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☆ Elon Musk’s Savior Complex - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

These are what one psychologist termed “eminent orphans.”It’s easy to put Elon Musk into that category. He had no friends and lived in a world in which you either bullied or were bullied. But Isaacson’s account suggests that this is not the only or even the main impetus behind Musk’s extreme ambition. In the midst of that bleak childhood, Musk dived into science fiction, computer games and comics, and in some sense never left. In that world, Musk seems to have been gripped by a story just as fervently as a religious person is gripped by a holy book.

Persons: Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow, Hamilton “, I’ve, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, ”, Walter Isaacson’s, Musk Organizations: Elon Locations: South Africa

☆ Opinion | Mitt Romney Has Given Us a Gift
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was the first day of the Republican convention in 2012 and I had nothing to write about, so I wrote a humor column mocking the Romney family for being perfect in every way. A few years later, before he was a senator, Romney asked me to come out to Utah to give a talk to a group he was convening. It’s a pain to write a speech and get on a plane, but I did it in penance for my sins. We all struggle to be the best version of ourselves we can be, and Romney’s struggle is now taking him into retirement and out of the Senate. On the way he gave us a gift, in the form of a series of conversations with The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins, who has written a book on him, excerpted in the magazine.

Persons: Romney, Mitt Romney’s, I’d, Atlantic’s McKay Coppins, Donald Trump contemptuously Organizations: Republican, Republican Party Locations: Utah

☆ Proud Page delighted after Wales win over Latvia eases pressure
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Monday's win moved Wales level on seven points with third-placed Armenia in Group D but they are fourth on goal difference. Croatia, on 10 points from four games, lead the group on goal difference from Turkey, who have played a game more. "The pressure came from the outside, understandably, but we never questioned it within the group," Page told reporters. Their last win was also against Latvia in a Euro qualifier in Cardiff in March. Wales play Croatia, Armenia and Turkey in their final three Group D games.

Persons: Robert Page, Aaron Ramsey, David Brooks, Page, I've, we've, Hritika Sharma, Peter Rutherford Organizations: Latvia, Monday's, Wales, Cardiff, Thomson Locations: Wales, Riga, Armenia, Croatia, Turkey, Hyderabad

☆ Opinion | The Path to Happiness: Career or Marriage?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-09 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “Marriage, Not Career, Brings Happiness,” by David Brooks (column, Aug. 20):Mr. Brooks’s advice that ambitious college graduates prioritize marriage over career could only come from a privileged male. Given the glass ceiling, if women do not prioritize a career, they may not be successful, and their self-esteem may suffer. Women who prioritize marriage may end up with far less financial security after divorce or after the death of a breadwinning husband. Further, within marriage, women generally take on a “second shift” domestically, are more likely to care for infirm husbands late in life and are more subject to domestic violence. While I agree that a strong marriage is a wonderful asset and intimacy is critical to happiness, making marriage itself a priority over financial security and self-fulfillment can backfire, especially for women.

Persons: David Brooks

☆ Opinion | The American Renaissance Is Already at Hand
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A forecast from Bloomberg Economics now projects that the size of the Chinese economy will not successfully surpass the size of the American economy — despite its vastly greater population. But the core problems are endemic to the regime: Centralized authoritarian control is incompatible with a wide-open, innovative, free-flowing modern economy. Open information flow is crucial to any nation; when the state suppresses information unflattering to the regime, then everything is bound to sink into mediocrity. Since late 2021, investment in the construction of manufacturing facilities has more than doubled. Chips, electric vehicles, renewable energy sources and batteries are being manufactured in places like Michigan, Kentucky, Minnesota and Arizona.

Organizations: Bloomberg Economics, . Locations: China, America, Midwest, Michigan , Kentucky, Minnesota, Arizona

☆ King Charles: How has the British monarch done in his first year of rule?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Michael Holden | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

"I just think he's been really, really busy with everything that's happened this year, Seward said. Unnamed friends told the Sunday Times newspaper Charles had found the workload surprising but had settled into his role. Charles' son and heir Prince William was photographed driving him to church in what newspapers said was a sign of a rapprochement. Then there is the family feud with his younger son Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan. But there is a generational divide, with the young far less bothered in general about the royal family.

