In Sunday’s Times, the neo-conservative Op-Ed writer and enthusiastic supporter of the US intervention in Iraq (on moral grounds, no less) ranted against hipster parents in his article, “Mosh Pit Meets Sandbox.”
“Can we please see the end of those Park Slope Alternative Stepford Moms in their black-on-black maternity tunics who turn their babies into fashion-forward, anti corporate, indie infants in order to stay one step ahead of the cool police,” he writes. Read more at the Times — but you need Times Select.
Now wait a minute! Brooks, known for rampant generalizations and his penchant for clever coinage, isn’t talking about the Park Slope that Smartmom knows and loves.
I piss and shit on David “Hitler” Brooks
Poor, poor, Master Brooks. If only everyone would just plug their kids into good, safe, homogeneous family fare like Disney, the world would be so much easier for him to understand. Yes, much better to raise an army of uniform automatons.
Not that putting some Flaming Lips into the baby mix makes you somehow inimitable…but please! Don’t do it for the sake of…..well for the sake of what, exactly Master Brooks? What unspeakable calamity does Master Brooks think will unfold if I introduce my little guy to some Sufjan Stevens, or buy him something to wear that isn’t sold in Herald Square?
This is never made clear, exactly. I’m not sure why a black-on-black maternity tunic is so threatening to him – maybe this is just too titillating a sight for his Victorian eyes? In fact – does his column have a point at all?
This seems no different from his vapid book “Bobos in Paradise” in which Master Brooks articulates his longing for a world where elite nobles of good lineage ruled the NY Times wedding page and the middling classes filled their coffee mugs with Sanka instead of latte.
There really is no point. It’s just Master Brooks, tilting at windmills in Park Slope.
Well, everything Brooks says is true, I guess, and Park Slope is an island in Brooklyn, and the kids are spoiled and everything, and the parents are pushy, and the restaurants are mediocre, etc etc.
But I guess the thing that so irritating is the perch of righteousness in the David Brooks column, which always comes down to self-righteousness. Why does the Times Op-ed page have all these columnists so impressed with their own righteousness?
A little grace would be nice. Secular moralism is no more graceful than religious moralism.
I don’t care what anybody says, Park Slope is still a killer neighborhood to raise kids….and I don’t think the parents are any better or worse than they are in suburbia (or Manhattan for that matter).
Okay, maybe a *little* better….
:)
There were grains of truth in the Brooks article…Our dear beloved Park Slope has reached the end of the road, it is the inevitable result of gentrification…
However, once the wheel starts turning there’s no stopping it. Overcrowding, parking woes (see NY1 today on No Park Slope, astronomical housing costs, heavy corporate influx, inflation for the basics in everyday life, that is the New Reality of Life in Park Slope. The Slope remains a destination but it certainly has become an insular one for current residents, especially Alpha Moms and their hipster non-working husbands or partners…..no one even bothers to leave the Slope and its assortment of generally mediocre restaurants..everything they have is here (glad to see Smartmom knows how to escape when necessary)
The Slope in time will become just like SoHo — a place for people (& their hyper-spoiled, bratty kids) to pose and park their money.
Soon any fragments of the charm that drew people to the Slope will be extinct. Requiem in Pacis
Although I rarely find myself in agreement with David Brooks on most topics, I must applaud him on this one. As a parent, psychotherapist and resident of Park Slope, I am witnessing the creation of a whole generation of “whiny narcissists” by ego-driven parents vicariously living through their kids. I agree, Mr. Brooks, we should “respect the dignity of youth,” and to the parents in question, I say: get a life. Your own! If you were a true non-conformist, you wouldn’t be conditioning your kids to conform to your non-conformity.
Sincerely,
Peter Loffredo
Anyone with a Brooklyn Public Library Card can access Times Select from the Library webpage. You have to tool around the site to find it, but its there.
Perchance, are you the Potato Head Bobby who opened numerous eyes in the food stamp line? Just checking.
Not exactly, Kevin. The species Macroglossius lunarius ortusprocilvia is very defensive of its nesting grounds.
If he supports the war in Iraq, he’s automatically wrong about everything?
Mr. Brooks must be over the target if he’s taking flak.
Oh, he’s just pissed cuz the kids have shirts that say things like “I’m smarter than the President.”
Look in the mirror, sweetie. Brooks rules!