I've been asked more than once if columnist David Brooks is an intellectual. I think he is--he's just not a good one. Put it this way. Some gynecologists are excellent doctors, but we knew one whose nickname was "Ironfinger."
In his latest column Brooks sets out to tell us what makes us equal. We aren't equally smart or tall or rich, but "all humans have souls." These items "make us all radically equal." And if citizens "lose the concept of soul, they have lost everything."
This argument looks somewhat logical if you believe souls exist, in which case I have a tooth fairy I'd like to sell you. The claim that our souls make us equal is sometimes taught in introductions to 18th century American thought. Brooks' discussion of souls today resembles Trump's discussion of Frederick Douglas.
But let's agree that souls do exist. Why believe that all souls are equal? What evidence is there to back the assertion that Billie Holiday and Rudy Giuliani are equally soulful?
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