The Ego Problem

David Brooks of the New York Times has written an opinion piece criticizing all America for not being sufficiently obsequious.

David Brooks, in his dreams.

According to Brooks, America has a "Follower Problem." By that he means the peasantry is too opinionated and too willing to think ill of their betters just because those betters are lying, stealing scoundrels. This nation would be a better place, Brooks believes, if America became a nation of sheep.

[Y]ou have to have good followers — able to recognize just authority, admire it, be grateful for it and emulate it.

Brooks uses as an example older monuments compared to our modern statues. Brooks says that the Jefferson Memorial (whose design emulates an ancient temple to Roman gods) and the Lincoln Memorial properly elevates our leaders to divine status.

The Lincoln Memorial copied the statue of Zeus at Olympia.

Modern monuments are too common and human for Brooks' taste.

Brooks wants Americans to worship George Bush as a god walking among us. He thinks we should be grateful for the leadership of the CEOs of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and not bother our pretty little heads with their crimes. And Brooks counts himself among the elite to be idolized.