Influential guy with thoughts David Brooks has some thoughts today, about Chris Hayes' new book Twilight of the Elites. And, to be honest, he raises some good questions! Like, is David Brooks literate?

Because, seriously, is he even reading the words that he himself writes?

[T]oday's meritocratic elites achieve and preserve their status not mainly by being corrupt but mainly by being ambitious and disciplined. They raise their kids in organized families. They spend enormous amounts of money and time on enrichment. They work much longer hours than people down the income scale, driving their kids to piano lessons and then taking part in conference calls from the waiting room.

I want to know: did David Brooks look that over, after writing it? Did David Brooks actually scan and process this word-arrangement and say, "yes, that makes sense; that's a good argument"? Does David Brooks know how to read? Because illiteracy is the only possibly excuse for claiming that elites aren't elite because they're "corrupt" and then acknowledging that elites have to "spend enormous amounts of money" to stay elite. That is the exact kind of corruption Hayes is talking about: if you aren't elite, you don't have money, and you can't spend it on becoming elite. David Brooks, you are acknowledging the game is rigged, in the paragraph where you are disputing that the game is rigged.

Also, many low-wage jobs don't offer the "conference-call from your daughter's piano lesson" option for work. So.

The real problem with today's elite, which includes Brooks, is that no one is prepared for the rigors of leadership, in particular the blacks, women and Jews:

As a result, today's elite lacks the self-conscious leadership ethos that the racist, sexist and anti-Semitic old boys' network did possess. If you went to Groton a century ago, you knew you were privileged. You were taught how morally precarious privilege was and how much responsibility it entailed. You were housed in a spartan 6-foot-by-9-foot cubicle to prepare you for the rigors of leadership.

So. Yes. We must return to a class of elites that know how morally precarious privilege is, and how much responsibility it entails. We must lock David Brooks in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cubicle.

[NYT]