David Brooks recalls his grandfather, Bernard Levy, who while living in a tenement on the lower east side was able to go to school all the way through college due to the largesse of the taxpayers of New York City. He goes on to state that his grandfather wrote letters to the NYTimes in the hopes of seeing them printed but didn't live to see Brooks live out his dream. One can only wonder if his grandfather would have been happy to have seen his grandson, obviously oblivious to the support structure of that dream, become a Republican and write articles for years in support of the ridiculous GOP idea of unrestrained capitalism, private healthcare and college loan vultures. It's highly unlikely that Mitch McConnell and the TEA Partiers would have fared well in Mr. Levy's letters.
108
@Alfred Sils : Americans (including Mr. Brooks, intellectuals as they might be) tend to have very short memories that erase or dismiss any inconvenient facts contrary to their adopted "comfort zone." And their readers often are kept coming back by simplistic explanations in their psychological comfort zones. Much of what we learn is historical myth propagated by "the winners." (A sad fact we learn in our training as professional historians.)
20
Hmmm, pretty short for an NYT article. Not that much positive to say? No, David, no peace until all you conservatives accept your responsibility for what has gone on. Which is no less than the killing of millions of peasant infidels in America's religious wars. Republicanism is fascism and middle of the road Republican light is still fascism. It's ugly. It's brutal and it's Christian
14
America didn't really have a unifying national narrative, though, did it? It had an exclusionary one that worked for some people and depended, in part, on the destruction of others.
That unity you think you see in your rear-view mirror is an invention of your mind.
I'm surprised such a thoughtful person couldn't see the holes in his argument as he was typing it.
21
Fear will always dominate this country’s culture & it’s politics.
A brief history:
1950’s - “The Communists are going to take over this country!”
1960’s - “Those lazy hippies and peaceniks are going to ruin our land!”
(I forgot about the blacks being too uppidy and wanting their equal rights too)
1970’s - “These radical feminists & immoral gays are trying to change our culture”
1980’s - Here come the communists again! (thank you President Reagan.)
1990’s - We get a breather...I think.
2000’s - Radical Muslim extremists, Government elites, Immigrants and the Media in no particular order
If I’ve forgotten anyone, I sincerely apologize.
14
Many in the so called 'first world' (including the US and my own country) have lost perspective. Millions are still living in extreme poverty with no clean water, no flush toilet (0ver 1 Billion people), malaria (over a million new cases per year), TB, Aids, rampant militants who rape and murder etc. They don't live in a community with a roof (even if rented) over their heads, paved roads and street lighting, police and ambulance availability, medical care (even if expensive), public schools, the protection of the strongest military and even just basics like toilet paper. And what? We're to tired to make our meals at the end of the day. Oh, the humanity!
7
Mr. Brooks embraces the idea of a quilt, each person having their own beauty while being part of a whole: America. Join his optimism. Stop whining, and start seeing how you can be a part of a united United States.
11
Once again, Brooks tries to avoid the reality of division and rancor which rules us today, by trying to paper it over with nostalgia, and, in effect, excuse the conservative lies and power games played by corporations and the one percent that have made us a country that becomes more mediocre with each passing day.
I remember him clearly trying to do the same on Sunday morning political shows to say that the disaster of Iraq and the Bush/Cheney lies and Rumsfeld *quagmire* really weren't that bad, because, really, America is a great, great country.
Mr. Brooks continues to give every appearance of being no more than a paid shill for the Koch brothers, white nationalism, and the gun lobby, because, in effect, that "things aren't that bad, they're actually great! Let me take you back a hundred years to when things were worse, so that the debacle that is occurring today doesn't seem so bad."
14
Thanks to obliterating rent control and gentrification, 90 years later cardboard boxes with people living in them were appearing on our streets like mushrooms after a spring rain - thanks to the era of the "Saintly" Ronald Reagan.
Good old Ronald Reagan - the man who was responsible for throwing WWI widows and pensioners out onto the streets.
Apparently, when David Brooks waxes nostalgic, he walks over these people to profess the "goodness and purpose" of America while voting for people like, well, like...
... Ronald Reagan.
A monstrous thug.
15
You sound worried enough about all us minorities that you had to concoct this nonsense about “optimism”. Aren’t you just trying to reassure yourself out of your anxiety? Back into the privilege of optimism? It think it’s nice that you’re able to write from a time that has seen Jews in America well established in society, but you don’t seem to really make the transition to contemplating the condition of immigrants in the present moment. Your writing consistently comes across as self-deceiving, frequently pietistic, and for all its recently fervid topics, inauthentic. Just my impression.
9
For every wondrous tale of the succesfull ladder climbing back then:
There were ten thousand stories of mostly self imposed failure.
Just like today!
Lousy parenting -ignorance -booze and drug abuse - absent fathers - conservative incompetent intolerant politicians.
The greedy rich not giving an inch.
OH -and back THEN there were virtually zero social support systems -which are ubiquitous today.
One big advantage though -no TV -no instant Bread and Circus SO hanging around got real boring.
4
Yes, I agree with Mr. Brooks on his ideas this column. But with increasing population, declining resources, rising inequality, and effects of climate change becoming more apparent every day, the narrative for We the People simply must be to work in any way possible to prepare for and mitigate the effects of climate chaos. We're all in this together.
2
The metaphor limps. Jeremiah said: " Go to new lands. Build houses. Plant gardens. Seek the peace and prosperity of the cities in which you settle."
Tell that to the Palestinians whose lands were stolen and leave like prisoners in Gaza.
13
Forget livestock.
