Monday, January 24, 2011

Interns of the Damned



It's one of the ironclad rules of any creative writing class that writers must always avoid generalities. And yet that never seems to apply to David Brooks. Brooks is one of the few writers around who gets away with using broad generalities all of the time. Now, I should specify something that gets confused in the syntax. The truth is that Brooks only gets away with generalities some of the time. When writing about human beings or sociological movements, he's a writer of uncanny perception. When writing about politics, he's hilariously, dangerously out of his depth. Like so many writers (including me), he is much more comfortable when writing about people and emotions rather than writing about subjects that require a base of technical knowledge. Unlike the very best, he doesn't seem to have much respect for the opinions of those who do.

His latest column, a semi-profile of Elena Kagan, may be about politics but it plays almost completely to his better side. I have no idea as to what sort of person Elena Kagan is either personally or professionally. The only fact I know about Kagan is that she looks almost exactly like Larry Summers. Furthermore, this profile taught me nothing about Elena Kagan. I don't know any more information about her now than I did twenty minutes ago, and yet I can't help feeling as though I know her completely. Why is this? Because after nearly ten years of living next to policy geeks too ambitious to go to be bothered with reality, after years of studying with them, singing with them and living with them, after years of watching them avoid anything with the slightest whiff of controversy, risk or personal opinion. I can say with a modicum of authority that David Brooks captured the 'Young Washingtonian' archetype and boiled it to the essence of exactly what that is in its most specific form. Yes, however much we love and respect so many of those overachieving Washington kids (perhaps 'liking' is too strong a term), these resume-builders are every bit the creepy, shifty, selfish 'Interns of the Damned' that he describes. And the best part of hanging around them is that they always pretend to like me more for being honest enough to say that to their faces.

Addendum: Just opened Google Reader for the first time today, to of course discover non-stop circulation of rumors that Elena Kagan is really a closet lesbian. This does two things to the post:

1. I suppose it makes my comment about her looking like Larry Summers rather unfortunate, though not enough to delete it.

2. It casts David Brooks's column in a wholly new (and quite unflattering) light. Whether or not she is a lesbian, the DC closet is hardly less deep than ever before, and those who take themselves out still do it at peril to their careers. The ability to speak one's mind is always important, but it ain't worth martyring a perfectly qualified SCOTUS nominee who will help to end the discrimination that still makes (alleged) discretion like hers necessary.

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