David Brooks: Desperate, Weird and Confused

Wow. David Brooks, the Left's favorite conservative, has been on a raucous tirade lately full of lazy thinking and vitriol. This is my take on several recent columns, one on US politics and two on his recent trip to China. I think David could have benefited from my company as he was traipsing through western China looking for the real story.

This week his column was an attempt at satirizing Obama's DNC acceptance speech. His growing cynicism is second only to the McCain choice of Palin. I have a particular gripe with this insinuation that Obams is only a candidate for younger voters without a sense of history:

"We meet today to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans, a generation that came of age amidst iced chais and mocha strawberry Frappuccinos®, a generation with a historical memory that doesn’t extend back past Coke Zero."

And this one that suggests Democrats simplify Republicans when it is really the hard-core Republicans who have chosen to simplify complicated issues, descend into sensationalistic smear tactics and resist coming to terms with their sheep mentality on a war of choice:

"For we are all one country and one American family, whether we are caring and thoughtful Democrats or hate-filled and war-crazed Republicans."

His bitterness and cynicism about Barack's life story is pitiful. As the child of a single mom myself, like many many Americans, I know this is a character defining trait. Being a pioneer within his own family, is not something to be ridiculed. Sicko.

I dare someone to write a column about the RNC and McCain using only facts that shows everyone who McCain and his new Rove strategists are. I bet it would be even more scary than this piece of bologna from Brooks.


On August 11th, his column was about the "collectivist" society of China that will serve as a new model for global governing and economic growth that may outpace Western individualism. He was in Chengdu, Sichuan during the Olympics, spouting some racist pop psychology based on a single book of shoddy science called How Asians Think. I was shocked, but thankful to see so many comments setting him straight.

From my personal experience here in China, I have several quick observations I can share:

Hierarchy, imposed and enforced in many incarnations over the centuries, should not be mistaken for collectivism.

Chinese people can be some of the most celebrity-obsessed, name-obsessed people. The word for 'famous' translates as 'has a name.' People want to be in the number one school, the number one program, the number one country in gold medals.... There is a distinct '#1 or die' mentality here that confuses his concept of collective society.

I am not sure David experienced getting on a bus or buying a train ticket or getting a job. Chinese people could not give a rip about people who are not in their family, extended social network, or happen to be #1 in a useful position. There is no standing in line here and grandmas throw elbows just as much as the rest of us as we struggle to get a seat on the bus. People push and scramble to get ahead here and they usually do not care who gets knocked down in the process.

Finally, his assertion that the Olympics were a display of China's Eastern, collective power is so off-base.

"The ceremony drew from China’s long history, but surely the most striking features were the images of thousands of Chinese moving as one — drumming as one, dancing as one, sprinting on precise formations without ever stumbling or colliding. It was part of China’s assertion that development doesn’t come only through Western, liberal means, but also through Eastern and collective ones."

As a former ballet dancer, I can say that getting lots of people to move in unison is not as hard as it looks. In jest, I suggest that perhaps the Opening Ceremony committee, headed by famous director Zhang Yimou, was convened under Robert's Rules and each and every dancer, performer and singer sat around a big table discusing their choreographic options. Brooks is delusional if he cannot see that that ceremony was the result of a highly competitive audition process and the show was in preparation for at least 4 years. Come on!


The Human Side of David Brooks:

The week after the 'collectivist vs. individualist' train wreck, it looks as if David actually got out to talk to some real folks in the earthquake region in Sichuan. He must have had a real shock and his humility comes through.

These were weird, unnerving interviews, and I don’t pretend to understand what’s going on in the minds of people who have suffered such blows and remained so optimistic. All I can imagine is that the history of this province has given these people a stripped-down, pragmatic mentality: Move on or go crazy. Don’t dwell. Look to the positive. Fix what needs fixing. Work together.

In my own experiences, I have also discovered a pervasive lack of expressed sentimentality here. I believe there are many factors: political oppression, media censorship, community surveillance, lightning-speed economic development and the physical and emotional losses that come with powerlessness in the face of change, and on a lighter note, a culture where showing your teeth is looked down upon and the same applies to tears. The Chinese word meaning 'to bear hardship' literally translates as 'to eat bitterness.' Chinese people tend to swallow everything, for better or worse.