David Brooks, "The Empirical Kids": I Never Was "Cool" and Never Will Be

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Empirical Kids" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/opinion/brooks-the-empirical-kids.html?_r=0), David Brooks notes that he is teaching at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale. He describes his reaction to a paper submitted by one of his students, describing "how it feels to be in at least a segment of her age cohort." Brooks tells us:

"In sum, today’s graduates enter a harsher landscape. Immediate postgrad life, Buhler [the student] writes, will probably bear a depressing resemblance to Hannah Horvath’s world on 'Girls.' The hit song 'Thrift Shop' by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis 'is less a fashion statement, more a looming financial reality.'"

Brooks concludes:

"[T]he harsh events of the past decade may have produced not a youth revolt but a reversion to an empiricist mind-set, a tendency to think in demoralized economic phrases like 'data analysis,' 'opportunity costs' and 'replicability,' and a tendency to dismiss other more ethical and idealistic vocabularies that seem fuzzy and, therefore, unreliable. After the hippie, the yuppie and the hipster, the cool people are now wonksters."

Quite honestly, I had never before heard of either the television series "Girls" or the song "Thrift Shop." I tried listening to the "official video" of "Thrift Shop" on YouTube, which had almost 200 million views, but within seconds hit the pause button. Instead, as I type, I am listening to bird songs as darkness turns to light outside my window.

"Data analysis," "opportunity costs" and "replicability"? It's not just the kids. Our financial markets, once the stuff from which dreams were financed and built, are algorithm-driven and plagued by computerized manipulative schemes, spelling an end to industrial innovation. Heck, executive policy at the White House is also set by these determinants.

Cool? Never was, never will be, as I slowly fade out of this world.

Recently, I have given thought to writing a book about predictive biology and what I believe to be an imminent revolution in the way in which new life-saving drugs are discovered. But today, does anyone still read? And although predictive biology is premised upon sophisticated data analysis, it would have been doomed to failure if, in its infancy, opportunity costs had factored into the equation.

Often, I find myself quoting the monologue of Colonel Jessep, the antagonist from the 1992 movie "A Few Good Men," played by Jack Nicholson:

"We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something."

Honor, code and loyalty? No wonder Colonel Jessep is thrown into the brig at the end of the flick.

Me? I'm fast becoming a dinosaur, and perhaps my fossilized bones will be placed on display at the Museum of Natural History several centuries from now.

Meanwhile, it's time to replace the broccoli with tomato seedlings in my garden,  where "opportunity costs" and "replicability" have yet to raise their ugly heads.

[Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, sent me a short e-mail yesterday saying that he was passing my complaint concerning Fareed Zakaria's despicable opinion piece (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/fareed-zakaria-obama-appeals-to-israels.html) to Fred Hiatt, the editorial page editor. Yes, there is still decency in this world, "opportunity costs" and all. Will I hear back from Fred Hiatt? Stay tuned.]