At first I looked at that Douthat quote, and was like, “Did Ross Douthat really just manage not to be an asshole?” but then I thought I remembered reading a column of his about The End of Work where he was, indeed, still an asshole. So I followed the link, reread the article, and found that it was the one I thought it was.

He goes on to answer his own question: yes, it should trouble us, because PEOPLE NEED STRUCTURE OMG SEX OMG DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION WHARRRGARRBBBBL!

I was also made angry by his statement that the decline of employment is being made possible by material progress, because it puts an overly rosy picture of unemployment in people’s minds. It makes it look too much like a free choice, rather than an inability to find a job, or a job that wouldn’t make you incredibly miserable for too little money. It makes it look like there are no hungry people, no homeless people, no people who are dying for lack of health insurance. No, in Ross Douthat’s world the worst thing that can happen to you is an acute case of ennui.

Ross Douthat is an asshole. (I just wanted to repeat that in the vain hope that Google will auto-complete a search for “Ross Douthat” to “Did you mean Ross Douthat is an asshole?”, LOL).