Davey's Moral Morass

Today's op ed is classic Brooks, folks -- as in classic stupidity.

It seems Brooksie is now so out of touch he can no longer distinguish between reality and theater. According to the World of Brooks, what strikes someone's funny bone in "The Vagina Monologues" defines their morality. Huh?

By his reasoning, should I laugh hysterically at a famous "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" scene where a character's limbs are savagely lopped off, it is an indication that I would consider such behavior to be chivalrous or moral in my real life.

By his reasoning, should we find The Three Stooges to be funny, we would all go about our lives behaving like them.

Come on, Brooksie. Your entire premise is fatuous. Reality is one thing. Art is another. And you, Davey, well, you're something else.

Mark Foley, the Vagina Monologues and Morality - A Tear in Our Fabric
By David Brooks
The New York Times

This is a tale of two predators....

The first predator, of course, is Mark Foley, the Florida congressman. The second predator is a character in Eve Ensler’s play, “The Vagina Monologues.” [...]

...[W]hy is one sexual predator despised and the other celebrated?

The first and obvious reason is that male predators are more disturbing than female predators. But the second and more important reason is that they exist in different moral universes.

Ensler’s audiences are reacting to the exuberant voice of the young girl, who narrates the scene. They’re embracing — at least in the fantasy world of the theater — a moral code that’s been called expressive individualism. Under this code, the core mission of life is to throw off the shackles of social convention and to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Behavior is not wrong if it feels good and doesn’t hurt anybody else. Sex is not wrong so long as it is done by mutual consent. [...]

But there’s another and older code, and people seem to be returning to this older code to judge Mark Foley. Under this older code, we are defined not by our individual choices but by our social roles.

Under this code, when an adult seduces a child, it tears the social fabric that joins all adults and all children. When a congressman flirts with a page, it tears the social trust that undergirds the entire page program. When an adult seduces a teenager, it ruptures the teenagers’ bond with his family, and harms the bonds joining all families....

Read more here (TimesSelect Subscribers) or here (Non-TimesSelect Subscribers).

Photo credit: (1) The Three Stooges. (Unknown Origin) (2) David Brooks. (The New York Times)

Also see:

• I can't believe David Brooks got paid for this crap | Prometheus 6


• The Playgoer: David Brooks vs Eve Ensler


• Booman Tribune ~ David Brooks: My Wanker of the Day


• The Democratic Daily: The Party of Criminals And Sex Perverts

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