1
The sad unsaid part of this story is the unwillingness of a large portion of our society to accept the fact that we are a pluralistic society. Our president leads this chorus of opposition to change and to accept that the United States was built on being a melting pot of humanity. We have always had scores of people coming to our country.. our streets were said to be lined in gold. We always prided our country on accepting different nationalities..different colors..different languages..and now our leader is trying to close the doors. How sad we are becoming. I hope this is not the new story of America.
5
You're describing present-day California, where there's not been a dominant majority for quite a while, and where people enjoy, revel in and celebrate its diversity and resulting creativity. I was part of the Great Jewish Migration of the 60's to from the East to California, and watched the change from, for example, an Oakland dominated by old-line WASPs to its current creative progressive mix, or a Silicon Valley attracting people from all over the world. On the other hand, today's article about St. Cloud Minnesota is most discouraging--why, these people (Somalians) were...walking around! Really, folks, we have lived the future and it works.
8
@Lennyg From the net migration from California to states like Texas, it seems that a large chunk of the middle class is abandoning the Golden State because of the taxes, lack of affordable housing, crushing regulation and homeless encampments. I don't think most longtime residents of California appreciate the change that has occurred from the days when everyone dreamed of one day moving to California.
1
@Iconoclast Texan True enough, there are many folks who don't appreciate the diversity, and perhaps more that have found it too expensive or changing too fast. But this was less about economics than about the ability of people to get along in a pluralistic society.
3
I guess Brooks is trying to be optimistic and constructive here, but mostly he just shows that he is about four or five steps behind anyone with a brain.
Brooks starts with his typical "Whoa is us for our lost sense of community," and then HE FINALLY COMES OUT AND SAYS WHAT HE HAS MEANT ALL THESE YEARS:
"Mainline Protestantism is no longer the dominant religion and cultural force. The WASP establishment no longer rules the roost. There is no white majority in our kindergartens, and soon there will be no white majority in our society."
I guess Brooks feels he can say the quiet part out loud because he FINALLY goes on to basically say, Gee, maybe there actually is strength in diversity, in helping all of our citizens reach their full potential, rather than letting a shrinking white male overclass continue to rule us all.
Sorry, Brooks, no points for finally figuring out what everyone with half a brain and half a heart figured out forever ago. Negative points for continuing to be a crypto-conservative, who provides cover for a Republican Party that derives its strength from dividing us.
10
“In a world of radical pluralism, we are all Jews. We have no choice but to build a mass multicultural democracy, a society that has no dominant center but is a collection of creative minorities.”
This cannot happen in a two party political system. It is too restrictive to allow for representative multicultural voices. See the Republican Party for exhibit A. Instead we need a parliament, E.U. style; not an U.K. winner take all style.
2
Wasn't this Walt Whitman's point? A "democratical" voice
The opening of the 2012 Olympics in London is the image in my head.
1
I'm told that Hawaii is a state where there is no majority race--everyone is a minority. How do they do it?
2
Inspiring. And it makes me optimistic, almost.
Why am I skeptical? Too much of older, white America seems to be fundamentally opposed to the idea of "radical pluralism." They seem deeply scared of the new world, despite its apparent inevitability.
And we may be doomed to endure this sad Trump- and Republican-led fight to try to stop the new world for another 20-30 years, at which point many of the most resistant Americans will be gone.
To avoid more decades of this pain, we'll need to find a way to convince the old/white resistance to accept and then join in the change. But this appears impossible to me -- and that's why I'm skeptical.
5
The broad diversity of our populace today presents perhaps a new problem. While we see America in different ways, these perspectives seem to be diversifying. This has implications for the way we elect a president. With our broad,growing and differing perspectives, the notion that one person can adequately represent "the people" becomes less likely. The best we can hope for is a president who can meet most people's needs to some degree. An average so to speak. But we also are more likely to select someone who represents a small homogeneous group of our populace, if we are not very careful. Trump and friends are a good example. He targets a group who are much more like him, instead of trying to meet most people where they are. It just may become more difficult to find a person to serve as president for such a diverse, complex and rapidly changing society. We seem to be finding fault with more and more president's as our diversity increases.
2
I came expecting the same river of denial, Force us all back into the square peg of the past I’ve become used to from Brooks but instead he sounds like he finally started to see what the young generation that owns the future has in them and that a changing world c@n be better as well as worse.
1
My grandparents also emigrated to NY in the late 1890s, Jews from eastern Europe. I was raised in the Bronx in the 50s / 60s, graduated NYU in early 70s in Greenwich Village, moved to San Francisco in '73 and living here ever since, with an amazingly loving wife and children. As a boomer living my entire life in these two extremely diverse cities (NY and SF), I have the great fortune to have lived my 72 years with such a diversity of people, cultures, colors, languages, lifestyles and relationships. Though certainly imperfect and dealing with the challenges of live in the 21st century, SF and NY, and other major global cities like London, Paris, Berlin and many other communities are able to get along pretty damn well. I love the diverse flavors of humanity in my cities of birth and choice (was just in NY this week and so appreciate the diversity of people). Yes, it's a bit crazy and crowded, but we are not killing each other, we are all trying to get along peacefully.
I see the idiot in our WH doing his best to divide us and he's doing a good job in communities with far less diversity.
Globally, Caucasians have always been a minority. We in America think we are representative of the world. We are far from that. Less than 10% of all people are white. Asians, Africans, Latins, far outnumber whites. It's time we Americans realize we are not superior, we can get along - we do in SF, NY, Paris, LA, London and more. Time to grow up, appreciate life's diversity
7
I like this piece, but i smell that David Brooks is struggling with
"cultural competence for Jews". In the reformed Jewish world
success meant that Jewish people could hide, or live life as though they were just another person. Cultural competence
doesn't work with a Jewish subject, because history of demands that his/her goal is to remain unidentified to be safe from antisemitism.
