Posts tagged "David Brooks"
Another Week Ends: Underconfidence, Kate Middleton’s Picnics, Unreported Medical Advice, D.H. Lawrence’s Christian Wonder, the Double-Bind of Summer Movies, More Christian Wiman, and (Way) Too Much Sociology
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Another Week Ends: Underconfidence, Kate Middleton’s Picnics, Unreported Medical Advice, D.H. Lawrence’s Christian Wonder, the Double-Bind of Summer Movies, More Christian Wiman, and (Way) Too Much Sociology

by WB on May 3, 2013 • 2 Comments

1. How confident are you? Over at The New York Times, David Brooks surveyed his readers to get a sense for self-confidence, lack thereof, and the ways males and females experience confidence differently. While the word itself is a bit vague and murky, and Brooks found few trends in the survey data, the individual responses are definitely worth a look:

But it was really hard to see consistent correlations and trends. The essays were highly idiosyncratic, and I don’t want to impose a false order on them that isn’t there. Let me just string together some of the interesting points…

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Another Week Ends: Recovering Francis, Present Shock, Silicon Valley Solutionists vs Pessimistic Germans, Internal Gutters, The Pull, iPhone Police and Steve Brown
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Another Week Ends: Recovering Francis, Present Shock, Silicon Valley Solutionists vs Pessimistic Germans, Internal Gutters, The Pull, iPhone Police and Steve Brown

by David Zahl on Mar 15, 2013 • No Comments

1. Not knowing much (at all) about Pope Francis, maybe you were as pleasantly surprised as I was to read David Brooks’ irenic column about “How Movements Recover”, in which he articulated a philosophy and approach quite near and dear to this mocking-heart:

Augustine [of Hippo], as his magisterial biographer Peter Brown puts it, “was deeply preoccupied by the idea of the basic unity of the human race.” He reacted against any effort to divide people between those within the church and those permanently outside. He wanted the church to go on offense and swallow the world. This would involve swallowing…

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Five Golden…Themes! What We Just Couldn’t Get Enough of in 2012
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Five Golden…Themes! What We Just Couldn’t Get Enough of in 2012

by Ethan Richardson on Dec 14, 2012 • 4 Comments

One of Mockingbird’s most distinctive features is the repetition. Like Christmas itself, we’re trying to point that one “old, old story,” that ancient theme, as we see it dug up time and again. It’s dug up in all sorts of places, of course, from 18th century poetry archives to slasher films, from church basements to top-tier corporate office towers. But it’s still resonating a singular focus–the Gospel–from these unforeseen, albeit obscure, sources.

Despite the wide-spanning scopes and intentions of some of our favorite “news” sources, the same thing unwittingly tends to happen. After all, reporting the news means telling and retelling…

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An Unfortunate Letter from a Frustrated Parent: Brooks, Corinthians, and the Failure of Criticism
Bible / News / Relationships

An Unfortunate Letter from a Frustrated Parent: Brooks, Corinthians, and the Failure of Criticism

by Todd Brewer on Nov 28, 2012 • 1 Comment

A UK newspaper article went viral last week when the Telegraph published a letter sent from Nick Crews, a retired naval officer, to his three 30-something children. The long and sternly-worded letter expressed the father’s “bitter disappointment” with each of his children for their lack of “maturity and sound judgment to make a reasonable fist at making essential threshold decisions”. The letter culminates in the father’s declaration that “I want to hear no more of you until… you have a success or an achievement or a REALISTIC plan for the support and happiness of your children to tell me about.”…

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Another Week Ends: Post-Election Meekness and Melodrama, Googlepoetics, Psychopathic Stories, DFW Exists, The Testament of Mary, Episode VII, and Skyfall
Books / Film / Humor / Poetry / Politics / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Post-Election Meekness and Melodrama, Googlepoetics, Psychopathic Stories, DFW Exists, The Testament of Mary, Episode VII, and Skyfall

by David Zahl on Nov 9, 2012 • 2 Comments

1. Definitely not the easiest week to write this column. The Interwebs, as one might have predicted, have been consumed by I-Told-You-So’s and The-End-Is-Nigh’s, neither of which are a whole lot of fun–at least not from the standpoint of grace. Who knows, maybe you found yourself staying away from screens altogether this week, biding your time until the sanctimony and self-pity dissipated a little…. Maybe you took the opportunity to read the new DFW collection, catch up on Bob’s Burgers, change an ungodly number of diapers, and possibly delve a bit deeper into the unreleased work of The Rolling Stones.…

