David Brooks’ message to America (Mary Engelbreit)
Why so glum, chum? David Brooks thinks you’re just dwelling on the negative in the news—and he’s written a New York Times (9/22/14) column, headlined “Snap Out of It,” to set you straight.
To start with, New York City “has never been better”:
There has never been a time when there were so many interesting places to visit, shop and eat, when the rivers and the parks were so beautiful, when there were so many vibrant neighborhoods across all boroughs, with immigrants and hipsters and new businesses and experimental schools. I suppose New York isn’t as artistically or intellectually rich as it was in the 1940s and 1950s, but daily life is immeasurably better.
I suppose if you’re in the economic class that sells a house for $4.5 million that you bought two years ago for $4 million, then, yes, there are a lot of interesting restaurants you can eat at in New York City. If you’re not in that class, it might be easier to recognize that New York is also one of the most unequal and most segregated cities in the US.
Brooks, in fact, nods at such issues—”of course there are the problems of inequality and poverty that we all know about”—but only to insist that they shouldn’t distract you from how great things are overall:
The scope of the problems we face are way below historic averages. We face nothing like the slavery fights of the 1860s, the brutality of child labor and industrialization of the 1880s, or a civilization-threatening crisis like World War I, the Great Depression, World War II or the Cold War. Even next to the 1970s—which witnessed Watergate, stagflation, social decay and rising crime—we are living in a golden age.
David Brooks: the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
The first thing to point out about Brooks’ list of past problems is that not all of them are past: The UN’s International Labor Organization estimates that 21 million people in the world are currently engaged in forced labor, while 168 million children are thought to be in the global workforce, including 85 million doing hazardous work.
But I was mainly struck by Brooks’ assertion that “we face nothing like…a civilization-threatening crisis like World War I,” etc. David Brooks has heard of climate change, right? Because if he has, he’s asserting that an average temperature rise of as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit does not threaten civilization—unlike, say, the Austro-Hungarian Empire continuing to control the Balkans, which was the main thing at stake in World War I.
The complete absence of global warming from Brooks’ column—despite the fact that it came out one day after the largest demonstration to call attention to the need for climate action in history—suggests that he sees climate change as less important than “Watergate, stagflation, social decay and rising crime,” the scourges of the ’70s. Yes, we may have to replace our entire global energy system to avoid rendering large portions of the Earth uninhabitable—but at least we don’t have 11 percent inflation!
David Brooks’ advice is just this useless (Allie Brosh).
In Brooks’ view, the little problems we have now, presumably including climate change, just need a little leadership, and that leadership issue is “eminently solvable.” Among the solutions he offers to our lack of leadership: Refuse to buy a luxury car for your college-age child (I think most people will take that advice!) and stop thinking that democracy is so great (“get over the childish notion that we don’t need a responsible leadership class”).
The writer/cartoonist Allie Brosh (Hyperbole and a Half) has explained at length why “snap out of it” is about the most useless advice you can offer to someone with depression. David Brooks offers that same useless advice to the entire planet.
Brooks appears to have matriculated at the Alfred E. Neuman school of sociopolitical analysis.
Doug Latimer, thanks. I needed the laugh.
That said, I will occasionally read an interesting or thoughtful piece in the “grey lady” on the www. As Brooks writes neither, he remains unread.
Snobbish as it sounds, most of the MSM became a waste post-Reagan. The N.Y. Times is no exception.
Be well.
god knows I snapped out of watching The PBS News Hour on fridays, when this insufferable jack-ass is on.
Comments here often suggest avoiding David Brooks. As an octogenarian suffering from depression, I recommend taking that advice seriously. His devious, oblivious support for the 0.1% is inappropriate to the New York Times, and on Fridays, the PBS News Hour with Brooks and Shields is so out of touch as to be unbearable.
One can become informed and support sound causes without enduring such extreme — and unhealthy — frustration.
De nada, socrates2.
Well when you live in a Ivory Tower, unless someone disturbs your lunch, there is nothing to worry about. One suspects he has a strong ancestral relationship with Nero.
Hmmm, by “experimental schools” David wouldn’t be referring to the FAILED experiment of charter schools, now would he? Yeah, those have definitely been “better” for New York and elsewhere. /snark
Brooks is one of the elite who can move to higher ground when NYC floods. Most will row to and stay in powerless buildings until the food runs out and it becomes obvious the ocean is in the streets for the long term. But the parks and streets are just beautiful – better than ever.