I Heartily Concur: Steven Johnson

Author Steven Johnson took David Brooks to task a few weeks ago for Brook's beyond-ridiculous anti-hipster-parent screed in the New York Times. Johnson isn't the only one -- as you might imagine, the blogosphere, which is full of hipster parents, was full of hipster parents with something to say about Brooks' embarrassingly tone-deaf piece -- but he was the only one I read to make this point:

"Brooks' obsession with the surfaces of hipster parenting ends up blinding him to the real trend here, which is central to almost all the examples he cites: young parents choosing to raise their children in the city, not the suburbs. That is a decision with real consequences, not an empty gesture. It has material effects on children and parents -- and the cities they live in. It's a decision with political and environmental implications, and also one with some surprisingly old-time Americana values. (Brooklyn parents can be cloyingly sentimental about the small town friendliness of their neighborhoods.) It has almost nothing to do with non-conformism, and everything to do with the kind of community -- diverse, sidewalk-based, public, culturally-rich -- we want to raise our children in. It's striking that Brooks doesn't even find that trend worth mentioning in the piece -- much less taking it seriously."

My wife and I made the exact choice he's talking about, choosing to raise our child/ren in Harrisburg, a city that has all the things Johnson mentions and more. My hipster cred can't touch that of, say, Neal Pollack, but personally I couldn't care less what David Brooks, or just about anyone else, thinks about the way I'm raising my family. Like Pollack, what I care about is the my kids end up being thinking, creative individuals, not indie automaton clones of me.