Brooks on Snowden

I wish David Brooks believed even half the stuff he writes.

In commentary on Edward Snowden, the whistleblower on the NSA data mining, Brooks sees him as an exemplar of the "... the rising tide of distrust, the corrosive spread of cynicism, the fraying of the social fabric and the rise of people who are so individualistic in their outlook that they have no real understanding of how to knit others together and look after the common good."

In doing so, Brooks mistakes his 'lone wolf' theory of social breakdown for the truly menacing character who wraps himself in just these social institutions, claiming to speak through them and for them.  We see this in religious leaders who castigate all those who believe differently as immoral degenerates, unworthy of social capital; political leaders who  marginalize opponents as anti-American, unworthy of civic participation and open dialogue; school leaders who abrogate the rights of teachers and students in order to pursue 'official knowledge' that serves the interests of their political or economic class; economic leaders who influence policy that benefits their sector above all other concerns, thus spreading inequality and ecological devastation in the name of progress and growth.

Brooks is not wrong, of course.  He makes sharp insight into our climactic age.  His basic point, though, that "For society to function well, there have to be basic levels of trust and cooperation, a respect for institutions and deference to common procedures," does not go farther enough to inquire into how the leadership of this country has modeled just this lack of trust and cooperation.  Through the practice of fear-based campaigning, authoritarian justifications for policy, both domestic and foreign, and ethnographic perception of what are the best interests of the public, our leadership has arrogated trust, faith, respect and the willingness to follow.

Edward Snowden may not be much of a hero. He may only be a product of what he has been so long witness to.