medicare and those other programs as not “humble” .

  33. 33.

    Citizen_X

    August 5, 2011 at 3:06 pm

    I believe Madame Guillotine has a pretty good track record of inducing humility, grumble mutter grumble.

  34. 34.

    Karmakin

    August 5, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    I’m mostly impressed that Krugman admitted openly that popular economic thought has been somewhat on the wrong path for the last few decades.

    For those who don’t know, modern economics is developed around a balance, somewhat between demand-side and supply-side economics, leaning a bit towards supply-side. When in the real world, it leans heavily towards demand-side, to the point where supply-side might as well not exist.

    It leans much more towards demand-side than I believed a few years ago, let me tell you that.

  35. 35.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    August 5, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    This what American public discourse has devolved into: an undeserving, unbelievably self-absorbed “elite” telling the rest of us bitch better recognize, while lecturing the rest of us about how we should be more humble.

    On an only semi-OT note, Ezra Klein had a post yesterday about the reasons why the whole “50% don’t pay income taxes, those dirty leeches!” bullshit was, indeed, bullshit. What do I see in the first hundred or so posts?

    Insistence that EVERYONE has to pay taxes (ignoring that these people do, indeed, pay taxes) calls for a flat tax, and calls for voting rights of those who “don’t have skin in the game” be forcibly removed.

    And these assholes, while apparently losing public polling support, seem to be the only goddamn fuckers who get their chosen bullshit passed in Washington because apparently only the right-fucking-wing ever gets fucking heard in Washington.

  36. 36.

    geg6

    August 5, 2011 at 3:09 pm

    Jesus fucking Christ. I knew this dimwit had little self-awareness but no idea that he had absolutely none at all.

    Bobo, dragging our discourse to the furthest depths of stupidity, one taxi ride at a time.

  37. 37.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    August 5, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    @Karmakin:

    Funnily enough, the policies we get are hard tilting toward supply-side to the point where you’d think demand-side didn’t exist. Funny how that works out, huh. :/

  38. 38.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    August 5, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    The Sermon on the Bobo: Blessed are the humble, for they shall dine at the Applebee’s Salad Bar.

  39. 39.

    jl

    August 5, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    @38 ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    The Sermon on the Bobo: Blessed are the humble, for they shall be dined upon, at the Applebee’s Salad Bar Congressional Dining Room.

  40. 40.

    schrodinger's cat

    August 5, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    Andrew Sullivan has been touting Simpson-Bowles again. He seems to not understand even basic math.

  41. 41.

    Paul in KY

    August 5, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    @keith: He is a scary little shit.

  42. 42.

    PeakVT

    August 5, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    Some graphs of employment and population for your enjoyment (or not, considering the data).

  43. 43.

    Paul in KY

    August 5, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Then he would have to be ‘umble’, ever so ‘umble’ ;-)

  44. 44.

    normal liberal

    August 5, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    @beltane: Do you have a nominee for the last American who fit this description? Other than MLK, I’m having trouble thinking of someone who would qualify.

  45. 45.

    jl

    August 5, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    @PeakVT: Nice graphs, thanks. Only comment is that I think you need to check your compositional graph, I don’t think the categories can add up to one because some double count. Or maybe the labels are incomplete.

  46. 46.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 5, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    You know, it’s crap like this (David Brooks, the idiots at Atlantic Media who want individuals with those noble personal attributes, yet ignore that they’ve got the exact inverse of those qualities stinking up the joint in the form of the Economics Editor, Krugman’s moron critics) that makes me think that crushing the skulls of these poltroons and allowing stray dogs to feast upon the goo inside might be a good idea, then I remember that there are dog lovers here who would skin me alive for suggesting that I would expose those dogs (even Rosie) to the possibility of becoming as retarded as said poltroons.

    How’s that for a run on sentence?

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 5, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    @geg6:

    Bobo, dragging our discourse to the furthest depths of stupidity, one taxi ride at a time.

    Counsel for Thomas (the Mustache of Understanding) Friedman on line two, upset that someone else is being credited with HIS moronic meme (the Taxi Ride of Understanding in Mumbai, Lagos, Sao Paulo, insert your favorite developing nation major city here).

