{"id":622,"date":"2008-03-14T08:59:44","date_gmt":"2008-03-14T12:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=622"},"modified":"2008-03-14T09:01:02","modified_gmt":"2008-03-14T13:01:02","slug":"nerds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=622","title":{"rendered":"Nerds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s say someone very well known for his virtue turns out to have some hidden vices–an anti-prostitution crusader himself sees prostitutes.  Few could really be surprised by that–such hypocrisy is familiar to all.  Well, maybe not to David Brooks<\/a>.  Recent events have led him to ponder the depths of human failings.  He comes up with one basic answer–successful hypocrites suffer from from being nerds.  He writes<\/p>\n

\n

They go through the oboe practice, soccer camp, homework marathon
\nchildhood. Their parent-teacher conferences are like mini-Hall of Fame
\nenshrinements as all gather to worship at the flame of their incipient
\nsuccess. In high school, they enter their Alpha Geekdom<\/strong>. They rack up
\ngreat grades and develop that coating of arrogance that forms on those
\nwho know that in the long run they will be more successful than the
\nbeauties and jocks who get dates<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They also stand too close to other men:<\/p>\n

\n

Then they go into one of those fields like law, medicine or politics,
\nwhere a person\u2019s identity is defined by career rank<\/strong>. They develop the
\nspecific social skills that are useful on the climb up the greasy pole:
\nthe capacity to imply false intimacy; the ability to remember first
\nnames; the subtle skills of effective deference; the willingness to
\nstand too close to other men while talking and touching them in a manly
\nway.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Seems like the military, with actual ranks, ought to have been mentioned.  Moving on, however, I’m beginning to wonder whether this is meant to be some kind of confession on David Brooks’s part, as this has a not too subtle ring of irony to it:<\/p>\n

\n

And, of course, these people succeed and enjoy their success. When
\nBigness descends upon them, they dominate every room they enter and
\ngraciously share their company with those who are thrilled to meet
\nthem. They master the patois of globaloney \u2014 the ability to declaim for
\nportentous minutes about the revolution in world affairs brought about
\nby technological change\/environmental degradation\/the fundamental
\ndecline in moral values.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Still More confessional:<\/p>\n

\n

But then, gradually, some cruel cosmic joke gets played on them. They
\nrealize in middle age that their grandeur is not enough and that they
\nare lonely<\/strong>. The ordinariness of their intimate lives is made more
\npainful by the exhilaration of their public success. If they were used
\nto limits in public life, maybe it would be easier to accept the
\neverydayness of middle-aged passion. But, of course, they are not. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And he’s not really trying with the evidence here yet.  Here’s the evidence (as best as I can surmise).  First, such people are inelegant when drunk–David Brooks has seen it!<\/p>\n

\n

I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve seen a successful politician or business tycoon
\nget drunk and make a pass at a woman. It\u2019s like watching a St. Bernard
\ntry to French kiss. It\u2019s all overbearing, slobbering, desperate
\nwanting. There\u2019s no self-control, no dignity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Add to that a semi-oblique reference to some recent embarrassments:<\/p>\n

\n

So when they decide that they do in fact have an inner soul and it\u2019s
\ntime to take it out for a romp … . Well, let\u2019s just say they\u2019ve just
\nbought a ticket on the self-immolation express. Some desperate lunge
\ntoward intimacy is sure to follow, some sad attempt at bonding. Welcome
\nto the land of the wide stance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Finally, they have pictures of themselves on their walls!<\/p>\n

\n

I once visited a home<\/strong> in which the host had photos of himself
\ndelivering commencement addresses lining the stairway wall. I\u2019ve heard
\ncountless presidential candidates<\/strong> say they are running on behalf of
\ntheir families even though their entire lives have been spent on the
\ncampaign trail away from their families.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I doubt the "countless" there.  Brooks has only been alive so long.  In any case, we all love explanations for cinematic hypocrisy.  But there are good explanations (the ones that refer to stuff that’s real) and bad ones (the ones that just are pulled out of one’s hat).  This one–so it seems–belongs to the latter category.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s say someone very well known for his virtue turns out to have some hidden vices–an anti-prostitution crusader himself sees prostitutes.  Few could really be surprised by that–such hypocrisy is familiar to all.  Well, maybe not to David Brooks.  Recent events have led him to ponder the depths of human failings.  He comes up with … Continue reading Nerds<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,5,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-explanations","category-brooks","category-michael-gerson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}