The urbanity of NY
Times columnist David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden
Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, conceals at times the underlying
crassness of his positions on issues, e.g., when he glibly spouts psychological
nonsense in support of arming the populace. Allen
Frances, professor emeritus of Duke University, would like a word with Brooks:
I have an offer for David Brooks. If he promises to stop being an amateur
psychologist, I promise to stop being an amateur columnist.
What Brooks doesn't know about psychology is a lot. Everything he says about
it has a shallow ring, is misinformed, and displays the same bias and ulterior
motive. Brooks is a complacent apologist for the status quo. Whenever events
scream out that there is an obvious defect in one of his cherished social
policies, Brooks comes to its defense with a muddled pop psychological explanation
-- hoping in the process to deflect attention away from any serious policy
discussion of what has gone wrong and what can be done to correct it. The
consistent tactic is to rationalize a failing public policy by putting all the
blame on messed up individual psychology.
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