Contradictions, David Brooks

Anomalous regularity

3 Comments

There are a couple of people I now consider it completely safe to ignore: George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Michael Gerson, and of course, David Brooks.  These are the guys who inspired this whole project.  Every now and then, however, it's fun to go back and see what's up with them.  Via Alex Parene at Salon, here's a gem from David Brooks:

Jeremy Lin is anomalous in all sorts of ways. He’s a Harvard grad in the N.B.A., an Asian-American man in professional sports. But we shouldn’t neglect the biggest anomaly. He’s a religious person in professional sports.

We’ve become accustomed to the faith-driven athlete and coach, from Billy Sunday to Tim Tebow. But we shouldn’t forget how problematic this is. The moral ethos of sport is in tension with the moral ethos of faith, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim.

We have grown accustomed to this anamoly.  You'd think an editor would have gotten that. 

Made me think of this headline from the Onion: NFL Star Thanks Jesus after Successful Double Homicide.

3 thoughts on “Anomalous regularity”

  1. Dear Mr. Casey,
    I read the New York Times and have never seen a Letter to the Editor by you. Have you ever, since you are so erudite and have so much to say regarding "columnists," written a letter to the Times (or the Post, etc.)?
    I really think that more Times/Post readers need to read your rebuttals of 'them thar pundits'.
    Thank You

  3. Snark time? I read David Brooks with some regularity because he writes about subjects that interest me. That's perhaps why I find his columns to be annoying – weak analysis and misinformation on subjects that I think are important. Krauthammer? If you've read twenty of his columns in your lifetime, 99% of the time you don't need to read past the headline to know exactly what he's going to say. I haven't figured out if Gerson is intended to be a thinking man's Douthat or if Douthat is intended to be a thinking man's Gerson, but whatever the intention neither are of much use to a thinking man. I think George Will pretty much lost it during Clinton's presidency, and he probably should now stick to writing about baseball….

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