Persons: King Charles, Andrew Boyers, Charles, Andrew, Queen Elizabeth, Critics, Ingrid Seward, he's, Seward, Princess Diana, Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein, Prince William, Prince Harry, Meghan, Harry, they're, It's, Graham Smith, David Brooks Wilson, You’ve, He's, Michael Holden, Marie, Louise Gumuchian, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Royal Ascot, Ascot Racecourse, LONDON, Majesty Magazine, Sunday Times, Media, London's Westminster, Netflix, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Ascot, Britain, Royal, Balmoral, Scotland, London's, U.S, Buckingham, London, Claire

☆ Opinion | People Are More Generous Than You May Think
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Are human beings fundamentally good or fundamentally bad? Are people mostly generous, or are they mostly selfish? Over the centuries, many of our leading lights have taken the view that people are basically selfish. On average, the participants spent more than $6,400 of it to benefit others, including almost $1,700 on donations to charity. Sounds pretty generous to me.

Persons: Machiavelli, Gordon Tullock, Gene, Richard Dawkins, “, Ryan J, Dwyer, William J, Brady, Elizabeth W, Dunn, Chris Anderson Organizations: TED

☆ Opinion | Does Therapy Culture Help or Hurt Us?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “Hey, America, Grow Up!” by David Brooks (column, Aug. 11), about how an emphasis on trauma makes adults immature:As a psychiatrist, I feel that Mr. Brooks makes several valid points regarding trauma but fails ultimately to thread the needle. A good psychiatrist or therapist identifies the real trauma in a patient’s past — typically from events in childhood at the hands of parents or other family members — while simultaneously discouraging the kind of victim mind-set that displaces past pain onto present-day scapegoats. The goal is to illuminate the real trauma, which requires re-evaluating what is often an idealized remembrance of one’s upbringing, so that the patient can stop projecting malice onto anyone and instead regain a sense of agency. As the saying goes, those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. If we fail as a culture to acknowledge the well-established long-term consequences, both physical and psychological, of legitimate trauma, we will wind up creating more people who identify as victims, not fewer.

Persons: David Brooks, Brooks, — Locations: America

☆ Opinion | Nikki Haley Is the Best Trump Alternative
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

She was the candidate brave enough to state the obvious truth that Trump took decades of G.O.P. The other candidates assumed the usual conservative postures about cutting taxes and spending, but she introduced the reality: Under Trump, the G.O.P. She seems to be one of the few candidates who understands that to run against Trump you have to run against Trump. Haley, by contrast, seems to believe that voters are intelligent enough to be treated as adults. But if any of my friends and acquaintances want to stop Trump, this is their moment to give Haley her chance.

Persons: Trump, Ron DeSantis, Haley, Saul Bellow, Ramaswamy, Mike Pence, Pence, Reagan, haven’t Organizations: Trump, Republican, hokum, Tea Party

☆ Opinion | To Be Happy, Marriage Matters More Than Career
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When I’m around young adults I like to ask them how they are thinking about the big commitments in their lives: what career to go into, where to live, whom to marry. Most of them have thought a lot about their career plans. But my impression is that many have not thought a lot about how marriage will fit into their lives. In 2006, 50 percent of young adults said it was very important for a couple to marry if they intended to spend the rest of their lives together. But by 2020 only 29 percent of young adults said that.

Persons: Brad Wilcox, It’s Organizations: University of Virginia, Pew Research Center

☆ Opinion | Are the Elite Anti-Trumpers the ‘Bad Guys’?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?,” by David Brooks (column, Aug. 4):I am sick and tired of people like Mr. Brooks telling me that I am the problem or the “bad guy” because I am educated (and no, I was not educated at an Ivy League school, and neither of my parents finished high school) to justify the fact that 35 percent of the population are fervent supporters of Donald Trump, no matter what he says or does. Moreover, Mr. Trump is also part of the elite, but his supporters simply ignore this. This is not because he identifies with them in any way (as a golden-haired billionaire living in a mansion), but because Fox, Newsmax, and other right-wing TV and radio media outlets, right-wing militias and Trump puppet politicians in Congress essentially brainwashed them with their daily dose of propaganda about how the “left wing socialists and communists,” “elites,” the “woke,” etc., are all conspiring to take their country and only Donald Trump can stop them. In my opinion, this is the biggest problem, Mr. Brooks, not educated Americans who as you correctly state are “are earnest, kind and public spirited.”So, let’s not beat ourselves up because the other side has been completely brainwashed, does not accept facts, scientific and otherwise, is obsessed with conspiracies and lives in a right-wing echo chamber.