When my German ancestors got to California they
gained "white privilege" for the first time. And Jews in California did their best to act like ordinary, but white Americans. As Brooks flirts with "Christianity" he is feeling some guilt about the Jewish identity, and so celebrates it with this piece, about the positive aspects of Jewish struggle.
My Jewish parents were a minority, facing discrimination at finding work.They considered their gaining acceptance in the
post war error to be part of a civil rights movement. My generation is more likely to face reverse-discrimination for not being diverse enough.
By saying we are all Jews, Brooks is confirming the continuation of the goals of Jewish, Black and other civil rights movements that the goal is trying to end discrimination, instead of flipping who is on top. Call it what you like.
2
"...realize that every time you seek to dominate others, you will wind up dominated." I wonder if David invoked those words in light of the situation with Iran?
It seems we have forgotten so much in this country that our predecessors had spent so much blood, sweat, tears, time, and money to learn. Most of these lessons are about how we treat others, how we live together in harmony and peace, how we give to get, how we are all connected.
I know it is easy to lose this sense when you feel slighted or misused but we too often fail to see who is doing the slighting and why. It is easy to blame the weak because they can't fight back, can't defend themselves as they aren't in a position to defend themselves. They are just surviving the best way they know how and when you are mired in the totality of survival nothing else matters.
But most of us have the pleasure of knowing more than that as our forefathers provided us with a path granting us rights and freedoms that could grant us ever greater lives, ever greater possibilities beyond what they could imagine. The core of what they believed was that the wisdom of the majority with all its diversity and difference could lead us to that better future. They tried to enshrine these hopes knowing that forces we all were to have learned were bad would try to destroy what they created. What is most destructive in our country is these vices like greed, ignorance, pettiness, rage have made virtues and we all now suffer.
1
I disagree with the author's rosy outlook on a future where everyone is minority when progressives in this country in their relentless pursuit of identity politics serves to stoke the anger of the aggrieved group causing resentment from the majority not belonging to that group. Identity politics by the Democrats is the biggest reason why Trump and the Republican Party is still a powerful voice in this country.
3
@Iconoclast Texan
The biggest reason why Trump and the Republican Party is still a powerful voice in this country is because he appeals to white nationalism and bigotry.
6
@Iconoclast Texan
But Republicans play identity politics, too: fear of the non-white, Muslims, refugees, LGBTQ+. Fear of the Other pits us against ourselves.
4
Interesting, but wrong?!
Read you, and watch you on PBS. You always have the most insightful and original narratives. But on this occasion I think you’ve clearly missed the boat.
Every nation needs a national narrative. Ours is in plain sight. It’s Jeffersonian democracy. One man one vote, liberty and justice for all.
How we accomplish that is what we argue about. But is long as we’re always striving to increase liberty, which sometimes means limiting others privilege. And preventing economic inequality from undermining our capitalistic engine, we will survive as “the land of the free”!!
3
Thank you for your thoughtful, intriguing column, Mr. Brooks. I, too, like being an optimist, but after reading Madeleine Albright’s “Fascism,” I’ve decided I’m like her: an optimist who worries a lot. Thank you for, if not reducing them exactly, at least helping to focus my worries.
1
Don't think that David Brooks is aware that the fading WASP unitary national culture that is fading is being supplanted by the new, hypercritical P.C. narrative that America is a deeply racist/sexist/homophobic society almost beyond redemption. The only solution is radical ethnic-gender egalitarianism (proportional representation) and redistribution in all matters along with strong cenosrship of data, imagery, speech at variance with that project.
2
Excellent and thought-provoking piece. But I don't know if it's a lack of a dominant culture which may "blow us to smithereens," or the fact that we are all becoming minorities. That which could dissolve our union is the fashionable self-styling of oneself as a victim.
We have decided that to be "oppressed" or otherwise a victim is to somehow be noble. Categories which once genuinely resulted in oppression and exclusion, things like gender, sexual orientation and race, are things which major institutions, corporations and media productions now fall all over themselves to include. Just look at how the average gay person was reviled a mere 20 years ago, and witness today's companies aggressively branding their products towards LGBTQ people for Pride Month.
All of these changes and acceptance are very good things. Yes, there are other milestones to achieve. But the problem with everyone being a victim, beyond the self-crippling such a mindset can achieve, is that everyone must also be a victimizer. That's dangerous to a cohesive society.
3
"If only..", eh? As a writer and a thinker of sorts, Mr. Brooks thinks "national narrative" and "national identity" are all-important. But they are merely a veneer over a seething chaos of competing ignorances seeking safety and, too often, a defensive dominance. Narratives, either national or personal, are myths, serving to assuage our actual ignorance. They are stories we tell ourselves to make sense of a senseless world. And rightly so, given the magnitude of the chaos -- we are creatures that need a center, a self-definition, then, and for some a national definition, around which to build those defenses. MAGA, baby! The "new man" has left behind those unrealities and lives in a present, aware of the multiplicity of influences without allowing them to be embedded in his/her identity -- in zen, it's called "beginner's mind". That's not easy, obviously, when the whole ethos of America is aggressive self-promotion within very narrowed group-think enclaves rapidly diverging from a center that is no longer (if it ever was). But Brooks is headed there, apparently, kicking and screaming all the way about the loss of those comfortable certainties he enjoyed as an undeniably elite, self-motivated "Influencer". (I just learned that being an "Influencer" is a thing, and a lucrative thing at that, perhaps even the epitome of the "new man" in the American tradition of I, Me, Mine, but less material than performative). If we ever identity it as the myth of all myths, maybe we can rest.
