David Brooks to Elites: “Are We the Baddies?”

Hey folks! The New York Times has published two major columns by columnist David Brooks criticizing the modern meritocracy and the postmodern therapeutic culture. What if We’re the Bad Guys Here? Hey America, Grow Up! It’s always interesting when somebody stops and tries to see the world of their opponents and I deeply appreciate Brooks and the New York Times for doing it. New stages of culture seek to dissolve the value structures of the stages they are emerging out of. Brooks helped me understand how he, I and our cool friends have participated in deconstructing the values of traditionalism with little regard to the price paid by the people who hold them. Based on the readers’ comments, I appreciated Brooks’ columns a lot more than the NYT’s subscribers did. But oh how Brooks and his argument would benefit from an evolutionary view, one that sees culture and consciousness becoming more mature in all its beautiful but not pretty ways. I make my case in the podcast. Enjoy! – Jeff Salzman PS: The next Fireside chat will be on September 20th. Here’s the Zoom link. Check out other Integral Life Live Events here.