Persons: David Brooks, Brooks, Donald Trump, Trump, Fox, ” Organizations: Ivy League

☆ Therapy Culture Has Undermined Our Maturity - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God, or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel good about myself? From the start, many writers noticed that this ethos often turned people into fragile narcissists. It pushed them in on themselves, made them self-absorbed, craving public affirmation so they could feel good about themselves.

Persons: Philip Rieff, Christopher Lasch, Tom Wolfe, Lasch, ” Lasch, ”

☆ Opinion | Climate Is Now a Culture War Issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Paul Krugman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

if Republicans do take the White House, has a lot to do with the way science in general and climate science in particular have become a front in the culture war. About attitudes toward science: As recently as the mid-2000s, Republicans and Democrats had similar levels of trust in the scientific community. Does anyone seriously doubt that similar attitudes are driving rank-and-file Republicans to oppose action on climate change? The fact that the climate war is now part of the culture war worries me, a lot. Special interests can do a great deal of damage, but they can be bought off or counterbalanced with other special interests.

Persons: there’s, David Brooks, ” Organizations: Democrats

☆ On Anti-Trumpers and the Modern Meritocracy - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Yet he is utterly dominating his Republican rivals in the polls, and he is tied with Joe Biden in the general election surveys. Trump’s poll numbers are stronger against Biden now than at any time in 2020. But if you are a person of color, a woman who values gender equality or an L.G.B.T. I doubt it.”In this story we anti-Trumpers are the good guys, the forces of progress and enlightenment. I ask you to try on a vantage point in which we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys.

Persons: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, What’s, Marc Hetherington, Thomas B, Edsall, it’s Organizations: Republican, Biden, University of North, Republicans, Trump Locations: University of North Carolina

☆ Why Douglas Hofstadter Is Changing His Mind on A.I. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

On our call I tried to briefly counter Hofstadter by arguing that the bots are not really thinking; they’re just piggybacking on human thought. is capable of synthesizing these linguistic expressions, which humans have put on the internet and, thus, into its training base. Maybe it’s more than just a mash-up of human expressions. Maybe it’s synthesizing human thought in ways that are genuinely creative, that are genuinely producing new categories and new thoughts. I find myself surrounded by radical uncertainty — uncertainty not only about where humanity is going but about what being human is.

Persons: Hofstadter, I’d, Jaron Lanier, Lanier Organizations: Yorker

☆ Opinion | Why I Still Love the New York Mets
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Chip … chip … chip. I can feel the New York Mets chiseling out a piece of my soul every week. This is far from the first time the Mets have ripped out my vitals. In 2007, the team blew a seven-game divisional lead with 17 games to play. The Mets were in the middle of blowing another divisional lead, but needed only one win to make the playoffs.

Persons: Chip, Prometheus, Steve Cohen, Edwin Díaz Organizations: New York Mets, Mets, Washington Nationals

☆ Biden Isn’t Getting the Credit for the Economy He Deserves - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The misery index is a crude but effective way to measure the health of the economy. And that misery index number doesn’t even begin to capture the strength of the American economy right now. There are a zillion positive indicators right now, as the folks in the administration will be quick to tell you. In the four years of Donald Trump’s administration, spending on manufacturing facilities grew by 5 percent. During the first two years of Biden’s administration, such investment more than doubled and about 800,000 manufacturing jobs were created.

Persons: you’re, Ronald Reagan, George W, Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Biden, Donald Trump’s Organizations: Conference Board Locations: U.S

So these elite places become these little islands where rich people pass down their advantages to their kids. Like everyone else, by today’s standards, I wouldn’t qualify for any of the elite schools. And yet in those days, the University of Chicago, where I ended up going, admitted 70 percent of the applicants. The process is not only divisive but doesn’t give people later in life a fair chance to alter the trajectory of their life. They should look at their grades, they should look at their test scores, but they should also look at their resilience.

Persons: We’ve, I’ve, Richard Kahlenberg, he’s Organizations: University of Chicago, Harvard, University of North Locations: Philadelphia, West Virginia, New Orleans, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Manhattan, University of North Carolina

☆ Opinion | The Age of Spectacle Is Upon Us
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Dodgers were wrong to honor a group that dishonors other people’s uniforms, and the sacred commitments those uniforms represent. My real beef is that they should be in the baseball business, not the culture war business. There is the state, the church, the family, the schools, science, business, the trades, etc. In our country, the business sphere has sometimes tried to take over the education sphere — to run schools like a business. You open your email and find corporations taking political stances on issues that have nothing to do with their core businesses.

