Ever notice how when David Brooks gets into trouble with his conservative incrementalism (he's a devotee of Edmund Burke), he waxes philosophical about your brain or culture?
His latest unintended pastiche:
"In their book, “The Narcissism Epidemic,” Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell cite data to suggest that at least since the 1970s, we have suffered from national self-esteem inflation. They cite my favorite piece of sociological data: In 1950, thousands of teenagers were asked if they considered themselves an “important person.” Twelve percent said yes. In the late 1980s, another few thousand were asked. This time, 80 percent of girls and 77 percent of boys said yes."
Hmmm... what else might this be a reference to or explain?
Maybe, like, the fricking Republicans and their doppelgangers, the Tea Party.
How else can their self-serving, self-contained, self-referential, self-ish view of the world and their self-absorbed policies be accounted for?
Sanity, it appears to me, is generally an arbitration between self assessment and a critical eye as to what the world is about. Reconciling what's going on inside me with what's going on "out there" is generally the basis for mental health and a happy life, in my opinion.
It's no wonder, then, that Republicans and their doppelgangers in the Tea Party continue to make, without conscience and with impunity, outrageous claims and statements as to the nature of the country, where it's going and what's good for it.
No aid to the unemployed; eternal tax cuts for the rich. At the same time (good grief!) can you imagine? The finance reform bill contains regulations! Health care reform will be bad for you! Bad!
And, all this nonsense has traction with many voters and citizens (those who don't vote, but they're still citizens). No doubt it's partly caused by an unrealistic assessment as to what's going on with people and what's happening in the world around them, which amounts to a form of mass delusion.
Like me, are you thinking Salem witch trials, the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s?