1
I hope Mr. Brooks turns out to be right that a diverse society will work, but I fear he is wrong. Many of the comments here say things like "We the People" are national narrative, or 'diversity gives us strength.' From a historical standpoint, this is vague and unsupported by the past. I don't believe the Constitution or democratic traditions are enough to hold the United States together in any meaningful way. Many countries have fine constitutions with a balance of individual and communal rights; there is nothing unique or particular in this. While multiculturalism has brought many positives (rock and roll, jazz, great food, etc.), it is also divisive and left us with no cultural center. Western Civilization is weakening as mass migration to the U.S. and western Europe takes place. Nations and societies form because they have people of similar views and culture. There have been a few exceptions, such as Switzerland. Empires have been diverse because there is one group controlling the reins of power (the Ottoman Empire, Roman Empire, Chinese Empire, etc.). My sense is that the U.S. as a political entity will survive a while, some generations, though with increasing diversity citizens will increasingly feel alienated and unconnected to the larger community. Eventually the nation will probably come apart, and divide. How, I don't know. I hope I am wrong. Perhaps globalization will homogenize us enough that the nation can survive, which is not terribly comforting.
2
We were actually pretty multicultural at the start, hence why it took so long for the Constitution to be written and ratified. At the time I’d say a farmer from Massachusetts, a wealthy scion of Dutch ancestry from NYcity, a landed slave owning planter from Virginia, a blacksmith in Appalachia, a fisherman sailing off Maine all had much more different culture than today and competing aims. And they managed to craft a document to hold them all.
1
"Damn, bartender I needed that. Set me up another one."
1
Myopic.
2019: David Brooks wrote, regarding his 2015 decision to write "The Road to Character"
"American culture seemed to be in decent shape and my focus was how individuals can deepen their inner lives."
1970: "The oceans are in danger of dying." Jacques Cousteau
2019: The oceans are dying.
Mr. Brooks, if your culture's relationships with the sky and ocean are deadly, your culture is not in decent shape.
It's not a meritocracy.
It's non-selectable.
It's arming the sky and ocean with weapons of mass extinction.
It's bringing "premature and perverted death" to our descendants and myriad species.
In addition:
> 71% of American youth are too damaged to qualify for military service.
> 1/3 of Americans are obese.
> 40% of Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic.
These problems are more fundamental than pluralism; & some contribute to our divide.
After all, collapse is when-not-if physics (self-organized criticality) — and DNA has been through collapse myriad times in its billions-of-years evolution.
DNA has multiple dark apps for relationship interface during collapse—war and genocide are two.
James Lovelock — “Under pressure, any group of us can be as brutal as any of those we deplore: genocide by tribal animals is as natural as breathing …”
E. O. Wilson — “It should not be thought that war, often accompanied by genocide, is a cultural artifact of a few societies. ... Wars and genocide have been universal and eternal, respecting no particular time or culture.”
1
Thank you for this.
I am British, recently married to an American, and today I received my visa to come and join my husband, Tom, and start building a life in the US. I am beyond excited for this new chapter and this article iterates my hope that I too can have a place within the diverse cultural and social landscape of the United States.
Especially, the encouragement "[not to] be afraid to be a distinct, orthodox version of yourself within a larger society."
Unique, but united. I believe that is where people, communities and countries flourish. And I look forward to seeing what we can grow, from the melding of British and American in our home and beyond.
Thank you again for this encouragement. :)
3
I think America has always been a place of change. From native tribes moving, conquering different lands to Europeans doing the same in various waves from various places with various reasons. All of human history is of change and I would assume there is always a contingent that is fearful and a contingent that looks at it positively. At the moment fear is in the ascendancy but I have hope that is changing and that women will usher in a new era.
My American experience has been complex because I have known both great deprivations and well being-ness and have lived down in the guts as well as up in the hills. In fact, I used to work on an alternative paper run by an old semi-marxist couple who lived quite well. LOL. And most of the communists I knew or who said were communists were fascinating crazy people. My experience in deprivation gave me much more compassion for people who struggle and shaped my politics to a large extent. But that didn't stop me from pursuing my own goals, my own happiness, my own sense of being a free man in a putative free society. And "free" is a relative term certainly. One thing I have always remembered from my young days. The many foreign students who I met and told me, sometimes with astonished sadness, "you guys don't know how good you have it here." That perspective has always had value for me. Only confident, bold people can solve the problems that have been described in some of these comments. I see many of them folding in, folding up. America can eat people alive if they let it. You have to learn how to transform the negative into the positive and then use the positive to try and make things better. There is simply no other way.
1
The pluralism David describes sounds like Canada. With occasional hiccups, multiculturalism works here quite well. As a footnote, Canada accepted more refugees last year than any other nation.
3
All the articles that Brooks seems to think are profound tend to read like a meandering from the monolithic right into the common sense of the left.
Be yourself, and the diversity of selves coexisting and thriving in a society that respects individuality will create a powerfully cohesive and resilient civilization where all are welcome if they merely agree that all are welcome. We are united by enduring principles, not by faith or skin or language.
These are not new or radical thoughts outside the Republican Party. For how many years did "the left" scream these truths at people like Brooks before Trump finally came along as a mirror, to show them what the Republican Party really is and always was? And now he publishes piece after piece of epiphany after epiphany as he searches for hope that his party insists can never exist?