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Self-Adoration or Self-Contempt? Terry Cooper and Intrapsychic Original Sin
Identity / Psychology / Theology

Self-Adoration or Self-Contempt? Terry Cooper and Intrapsychic Original Sin

by Ethan Richardson on Nov 6, 2012 • 1 Comment

Terry D. Cooper’s Sin, Pride & Self-Acceptance was referenced by David Brooks in a recent New York Times op-ed. In it Cooper addresses the problem of original sin as it has been treated in psychology and theology. He asks the question about whether or not original sin–that is, elemental human nature–is fundamentally about innate self-interest or self-hatred. In other words, is the base level of human waywardness pride or insecurity? Psychoanalysts have said that Calvinist understandings of human pride as the basic human sin misunderstands a deeper level of human insecurity. We puff up because, deep down, we are cowering.…

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The 3 Responses to Conflict: Fight, Flight, and Appeasement
Identity / Psychology / Social Science

The 3 Responses to Conflict: Fight, Flight, and Appeasement

by Ethan Richardson on Oct 15, 2012 • 4 Comments

Is David Brooks reading Mockingbird? Or is Mockingbird covertly getting its wisdom from one of the 1950s’ lesser known psychoanalysts, Karen Horney? Either way, in a deeply clairvoyant op-ed about the pluses and minuses of cognitive behavior therapy, Mr. Brooks looks at what’s missing from today’s preferred form of self-knowing, which seems to be more focused on “behavior modification” and “identifying distorted thinking habits.” Not that these things are bad–Brooks actually prefers the cognitive behavioral school to Freudian or Jungian analysis–it just means that people are less versed in talking about personality traits and general neuroses. Brooks uses that platform to…

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The iLife Pursuit and Adultescent Loneliness
Conferences / Everyday / Forgiveness / Identity / Law / Technology

The iLife Pursuit and Adultescent Loneliness

by Ethan Richardson on Sep 7, 2012 • 3 Comments

Bryan J’s recent post on The Law of Social Media (which could not have been a more apt primer on the subject) looks into a TED talk given by Sherry Turkle, an M.I.T. professor and author of Alone Together, who has become something of a clarion caller upon the state of our lonely lives as a result of the technologies we have become conditioned to need. Most of her research focuses on the loss of the art of relating due to the immediacy and detachments available with technology. She references, both in her TED talk and her interview with Colbert…

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Another Week Ends: F. Scott FitzDylan, Dormroom Surrender, Self-Fulfilling Paranoia, Caveman Vulnerability, Campaign Boredom, More Olympics and Air Conditioning
America / Forgiveness / Identity / Interviews / Music / News / Politics / Psychology / Science / Sports / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: F. Scott FitzDylan, Dormroom Surrender, Self-Fulfilling Paranoia, Caveman Vulnerability, Campaign Boredom, More Olympics and Air Conditioning

by Ethan Richardson on Aug 3, 2012 • 2 Comments

1) The New Yorker recently released a very good (and very short) story from none other than F. Scott Fitzgerald, called “Thank You for the Light.” A “pretty, somewhat faded woman of forty,” a midwestern corset saleswoman, she cannot find a place to smoke a cigarette away from judgmental eyes. She is becoming desperate and in her desperation she finds, yes, a church. A small sampling here, but be sure to take the extra five minutes and read the whole thing here.

And to herself she was thinking, If I could just get three puffs I could sell old-fashioned whalebone.

She had…

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Counting Calories (and Human Behavior) in The Social Animal
Economics / Psychology / Social Science

Counting Calories (and Human Behavior) in The Social Animal

by David Zahl on Jun 19, 2012 • 1 Comment

An enlightening (!) little section from David Brooks’ The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement concerning the difference between classical and behavioral economists. And although while describing the caricature of human nature put forward by classical economists, he may fall into caricature himself, the gist is sound. One guess as to which side we find more sympathetic/convincing:

The human being imagined by classical economics is smooth, brilliant, calm, and perpetually unastonished by events. He surveys the world with a series of uncannily accurate models in his head, anticipating what will come next. His memory is incredible; he…

