Bret Easton Ellis has penned an opinion piece about the ascendance of reputation management for the New York Times’ “Turning Point” magazine. “Bret Easton Ellis on Living in the Cult of Likability” claims that reputation management depends on a “blanding” of identity, on “maintaining a reverentially conservative, imminently practical attitude.” But that doesn’t need to be true—the best reputation management does not whitewash or hide valid points of view.
Mr. Ellis has been at the center of a few reputational crises himself. His books have often been controversial (the uproar over American Psycho may still be simmering), so his viewpoint is based on experience. It is certainly worth considering.