The article Speaking Ill of ‘the Best and the Brightest’ by Robert Scheer presents a different view of Holbrooke’s impact on the world scene.

One of “the best and the brightest” died last week, and in Richard Holbrooke we had a perfect example of the dark mischief to which David Halberstam referred when he authored that ironic label. Holbrooke’s life marks the propensity of our elite institutions to turn out alpha leaders with simplistic world-ordering ambitions unrestrained by moral conscience or intellectual humility.

On of the commenters on the article pointed to the YouTube video Pirates and Emperors – Schoolhouse Rock.