I have to read Brooks as a pity column. The place where the NYT publishes the everyman idiocy of those who are too reactionary and regressive and conservative to realize that a better worldview exists--without the sense to understand that it has long existed and been advocated by their political opponents. As though it will be transformative for America to watch this conservative learn to abandon his party. I have to wonder why anyone is still publishing someone so far behind the curve when it comes to recognizing the obvious. It's a little insulting that he gets paid to do this.
1
Until the red hats came along I honestly believed that the rest of the country would become more like California, culturally and racially integrated and living mostly in peace. Before you jump all over me, I recognize that California has plenty of conflicts between opposing groups. I have lived here all my life and I experienced plenty of racism, especially during my childhood. But we have mostly learned to appreciate and celebrate other cultures (food helps). We still have plenty of people holding on to extreme positions but they have become less hateful. Orange County used to be the West Coast home of the KKK. Now the entire county is represented by Democrats. I support the proposition put forth by Brooks. we need a unifying narrative. It can work. I know because I have witnessed it in my home.
2
We tried this once before and it led to The Civil War.
A nation, especially our nation, without a narrative, without our being a melting pot, without common principles, without the American dream will not be a nation for long.
1
“In a world of radical pluralism, we are all Jews.”
And so we should be -but that outcome (a metaphorical one as used by Mr. Brooks) is also used to chilling effect by white nationalists, the “very fine people” on the other side, and their supporters, who are silently condoned by the traditional Republicans who support Trump by rationalizing that they like his policies but don’t necessarily “approve” of his conduct, a meaningless distinction. But all of these fellow Americans, a third of the country, don’t think, as Mr. Brooks does. They behave, and most importantly have voted, as if the reification of Brooks’ metaphor is what they want to avoid, not promote. The result is Trump’s anti-(non-white) immigrant policies whereby in all of our names children are in cages and true Christians are prosecuted for leaving water in the desert.
If we were “all Jews” we would not have Trump. 72% of the real ones, myself included, did not vote for him.
1
"We" the people never existed in America, for that would mean that we shared a common thread of ownership, of rights and responsibilities.
America is a pyramid, and at the top are the 20 families who own most everything and many politicians. Does Trump and his clan of greed merchants share anything at all with my neighbors in Public Housing, or those who I sit with when I go to the VA and wait to see a medical professional? Do they worry when they look for housing, or look to their old age as a time of futility and yes, despair?
Please, that America is a fantasy, for we do not share a common history, and certainly aren''t a common people on a common journey.
America is the wealthy, and the rest of us are tolerated. Your divide and conquer Republicanism achieved that, be proud.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
3
Thank you for this erudite, masterfully articulated piece, Mr. Brooks. It does, in fact, give me some hope - and at a time when I and certainly millions of other Americans desperately need it. This column should be required reading in every high school American history class, because it would offer an opportunity for teachers to guide perspective-enriching dialogue with young minds about what it means to be living through a watershed moment in our nation's history. Bravo! Keep them coming.
1
We can once again become a nation of dreams. All it take is the political will to achieve more equality in income and wealth. This will require a significant change in the policies of the last few decades. We must repair our infrastructure-roads water, the electrical grid, public schools. We must provide higher eduction, community colleges, job training and more at reasonable costs. We must have a fair and progressive tax structure. Not easy, but it can be done.
1
As Terry Eagleton asserts in his book "Hope without Optimism" there is a difference between the two, and that their opposites are more correctly Despair and Pessimism. While there may be a crossover, optimism and pessimism require no basis in philosophy, faith or reason. Optimistic people are optimistic by nature. Many of us are not optimistic, but have hope, and it is that that holds us together during times like these which should surely recognize as part of a massive social transformation that now challenges the dominant order of the last 500 years.
Is the American creed of "We the People" strong enough to withstand the coming changes? Everything that is happening suggests not. Division is sewn - with intent - everywhere, in the pursuit of old fashioned institutionalized powers. I am sorry David but nothing you say cause me to be optimistic, but I do live in hope. When you finally renounce Republicanism in its entirety and adopt Fabianism as your social and economic driver, then I might begin to be optimistic.
Very nice, David. My take on the current state of the USA is that a large portion of the country is in denial of what we have become. We ARE the melting pot we worked so hard to achieve. The country is more diverse culturally & racially than ever before. However, that change has brought fear & of course, Trump. It may take a long time for that fear to subside & it doesn't help to fan those fires. I have hope in the newest generations, mine ?, not so much.
I've moved home to Canada. Here, the Melting Pot is the Cultural Mosaic. I'm looking out the window of Tim Horton's coffee shop to Arabic writing and the 3rd Shawarma restaurant on the block.
1
Odd Mr. Brooks, that you chose that photo of immigrants longingly looking at the lower Manhattan skyline from Ellis island.
If they were immigrants from El Salvador, they would be separated and in cages according to this administrations policies.
4
OK, David--so just HOW do we get beyond our current despair?
1
Mainstream Christianity did America well....and then came the embarrassing Evangelical Conservatives and the Republican Party which manipulated them to the hilt.
3
A remarkable journey from poverty to “making it.” I want to be optimistic but I have ask how David Brooks family name of grandfather Levy (Jewish heritage ) devolved into Brooks (WASP heritage) ? Was that the trick ? Leave your Jewish heritage behind and you too can make it. This is not optimism but cynicism
"E Pluribus Unum," in the eagle's beak of our national seal, translates to "Out of many, one." Yeah, we're a diverse group, but unity, our oneness, rather than our differences is our national narrative. How long must we dwell on being secondary sub-groups, and ignore our common unity? Our multi-cultural inheritances are our contributions to our common national heritage, our national narrative. America needs to show the world our unity in diversity as the path forward, as the model for sustainable living on a planet struggling to survive.