  48. 48.

    JPL

    August 5, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    Glenn Beck must be so disappointed that he didn’t think about writing a book on humility first.

  49. 49.

    futzinfarb

    August 5, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    @jl:

    In a reality-based community e.g., one with journalistic standards, that Issenberg piece would have relegated Brooks to the high school track meet beat in Franklin County.

    Brooks writing on humility is so irretrievably The Onion-esque that I am at a loss for how to comment on it. All I can do is offer this exchange documented by Issenberg:

    I asked him about Blue America as a bastion of illegal immigrants. “This is dishonest research. You’re not approaching the piece in the spirit of an honest reporter,” he said. “Is this how you’re going to start your career? I mean, really, doing this sort of piece? I used to do ’em, I know ’em, how one starts, but it’s just something you’ll mature beyond.”

  50. 50.

    beltane

    August 5, 2011 at 3:49 pm

    @normal liberal: 1968 is often considered to be the year the US began its slow descent to the place we are today, so it is fitting that there have not been any more such transformational figures. Once Nixon got elected, we’ve been doing nothing but cannibalizing each other.

  51. 51.

    PeakVT

    August 5, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    @jl: The numbers are right but the labels aren’t. I’ll change them later today. Thanks.

  52. 52.

    Samara Morgan

    August 5, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    the basic problem is the US has exhausted the macro-economic paradigm.
    the “freed” market is teleologically incapable of improving the human condition.
    it only improves the condition of the overclass.
    no one wants to admit this.

  53. 53.

    Linnaeus

    August 5, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    The task of economics
    Is to propagate a bluff
    That the poor have too much money
    And the rich have not enough

    h/t: Justin Horton via Twitter

  54. 54.

    Silver

    August 5, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Basic math for Sullivan consists of “If I’m trolling online for 3 bears and 2 twinks, how many condoms do I need?”

    The answer, of course, is always zero.

  55. 55.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 5, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    @Samara Morgan:

    These idiots have never read Adam Smith, or if they have, ignore some of his most basic observations about economic activity.

    Not to mention the places where he unloads on said idiots and the attitudes of their forebearers.

  56. 56.

    geisha gurl

    August 5, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    bitch better recognize

    Doug, you’re really tryijng to channel the spirit of Russell Jones, aren’t cha?

  57. 57.

    Tony J

    August 5, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    That Issenberg piece is pure gold.

    Shorter – Brooks just sits in his apartment and imagines what the world looks like, then he says he went there so he can write about it make money pretending it’s real.

    And he doesn’t even deny it. She just doesn’t get the ‘joke’ he’s sharing that makes his opinions relevant.

    Cosplay was never more real than this.

  58. 58.

    Lurking Canadian

    August 5, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    Megan does believe she’s self-sacrificing. She’s written several times about how she’s selflessly accepted a low salary to bring her knowledge to the masses. It’s not the only thing she’s clueless about, obviously.

    And humility means “Don’t question The Market, puny humans”.

  59. 59.

    futzinfarb

    August 5, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    @Linnaeus:

    I tried to come up with a second verse on topic for this comment thread:

    To sell this dismal science
    ‘tis difficult, no doubt.
    But Bobo’s deep humility
    …

    I couldn’t think of a last line – all that came to me was:

    …
    is nonexistent and he’s an enabler of, and paid shill for the greediest, ugliest, and most destructive elements of humanity in the 21st century – really, he’s a carbuncle on the ass of this nation.

    But that doesn’t rhyme.

  60. 60.

    demz taters

    August 5, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    @Tony J: Apartment? He retires to the “Brooks Estate” in Maryland.

    I never read him, just the comments. Unfortunately, the NYT page counter doesn’t distinguish the incredulous from the admirers.

  61. 61.

    normal liberal

    August 5, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    @beltane: I would date the decline a little later, given that Nixon was p at least punished and kicked out of office. On the other hand, Carter was served with the first iteration of the obstructionism and casual ridicule from the right that has become such a fixture of our decline as a functional polity.

