How Not to Stay Cool
This morning, David Brooks is doing it for the LOLs. Democrats, he tells us, are our fabulous role models for today's trying times -- blurring the line away between childish optimism and childish narcissism. Just look at the life lessons we can learn from them this election year!
* "Lesson one. Think happy thoughts. Never allow yourself to dwell on downer, depressing ones."
* "Lesson two. Always remember, many great geniuses were unappreciated in their lifetimes."
* "Lesson three. Always remember: You are the hero of your own children’s adventure story."
Stop me before I analogize Nancy Pelosi to Spike Jonze. Brooks' laugh lines underscore my recent contention that a blind, ideological devotion to optimism leaves devastated pessimism as the only available alternative emotion:
it’s hard not to be impressed by the spirit of self-approval that Democrats have managed to maintain this election. I say that knowing it may end as soon as next Wednesday, when, as is their wont, Democrats will flip from complete self-worship to complete self-laceration in the blink of an eye.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: How Not to Stay Cool
James Poulos, Ed.:
Well, we can hope.
Aug '10
Re: How Not to Stay Cool
We can only hope, fervently, that Democrats take Brook's advice; and it will ensure the best possible outcome for conservatism. It means the Democrats will spend their last dime and go into debt trying to get elected, papering over their rot, and trying to make themselves feel good. They'll fly high, under the spell of the Siren song of Progressivism and Utopia Now!
The higher they soar, they farther they'll fall. Crypto-Marxist/Statism may be finished in America for years.
May '10
Re: How Not to Stay Cool
I mostly find Brooks annoying. This was one of his best, though. The mild sarcasm is actually well done.
Jul '10
Re: How Not to Stay Cool
It seems like just yesterday that Brooks was admiring the sharp crease of Obama's trousers. That was when no detail of the godhead was too small to exalt. If the scales have fallen from even his eyes, imagine how nervous our betters are beginning to feel in ObamaLand.
Jul '10
Re: How Not to Stay Cool
I think P.J. O'Rourke nailed it.
Edited on Oct 26, 2010 at 1:25pmRe: How Not to Stay Cool
Really? Since when? Did I miss the moment the Dems sunk into "self-laceration?" In 2002, when they lost, they lapsed into Bush Derangement Syndrome. And in 2004, too. In 1994, they lapsed into The Gingrich Who Stole Christmas. In 1980, they lapsed into Planet Mondale. At all times, though, it was vanity -- self-worship, to use David Brooks' phrase -- that propelled them.
A little self loathing would do them some good. Listen to the terrible things Republicans say about themselves. Sometimes, that's what it takes to get reconnected to the American voter.