2
Mr. Brooks’ dive into an optimistic narrative of America’s evolution is alluring. However, when I try to imagine how it plays out on the ground, I can conjure no coherent picture. While it sounds comforting, it seems to lead to an “anything goes” forecast: a kaliedoscope nation lacking the gravity of a strong core.
So what, then, can truly unite a United States where very different visions currently claim legitimacy and compete for supremacy? What’s the common denominator between left and right, among people of multiple shades of color, between men and women in their variety of sexual and gender orientations, between descendents of the Mayflower immigrants and those who recently walked across the southern border? Is there really a uniting force at all?
I think it’s their universal quest for rights and freedoms. It’s their very similar dream for a good life, and their expectation that they have the opportunity to achieve it in America. It’s their hunger for fairness and validation. Simple and powerful as that. A uniting core belief stronger than our differences.
If this seems not to be working right now, there’s only one reason: exploitation of the fear that “others” are trying to take away those rights and opportunities. Fear-mongering against “others” breeds anger and hate, always has. Enlightened leaders unite. Despicable leaders divide.
The “American Dream” only works in a cooperative society that demands tolerance, respect, generosity and gratitude. Period.
4
This weekend, the family and I went to Mid-town Market located in Minneapolis for the first of the season. My kid and I always get Mango Lassi at the Indian kiosk. We have been going to Mid-town for a number of years, and my kid has befriended the lady whom works there. I know that the lady is an American citizen with an Indian background, but not sure if she was born in India. Supposedly she goes to visit India during the winter, and this past year she went for four months. It just so happens this year she went at the same time that the Temple that she is a part of in India was finishing up its building, and they asked her to partake. She indicated to me that it was hard exhausting work but spiritually rewarding. She started talking about how the culture of India is chaotic on the outside but calm on the inside. She explained living in both cultures that India is almost the opposite of America because in America, we are calm on the outside, but chaotic on the inside. This really stuck with me how now in America, we feel that we are unraveling on the outside. The facade is falling and the inside turmoil is coming out and it is scary. Since this country at its soul has worked so hard on our outside facade to be calm that we have not strengthened our inside core which now feels that everything is turning chaotic.
2
I believe we still need a unifying narrative, and I favor the one we've always had ––The Great Melting Pot. I believe in the words on the Statue of Liberty.
Canadians see themselves as a mosaic. That's very Canadian indeed. But, America was, is and should continue to be different. The needed change is to return to our unique ability to absorb people from around the world and make something new for all of us.
I read the story and I felt it had a good message.
Then I read the comments and was saddened to learn that most of the NYT's subscribers who commented used it as an opportunity to mock Donald Trump and to criticize America for being the greatest country on earth. What a sad commentary.
3
Mr. Brooks, while I like your sentiments I sense that you are trying hard to believe that America can become a multi cultured but unified nation. In the first part of your essay you extol what America could do, as in Lincoln could go from a log cabin to the White House and Ralf Lifshitz could become Ralf Lauren and so on. Your descriptions carry the tone of nostalgic wistfulness while your descriptions of future possibilities come across as maybe something positive and good can happen -maybe. Hopefully America, with all the diversity you mention will vote to make sure that they get politicians who reflect their views and values and not subjugate themselves again to the negative, hateful, unequal, unfair, unbalanced, depressing and myopic situation they find themselves in.
There is now and always has been a radical divide in American society: between owners and workers, corporate power and the masses. And there is always an ideology to cover this up. Once it was Rugged Individualism. Today it is Diversity . . . . Today we have what Marcuse called "repressive tolerance," that is, unlimited openness to any life style or group, no matter how seeming- eccentric, but--in return for this lifestyle tolerance--the system demands that the Capitalist economic set up never be questioned. The most we can hope for is that someone from "our" group can also join the rich elite . . . . The Socialist alternative is the liberation of the workers as a class and the end of capitalist exploitation, the root cause of racial, sexual & national oppression.
Yet another piece where Brooks pines for the days when old white men made all the decisions.
I agree with much of what you say, David, but I feel strongly that each of us separate individuals and groups needs to work for the Common Good. That is what Davym from Florida intimated in his comment, below: we must work at being “We The People.” This is not easy work. It never was easy — only with “rose colored lenses,” as another commentator put it, would we believe that past generations were so much more unified. The Constitutional goal is “a more perfect union.” So, endorsing David’s focus on “particularities,” perhaps we should hope to have a coherent Venn Diagram, with the Common Good in the center. It’s easy to despair when some people seem not to believe in the common good at all, but sharing David’s optimism, I am hopeful.
Ah, nostalgia for a simpler time when greed wasn't an existential threat to compromise.
I've been "discovering my roots" for several years, and have found that many of my relatives migrated to "the new world" in the 1600's. I visited some of the towns in Massachusetts that they helped settle (Dedham, Wrentham, etc) and felt a connection to my 8th great-grandparents, whose graves are there.
But I was cognizant of the fact that when my people arrived, others had preceded them, people who had settled, hunted, fished and farmed on that land, the Wampanoag, the Mohegan, the Mohicans, and all the tribes that comprised those great nations.
As in the western lands of America, which were owned and populated by Mexicans, we, the white, mostly European people, moved in and the original inhabitants became the minorities. We brought our customs and ways of life (along with diseases that killed untold numbers of native Americans) and they were expected to assimilate. It's comforting to think that we all lived peacefully together, sharing the bounty of the land, but we didn't, and we often treated the original inhabitants cruelly.
