Brooks and skills
Every now and then someone points out that we have poverty in this country, and a hyper-disciplined cadre of pseudo-intellectuals fans out to tell everyone that poverty does not really exist. This is an especially important exercise right now. After all, it has been a year since a US city was obliterated and 1,400 people died from being poor in the Southern United States, but bringing that up interferes with the official mourning of "5 years sice 9/11." So the chorus of needle-dicked, self-important little shits who have never had to worry about a thing in their lives has an especially overbearing presence.
Take David Brooks (please!), writing in the New York Times yesterday. Brooks assails "populist myths" (a favorite target for columnists in the Newspaper of Record from across the political spectrum) and argues that it really isn't so bad even though 1,400 people died a year ago and tens of thousands of poor people are still displaced right now (Brooks doesn't even mention them). He says that we have a "meritocracy" that is "rewarding people based on individual talents" (a statement that refutes itself, coming as it does from Brooks), and argues that workers just need to be equipped with better skills.
I gotta admit that Brooks is probably right about the skills. You need skills. You know, like nunchuck skills, bow-hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.
Technorati tags: poverty, Brooks, David Brooks, Self-important, craven hacks, katrina, skills, Napoleon Dynamite