David Brooks Conclusion

David Brooks was a very interesting, witty and fun speaker. He had some great insight, and some different and refreshing viewpoints. I have to admit that I thought coming from New York as such a well known columnist, I expected someone a little more stuck up, but he seems like a very positive, down to earth and intelligent guy. All in all, a great speaker. I hope to someday read his books for more insight into his thoughts.

How does he account for the hatred toward hilary Clinton?

Goes back to 60s, people see her as a feminist liberal.

See does see politics as war. There are enemies and you have to fight those people. In her disciplined way she made an effort to reach out to republicans, and now they think highly of her.

He says if he is on TV he will shoot his mouth off but somehow still feels print is more responsible.

How he deals with criticism?

For the first six months he had to learn how to deal with being hated on a large scale, with thousands of emails basically saying he sucks. Now he doesn’t mind being hated. He says it’s part of the sport of discussion, and makes an analogy to sports talk radio.

Would McCain just be a follow up to Bush's foreign policy?
Brooks responds that McCain's strength is foreign policy, and that he's given a very different speach on foreign policy. Brooks says that McCain would have been better for the job than Bush in Iraq.

On McCain.

He says that McCain is a fun man to be with.
He says McCain "just can't control himself" because he's so honest, and mentions that McCain's honesty even flows over into his opinions of others. He tells a humorous story that once he was in an elevator with McCain, and some one walked out and McCain pointed to the man and called him “fing ahole.”
Among McCain's flaws, he says that he is disorganized, and lives like a fighter pilot flying by the seat of his pants.

On the protests in China.

He says that in China, those who make the top 1 percent of SAT scores are able to go to college. The top 1 percent of those work in government jobs. Brooks used to report on Russian politics, and says that the Chinese regime is very different because the government is comprised of very intelligent people, and not thugs. But on the protests, it's good to give the government a hard time.

Brooks fields a question about his opinions on the ethics of blogging verses traditional journalism.
He says that the line is increasingly fuzzy between blogging and traditional journalism. Now blogging is a part of the American conversation that just happens online.

People put more effort on books, and therefore readers remember more about books. The medium determines how long the information will stay around and how much people remember.

On American Culture

Are american’s really corrupted by all the material wealth they have? He says no. He says that suburbanization is not a shallow, materialistic thing. He says those people go to church and behave in very holistic ways. They have low divorce rates. College students are very busy and work hard. He talks about the incredible level of community service by college students. He says that our generation has grown up as one of the most supervised, and has spent a lot of time in structured adult activities. He remains a Walt Disney optimist about American culture. And says that he finds our generation very unsarcastic, willing to volunteer, and talks about how so many college students go to Africa to volunteer.

David Brooks starts out lightly, showing an easy going personality. About journalism, he says, "It's a complicated profession. If you're thinking about going in to it, all i can say is- Suckers!”

David Brooks, op-ed columnist for the New York Times, is here at Berry College today speaking as a part of the Gloria Shatto Lecture Series. Right now we are in the Science Building for a question and answer session, and tonight he will be speaking in the College Chapel at 7:30 pm.

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