Some Americans know these things, and we are more willing to welcome immigrants to our vast country. Others want to build walls, close the borders to those who seek, as our ancestors did, a better life. I believe that we are better and richer as a nation of immigrants, and that our strength should be our diversity and acceptance of one another.
2
White America will have a hard time adjusting from the dominant majority to a meaningful plurality. All the other meaningful pluralities should be sympathetic to the difficult transition.
Great column.
Wow, David, just wow. I very seldom agree with you, but this column is a perfect outline of the strengths we will need going forward to continue the American experiment. But we don’t need a new narrative or a variety of narratives. We already have the only one we need. E pluribus, unum. Out of many, one. Our problem has been that we read that to mean “out of many, pick one” and we chose a white, Protestant, capitalist narrative that is failing us. Instead, we need to understand it as “out of many, forge one.” It is that amalgam of all the strains that will let us survive and thrive and make us better than any of the individual “ones” alone. It’s been there right in front of us since the beginning.
1
Mr. Brooks has a tolerant and thoughtful perspective here, which both recognizes and celebrates the heterogeneity of our country and culture.
Unfortunately, there are many who are threatened by change, who are left behind by it and who are flailing about, trying to find someone to blame for their ills. These people embrace a regressive social and political agenda that divides and isolates and that seeks not to fix problems but to fix blame.
Michael Douglas, in "The American President", captured the venality of this perspective well. He said of his antagonist in the movie, malignant but far less pernicious than Trump, that he was not interested in helping solve people's problems, but all he cared about was making people afraid and telling them who was to blame for their troubles.
Mr. Brooks is right: solutions are almost always cropping up, if only one is open to them.
The message and controlling theme of this column by David Brooks is contained in the word "Optimism." Optimism is not synonymous with Hope. "I hope" refers to a specific situation - 'I hope you're feeling better.' And even "hopeful" doesn't mean that we're ALWAYS hopeful. "Optimistic," on the other hand, describes a habitual or programmatic hopefulness: "I'm optimistic that we can reverse climate change," means, probably, that I know very little about the subject but like to think the happy thoughts.
Optimism, in other words, is dogmatic, knee-jerk. We claim credit simply for looking on the sunny side. In fact, it is an American dogma. It's why we smile all the time, whether or not there's anything to smile about. I try to avoid the word. When I'm hopeful I say so; when I'm not, I don't. I don't pat myself on the back and ask for the reflexive approval of folks who proclaim they are optimistic, whether or not the situation supports it.
Not all, by any means, but many Jewish immigrants came to the United States as survivors escaping from persecution, determined to succeed, and with a reverence for education. These traits served them well, and when they prospered, some, like David Brooks, became conservatives. Other immigrant cohorts were impoverished peasantry, used to manual labor. Many of these, too, were assimilated and have done well. If you have the right skills and have done well, you have reason to be optimistic. Many others have less reason to be optimistic.
Oh, Mr. Brooks. Thank you for this inspiration, this vision of fields of beautiful minds flowering in this time and place where power, hope, and progress are being redefined by how we choose to live day to day. I especially love your family's life story and the insights you shared from our Jewish forbears that have guided us over millennia when faced with unavoidable change. We will be alright.
I don’t often agree with Mr. Brooks, but this column is an optimistic one in a time deeply depressing for most Americans, and I appreciate its tenor. But I don’t think having many different national narratives is the right concept. Rather, our national narrative is, or should be, one of many stories, collectively increasing pluralism, tolerance, respect, but grounded always in the best parts of our foundational story— the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They are the scriptures of our civic religion, imperfect as all Scriptures are but sound at their core. Keeping faith with them is a struggle we wage every day. I pray that we all keep that in mind as we try to avoid destroying ourselves and possibly the world along with us.
I like hope and positivity. I like that a minority can do all these things, remain true to their culture and still contribute to society at large.
But then one single person with guns that no private citizen should have access to can destroy that hope in an instant, just because some people don't look and talk like him.
I bet your grandfather never saw people getting mowed down with semi-automatic weapons in those overcrowded conditions on the Lower East Side.
1
Sorry David, but I am going to throw a bucket of cold water on your optimism. I agree that America has a lot to be optimistic about when you look at the people who make up this country but the expanded view of humanity and how we fit into the global view is anything but optimistic. Us humans have, and continue to, trash our environment. We have grown our population beyond sustainable numbers. We have endangered the existence of many other species and done terrible things to each other within our own species. And now humanity is facing a likely existential crisis with global warming if we are to believe the UN IPCC report (which I do).
So, sure, we can continue to fiddle while Rome burns and say that things are rosy because if we look at narrow parts of the world, there are pockets of optimism. But we can't hide forever from the looming issues facing humanity.
1
Mr. Brooks thinks America is the land of milk and honey because Lincoln went from log cabin to White House and anybody could become Ralph Lauren or somebody rich and/or important. Those "born on the fringes" could "assimilate into this new thing called an American."
"Could". But for every Lincoln or Lauren there are millions who never make it into a decent neighborhood with decent schools and adequate food and health care.
For every boy who makes good there are multitudes of women who never get a chance or an equal salary because of their gender.
For every white guy who makes it to wealth and success, there are millions of off-white people who can't afford education or otherwise pull themselves out of poverty.
For every Obama, who suffered his own injuries from racism, there are millions of off-white people who can't get ahead because of racism in the American system and now so firmly ensconced in the White House itself.
So, no, Mr. Brooks. Those from the fringes can never trod American gold-paved streets, live the American dream and have a house because houses are unaffordable for a substantial number of people, or sup milk and honey because they live in a food desert.