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Another Week Ends: Moral Dieting, Self Illusions, Craig Sager’s Suits, Superhero Saints, LIBERATE, Prometheus, Drive-In Church, and MJ’s Bad
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Another Week Ends: Moral Dieting, Self Illusions, Craig Sager’s Suits, Superhero Saints, LIBERATE, Prometheus, Drive-In Church, and MJ’s Bad

by David Zahl on Jun 8, 2012 • No Comments

1. We’ve given him a rest for a few months, but the break is over! David Brooks wrote an another incisive column for The NY Times this week, “The Moral Diet,” reflecting on Dan Ariely’s new book on dishonesty. Brooks isn’t afraid to cast the research in historical-religious terms; indeed, the shift in Western self-perception, from fundamentally bad to fundamentally good, is one of his favorite subjects. But in this column he also touches on our proclivity for self-justification, questioning the unquestioned assumption that a good life is simply one where the good outweighs the bad, i.e. where the moral/political/achievement…

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Another Week Ends: Louis CK, Sam Spade, Prevailing Grace, Heavy Metal, Axl Rose, Viennese Creativity, Cabin in the Woods, and yes, more Damsels in Distress
America / Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Identity / Law / Music / Science / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Louis CK, Sam Spade, Prevailing Grace, Heavy Metal, Axl Rose, Viennese Creativity, Cabin in the Woods, and yes, more Damsels in Distress

by David Zahl on Apr 13, 2012 • 4 Comments

1. “The Filthy Moralist: How Louis C.K. Became America’s Unlikely Conscience” in The Atlantic is remarkable, especially in its conclusion. As always when it comes to Louis, there’s a high depravity quotient, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. But also as always when it comes to Louis, the darkness is not neutral or meaningless (or merely shocking). In fact, it might even be worth the discomfort in this case to get to the final couple of paragraphs, which truly capture what Louis is about, whether he wants to be or not. It strikes me as especially pertinent as we…

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Another Week Ends: Zeitgeistlichkeit, Atheist Religiosity, Freakonomic Fathers, Ralph Erskine, MJ, Devo’s Paradox, Hunger Games, Deep Blue Sea, and Hoarders
Books / Children / Death / Economics / Film / Humor / Law / Literature / Music / Religion / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Zeitgeistlichkeit, Atheist Religiosity, Freakonomic Fathers, Ralph Erskine, MJ, Devo’s Paradox, Hunger Games, Deep Blue Sea, and Hoarders

by David Zahl on Mar 23, 2012 • No Comments

1. A pair of terrific book reviews have appeared in The NY Times over the last couple weeks, the first being Generation X author Douglas Coupland‘s inspiring riff on Hari Kunzu’s opus, Gods Without Men, and the exciting new genre it epitomizes (“Translit”). Ironically enough, he makes a number of Twitter-ready observations:

[We are living in a] “state of possibly permanent atemporality given to us courtesy of the Internet. No particular era now dominates. We live in a post-era without forms of its own powerful enough to brand the times. The zeitgest of 2012 is that we have a lot of…

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A Problem to Ourselves? Robert Bales and the Astonishing Mixture of Virtue and Depravity
Identity / News / Psychology / Sermons / Suffering

A Problem to Ourselves? Robert Bales and the Astonishing Mixture of Virtue and Depravity

by David Zahl on Mar 20, 2012 • 5 Comments

Holy Smokes! Talk about low-hanging fruit. Another unbelievable, doubletake-inducing column from David Brooks in the Times this morning, this time dealing with Robert Bales, “When the Good Do Bad,” in which he articulates the Mockingbird anthropology with remarkable accuracy (and courage), using none other than John Calvin, G.K. Chesteron and C.S. Lewis to back him up. Wild! I’m almost tempted to replace our glossary entry on “anthropology” with a link to this column. Is Brooks becoming the prophet of the age? The one compassionate voice crying in the wilderness of positive thinking and the American inflated sense of self, speaking…

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Another Week Ends: Inner Machiavellians, Lutheran Insults, Whisky Priests, Monkees, Mets, Parenthood, Veep, Viola Davis and Frankenweenie
Education / Film / Humor / Identity / Interviews / Money / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Sports / Suffering / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Inner Machiavellians, Lutheran Insults, Whisky Priests, Monkees, Mets, Parenthood, Veep, Viola Davis and Frankenweenie

by David Zahl on Mar 2, 2012 • 2 Comments

1. I’ll admit it: I’ve been trying to lay off the David Brooks, at least in the Weekend columns. As insightful as he frequently is, there are plenty of fish in the digital sea, are there not? Well, to paraphrase a Pacino, every time I think I’m out, he pulls me back in. That is to say, giving anything top billing other than his NY Times column from yesterday, “The Machiavellian Temptation,” would be dishonest. It’s getting to the point where I suspect we’re being punked a la Candid Camera. Anyway, this time around Herr Brooks is contrasting recent breakthroughs…

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