{"id":2580,"date":"2013-12-18T09:06:37","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T16:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=2580"},"modified":"2013-12-18T09:06:37","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T16:06:37","slug":"david-brooks-thought-leader-touched-a-nerve-every-pastor-professor-author-blogger-should-read-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/12\/david-brooks-thought-leader-touched-a-nerve-every-pastor-professor-author-blogger-should-read-it.html","title":{"rendered":"David Brooks’ “Thought Leader” Touched a Nerve: Every Pastor, Professor, Author, & Blogger Should Read It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>\u201cFor all of our well-trained bluster about \u201ccalling,\u201d most pastors become pastors, at least in part, because we crave attention. If we cannot find a way to recognize that, tell the truth about it, and make that reality part of what we confess about our own lives, then we will slowly become pathetic, and will probably look an awful lot like Brooks\u2019 Thought Leader.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Brooks is a conservative columnist for The New York Times<\/em>. I like Brooks because he\u2019s not a strident ideologue, and typically seems able to critique his own people, and himself. He\u2019s reasonable, even moderate at times, so I read what he writes and listen to him on PBS.<\/p>\n

Yesterday Brooks wrote an interesting editorial for his regular slot in The New York Times<\/em> called \u201cThe Thought Leader.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0After I read it,\u00a0I slated the column for today\u2019s blog post and didn\u2019t think much more about it. When I started in this morning to prepare a post on Brooks\u2019 column, I did a quick search because I wanted to know his age (he\u2019s 52). Instead of his Wikipedia page, the first returns off Google were of fairly scathing reviews of yesterday\u2019s column. Some of these reactions are brutal, if not a bit petty at times. (Apparently Brooks has a penchant for using capital letters \u2013\u00a0T<\/strong>hought L<\/strong>eader \u2013 which gets under the skin of his critics, of which there seem to be many).<\/p>\n

Why so touchy? Could it be that Brooks hit a little too close to home? Magicians save their most strident hatred for the colleague who debunks the illusion. Maybe Brooks is in hot water because he\u2019s being just a little too honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Thought Leader\u201d is a tongue-in-cheek profile of a wannabe intellectual. The thought leader\u2019s college application essay was \u201cI Went to Panama to Teach the Natives About Math but They Ended Up Teaching Me About Life.\u201d Then he \u201cspends spring break unicycling across Thailand while reading to lepers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Thought Leader is sort of a highflying, good-doing yacht-to-yacht concept peddler. Each year, he gets to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative, where successful people gather to express compassion for those not invited. Month after month, he gets to be a discussion facilitator at think tank dinners where guests talk about what it\u2019s like to live in poverty while the wait staff glides through the room thinking bitter thoughts.\u00a0He doesn\u2019t have students, but he does have clients. He doesn\u2019t have dark nights of the soul, but his eyes blaze at the echo of the words \u201cbreakout session.\u201d\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then Brooks traces the life-cycle of a thought leader: The over-earnest college student, prosaic, and unimaginative but attending the elite schools like Yale (where Brooks teaches), so you know he\u2019s going straight to the top. The thought leader doesn\u2019t seek great ideas, but rather attention. At 26 he is beset with \u201cambition anxiety,\u201d and begins to snipe at those above him, while remaining oddly out of touch with those who live in real poverty\u2026 job at a think tank\u2026 book that says nothing new but positions him to speak at every conference on the subject.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s this paragraph where you just know Brooks is talking about himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tragedy of middle-aged fame is that the fullest glare of attention comes just when a person is most acutely aware of his own mediocrity. By his late 50s, the Thought Leader is a lion of his industry, but he is bruised by snarky comments from new versions of his formerly jerkish self. Of course, this is when he utters his cries for civility and good manners, which are really just pleas for mercy to spare his tender spots.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I read the article, in all honesty, it bothered me to think how much of this game I play. I felt like he was reading my mail a little bit. Not just me, but tons of my friends. I\u2019m not part of the elite, to be sure. But there were several moments when I was reading this and thinking I hope I\u2019m not like that, but I probably am sometimes<\/em>. My honest reaction was that I was grateful that Brooks wrote this, and that I should take it as a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

Apparently I\u2019m the only one.<\/p>\n