He Listens To Kendrick Lamar Now

Freed by his colleagues and fellow travelers from the burden of ever having to answer for anything he has ever said or written or done, Mr. Brooks is clearly enjoying the opportunity to launch a brand-new career traveling the world making a shit-ton of money lecturing the Great Unwashed on morality and generally wave his dick around, daring anyone to pin anything on him.

From Newsweek:

David Brooks, New York Times Columnist on Narcissism, Mockery and Hip Hop

BY ROBERT CHALMERS 6/8/15 AT 11:40 AM

...

The notion of transgression, [David Brooks] believes, needs reclaiming, as "Sin is a necessary part of our mental furniture."

"I know what you mean about sin and furniture. I keep mine, to quote Vivian Stanshall, 'in the wardrobe of my soul; in the section labelled Shirts'."

"Personally," Brooks replies, "I keep my sin with my pants."

His book advises us to "do what others don't want to do; go where others don't want to go" next to which, in my copy, I tell him, appears the hand-written note: "Burnley." This leads us to debate another passage on the sins of disrespect and mockery. Disrespect, the text mentions, is traditionally absolved by three steps: "apology, cleansing and restitution."

"I don't recall that," he says, "I've made a living out of mockery."

"Are you sure," I reply, "you should be preaching the wisdom of renouncing worldly ambition while hammering around the world plugging your work like a free market whore ... sorry, that was possibly not the best choice of words there."

"The paradox you mention is not lost on me. But I do want people to read my book."

"One critic attacked your 'blinkered, glib moral instruction' and identified a 'passive-aggressive nostalgia for what somebody told Brooks "outdoors" might have been like long ago'."

"I believe that, over the centuries, smart people had incredibly valuable perceptions. But I don't live in the past. People stereotype me as a fogey. I am not. I go to hip-hop concerts."

"Pardon?"

"I listen to Kendrick Lamar. I was at a Nas concert not long ago."

"Has writing this book really changed you?"

"Yes. I'm more vulnerable. I used to be somebody people didn't confide in."

"Why not?"

"I didn't project an ability to listen."

"You should have taken your headphones off."

"I had metaphorical moral headphones on. People didn't associate me with an intimate life. Now, when people have a trauma, they talk to me."

...

You hear that Sarah!  Your hear that!  

I listen to people now, no matter how fucking stupid they are! 

I even go to hippity hoppity concerts.

Why don't you tell that to your fucking shrink!