Two years later, is 'The Organization Kid' any different?

David Brooks sugarcoated his potentially bitter lecture at Whig Hall.

The writer, who stirred controversy on campus in spring 2001 with his Atlantic Monthly article "The Organization Kid," waffled on one of his main criticisms of Princeton students in the article.

The talk, titled "You and Your Souls: The Organization Kid Revisited" addressed the superficiality of the overachieving life that dominates elite campuses across the country.

Brooks was at ease, occasionally self-deprecatory, and related easily to the packed chamber, with more than 50 people standing in the back.

"Often when I speak to groups I know more than the people there," began Brooks, who is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard. "I am acutely aware that you all know more about the subject, which is you, and your souls than I do," to which the audience laughed. "I'm not sure about the philosophy majors," he continued, and the audience laughed harder.

Occasionally nodding in agreement, often laughing at Brooks' jokes, the audience seemed swept away with the talk.

Brooks' article labeled the current generation of meritocracy as unquestioningly achievement-oriented and said they did not understand values and character.

"In the admissions process, doing a lot of homework, going to soccer practices, community service, choral society, there's characters building in there that I didn't pay sufficient attention to," he said in an interview beforehand.

While our generation is still the "Future Workaholics of America," he said the lifestyle he criticized could still build character.

Raising his three children and getting to know his students at Yale University helped reshape his view.

Trends that Brooks noted in his speech were the purification of the meritocracy, the repression of social life, the constraint of debate on campuses and the forced feeling of modesty that trained this generation not to have "big utopian ideas."

Brooks expressed his central criticism of Princeton in his surprise at the lack of a reaction from Princeton to the article. Brooks said he got many letters in response to his article, but none from any Princeton students or professors.

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"Students have a hard time offending people and making judgments that are harshly critical," he said later. "I don't sense that on any campus in the country there's that passion."

University students in the audience were overwhelmingly positive in their response to the talk.

"I think he's popular because he's right on," said Owen Hehmeyer GS.

Some students, however, were less enthused.

"It seemed a bit hypocritical to me," Francis Pickering '04 said. "He said that people needed to be more controversial, yet his talk was really watered down from his article."

Brooks also said the trend is not unique to Princeton.

"Students at Yale are basically the same as here. It's not just Princeton," said Brooks. "The article has followed me to every campus."

Friday, September 12

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