    I don’t expect to live long enough to see the historians reach a consensus on the start of the decline.

  62. 62.

    Martin

    August 5, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    @PeakVT: What’s most interesting to me in the charts is the first one showing the civilian labor force tailing off. If I interpret that correctly, along with the divergence between it and population back in the 50s/60s, the earlier divergence shows the baby boomers boosting the population but being too young to work, and the current divergence them retiring faster than population growth can replace them as workers (likely accelerated temporarily due to people retiring early rather than try and find a job at 60 after being laid off).

    If so, that’s an encouraging development for employment as it means we’re once again (as in the booming 50s/60s) entering a period where service demand by the population will be growing faster than the labor base to provide those services. It’s hardly a near-term benefit for employment, but over the course of the next decade, we may find ourselves with not enough workers to fill jobs. Good news for my kids, I guess.

  63. 63.

    Kibo

    August 5, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    O wad some Power the giftie gie us
    To see oursels as ithers see us!
    It wad frae monie a blunder free us
    An foolish notion …

    Robert Burns, To A Louse
    1786

  64. 64.

    Jamey

    August 5, 2011 at 4:38 pm

    I hope Brooks dares to venture into real ‘murica and is slowly beaten to death in a bar fight with a displaced blue-collar worker.

    There, I said it.

    His editor, Will, is a nice guy (I’ve worked with him), but apparently as amoral as the day is long. I forwarded him the Philly Paper link about Brooks, Applebee’s salad bar, and the town where one could not purchase a meal for MORE than $20. His reply, more or less, was “meh.”

  65. 65.

    D.N. Nation

    August 5, 2011 at 4:41 pm

    Krugman:

    I don’t have time right now to track down all the examples, but if you look at how many freshwater macroeconomists have responded to Keynesian arguments in this crisis, you find over and over again that they resort to assertions of privilege — basically, I am a famous macroeconomic expert and you aren’t — rather than really addressing the issues.

    Yah-huh, that’s nice. Krugman a few days ago on his blog said- well, lied, really- that Obama has “never been in a tough election” to prove a point. Absolute howler, really. (He also mischaracterized the final months of Election ’08, but that’s another debate.) Upon being corrected, Krugman…eh, never issued a correction, never bothered debating with anyone on the subject. Because he didn’t have time, being a famous New York Times columnist. And I’m not.

  66. 66.

    PeakVT

    August 5, 2011 at 5:08 pm

    @Martin: The labor force doesn’t have a hard upper boundary, though. The BLS counts someone as part of the labor force only if they have a job or are looking for a job. So we may be seeing people retire early, or we may be seeing people becoming permanently discouraged. The high U6 number, which I don’t have a graph of right now, to me indicates the current decline in the workforce is due more to discouraged workers than early retirements. You’re right in that we eventually will see the workforce decline relative to the whole population. That’s a few years out, though, because the peak of the baby boom was roughly 1956 (1956 + 62 = 2018).

  67. 67.

    BGinCHI

    August 5, 2011 at 5:26 pm

    I got the Brooks book description from Publishers Marketplace, if anyone is wondering.

    Sorry to be late the thread.

    I almost fell out of my fucking chair this morning when I read that Brooks is getting paid to write on humility.

    Jesus.

  68. 68.

    Amir Khalid

    August 5, 2011 at 5:57 pm

    Just wait. Soon after David Brooks’ book comes out, the New York Times will run a column where he says: “I know the very best book on humility. In fact, I wrote it myself.”

  69. 69.

    BGinCHI

    August 5, 2011 at 6:00 pm

    If Brooks’ book has blurbs on the back, or if he takes any money from it, then I can only assume that he’s just not that into humility.

    Brooks: “Sorry humility, I’m just not that into you. But thanks for blowing me.”

  70. 70.

    Bill Murray

    August 5, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    @jl:

    Ah the Bobo-itudes

    Blessed are the wealthy for they pay me to talk to them
    Blessed are the Suzlbergers for they pay me to write for them
    Blessed are the cheese makers for I like cheese

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