Persons: they’ve, that’s, Abraham Kuyper, Kuyper Organizations: Dodgers, ? Society

☆ David Brooks on Blind Willie Johnson’s ‘Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

America Is An Island Where the Rules Never Changepick the one piece of culture thatbest captures the country. If we’re going to understand America, let’s dive right into the dark pools of social pain that underlie our bitterness and division. Listen to “Dark Was theNight, Cold Was the Ground”by Blind Willie Johnson. It opens:Dark was the night, and cold the groundOn which the Lord was laid;His sweat like drops of blood ran down;In agony he prayed. The night in question is a cruel ordeal that anticipates the light and warmth of the coming dawn.

Persons: topick, Let’s, Willie Johnson’s, ” Johnson, you’re, Blind Willie Johnson, Thomas Haweis, Albert Murray, Murray, Black Locations: America

☆ Opinion | I Won’t Let Donald Trump Invade My Brain
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over the decades, I’ve built up certain expectations about how the world works and how people behave. And yet I’ve found that Donald Trump has confounded me at every turn. I was shocked at how thuggishly Trump behaved in that first debate with Joe Biden in 2020. As the Jan. 6 committee hearings progressed, I was stunned to find out just how aggressively Trump had worked to overthrow the election. And yet I can’t quite feel ashamed of my perpetual naïveté toward Donald Trump.

Persons: I’ve, Donald Trump, thuggishly Trump, Joe Biden, Trump, flagrantly

☆ Opinion | This Is Not the Time for a Third Presidential Candidate
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I’ve long been a fan of No Labels, the organization that works to reduce political polarization and Washington gridlock. That project is a $70 million effort to secure ballot access for a potential third presidential candidate in 2024. Today, they argue, the electorate is roughly evenly split among those who lean Democratic, those who lean Republican and the unaffiliated. Fifty-nine percent of voters surveyed in that No Labels analysis said if that happened, they would consider voting for a third moderate candidate. If the No Labels candidate won just 61 percent of this disaffected group and the remainder was split evenly between two other candidates, he or she would capture a plurality of the electorate and could win the presidency.

Persons: Washington gridlock, I’ve, Joe Biden, Donald Trump Organizations: Washington, Democrats, White Locations: America

☆ Opinion | The College Admissions Process: No Easy Answers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This would better justify the large public subsidies that these institutions receive. But lower-income students need more financial aid to attend, and every dollar spent on aid can’t be spent on other things valued by faculty, administrators and students who don’t need financial aid. Many of these selective schools currently actually reject talented students based solely on this financial need. Catharine B. HillNew YorkThe writer, president emerita of Vassar College, is managing director of Ithaka S + R, which offers strategic advice for academic and cultural institutions. Across industries, research shows that the correlation between grades and job performance is modest in the first year after college and trivial within a handful of years.”

Persons: can’t, Catharine B, Ithaka, David Brooks, Adam Grant, ” Organizations: Hill, Vassar College Locations: York

☆ Opinion | Let’s Smash the College Admissions Process
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Within days or weeks, the Supreme Court is going to render a decision on the future of affirmative action in higher ed. If things go as expected, conservatives will be cheering as these policies are struck down — and progressives will be wailing. But maybe we can all take this moment to reimagine the college admissions process itself, which has morphed into one of the truly destructive institutions in American society. The modern college admissions era was launched over half a century ago with the best of intentions — to turn finishing schools for the Protestant establishment into talent factories for all comers. In that same year, students from the top income quintile were 16 times more numerous at the University of North Carolina, a state school, than students from the bottom quintile.

Persons: —, Raj Chetty Organizations: Ivy League, University of North Locations: University of North Carolina

☆ Opinion | What Our Toxic Culture Does to the Young
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Typical members of that generation wanted to enjoy their freedom, so many put off marriage and parenting until their late 20s or their 30s. They adopted what some researchers call the “slow life strategy,” postponing the common milestones of adulthood until later in life. As the psychologist Jean Twenge shows in her lavishly informative new book, “Generations,” the members of Gen Z are now practicing the slow life strategy with a vengeance. Members of Gen Z are, for example, content to get their driver’s licenses later than earlier generations. By 2021, only 15 percent of the Gen Z ninth graders had.

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