David Brooks on what Mozart and Tiger Woods had going for them
1st May 2009
Steve Sailer is not very impressed with David Brooks.
Look, to say that Mozart wasn’t special because he was just like Tiger Woods is the kind of skull-crushingly stupid thing that you can only get away with saying if you’re telling everybody what they want to hear.
Tiger Woods is 33 years old. He’s been celebrated on national television for his golf skills for over 30 years. Here’s a video (starts 0:45 in) of a two and a half year old Tiger being interviewed by Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart on a nationally syndicated TV talk show.
The truth is, unsurprisingly, that Tiger Woods is special. And so was Mozart.
I have to say I rather agree with him.
How many kids lives get wrecked by this kind of thinking by their parents? When you read about 23-year-old Anthony Kim, who got a prototypical Korean-American maniacal drilling upbringing at the driving range where I hit balls when I was a kid, it’s a story that appears now to have a happy ending. But just two or three years ago, Kim looked like he was headed for Skid Row, he was drinking so heavily in rebellion against his domineering parents. His parents now tell other Korean parents who ask how they too can mold a pro golfer: Don’t even try.
You only see the stories with a happy ending. The stories you don’t see would be about all the Asian kids whose parents thought they could have a Tiger Woods too, and turned their kids’ childhood into a hell.
Good points all.