This column would be less painful if it weren't such a pointed reminder that America is so thoroughly rigged against those "on the fringes". And Brooks doesn't seem to know that.
3
Has David not noticed that there are two Americas? One is multicultural, prosperous, cosmopolitan. The other not so much, largely because it lacks the skills necessary to thrive in a globally connected economy.
The former has already achieved Brooks’ ideal of being “minorities together”. Not sure the later can.
2
America is still a great country--in wealth, military power, cultural and spiritual fervor, our charitable institutions and our vast knowledge, intellectualism and our ideas.
That said, there is a paralysis of enthusiasm that has long been overtaking this country. Americans, and especially, the immigrants coming to our country, used to be able to rely on a manifest, if not tranquil, exhilaration, unrolling through our ethnically diverse generations as all of us spread our traditions in pursuit of the American dream.
Sadly, the American psyche appears far more impoverished, our "huddled masses" increasingly demoralized, largely because of startling wealth inequality and our democracy's strong inclination for the privileged few.
Yes, the history and optimism you invoke, Mr. Brooks, should not be a dead chronicle but alive and well in the present. We just aren't doing a very good job of keeping it off life support.
I think David is suggesting we develop respect for "others". C'mon Mr. Brooks, you sound so liberal minded.
Which he is, of course. Sadly, his fellow "conservatives" have become hateful, fearful monsters.
I was a real conservative once. I still am fiscally. But those concepts are lost on both parties. We are headed for structural collapse as debt rockets out of control. All the compassion David talks about will become ever more scarce.
This is a rosy view of where we are and where we're going and is certainly at odds with where we are right now. What is Trump's America but unipolar? Look at the recent Trump rally--nothing but White faces, celebrating a man for whom plurality is threatening. What is Trump's MAGA but the aspiration for a dominant majority culture with a dominant religion? Trump's emphasis on keeping Hispanics out of the country is because he recognizes, as do his followers, that Hispanics are becoming a dominant force in America, and in some areas already are. Trump and his rally goers are determined to keep that Hispanic force from growing and determined to maintain the White culture they are comfortable with. As long as Trump is in power he will give.legitimacy to his followers' fears and anxieties about pluralism. It will be many years before those non-White majority kindergarten kids grow up. Who knows if we'll even survive that long?
1
Most of us in America, have a rags to riches themed story that keep us optimistic when things get tough. When my mother first arrived to America in the late sixties, she worked as a seamstress in the garment district, teaching herself how to operate every machine at her job to make herself an indispensable employee. My mother was paid according to the number of units she completed, and she focused on using the machines that paid the highest rates. One such machine was the finishing machine, which only my mother and one other person knew how to operate. Since we had a finishing machine in our home, she would often complete batches (jobs) in our Bronx apartment which would get picked up at the end of the day, every Saturday. My mother would collect cash in exchange for the finished items. On one such occasion, the man picking up the pieces offered my mother the option of $75 cash or an assortment of 50 dresses as payment. I told my mother she’d be better off taking the dresses and selling them than taking the cash. She replied, “I’ll take the dresses if you sell them and make more than $75.” Within an hour I was selling the dresses to people in my neighborhood. I sold the first batch in 15 minutes for $21. Within the next two hours I sold all but six dresses for $107. This was the moment I became aware I had a keen business sense, and the skill to put my instincts into action.The Franco/Santiago family version of the American dream.
1
brilliant....the best piece i've read in a while.
What??????
I used to think that America had to find a new unifying national narrative. Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative.
When in all of American history was there a unifying national narrative, Mr Brooks? You answered your question in the next sentence! Not having a unifying national narrative is what America is all about. The problem with us natives is accepting that that narrative is changing right before our very eyes. More Hispanic, more Islamic more diversified, more plural. A great many Americans are alarmed at the speed of this change. Enter demagogues.
1
Radical pluralism IS our unifying national culture and narrative and as the world has become more connected and mobile that pluralism has naturally become even more diverse.
1
I am lucky to have been born with a natural optimistic sense. I wake up that way almost every day. I understand that these times feel so cynically, dispiriting. The Administrations actions at the border are cruel to the point of fascism. The anger that has lifted Donald Trump to the Presidency is palpable. The separation between the great many, living on the edge of disaster and the few who are protected and pampered by the government is as bad as it has been since the beginning of the 20th Century.
And, that is a good point of reference for how we see ourselves today. Jim Crow terrorism ruled the South, The kings of industry ruled Congress and bought the White House regularly. Women could not vote and had few personal rights. Laborers were attacked by Federal forces and hired armies of Pinkertons. But, the kernel of Freedom and greatness still abided and grew, as the decades passed.
In my life, civil rights movements have crept forward in dramatic ways. I find myself, still believing that the forces of freedom and goodness, in this Great country will win out, over the long run, against the forces of racism, resentment and bigotry. It just always takes so much longer than we wish.
Brooks apparently has no interest in stating the obvious. Whatever ills this country may have had, they were and continue to be exacerbated by this nation's potus, an abhorrent racist and bigot who has no ethical and moral compass.
This seems to me to be the thesis for your next book, Mr. Brooks. Please continue to put your creative energy into this seed-thought. Water and nourish it!
I would be first in line to have you sign my copy at your book signing.
Your American Dream is on life support...if it isn't dead already.
3
Mr Brooks makes Pollyanna sound like a pessimist.
3
From your mouth to the ear of God!
1
As Brooks continues his headlong charge toward assimilation into the WASP elite he feels compelled to whitewash their history. No mention that WASPs didn’t want his grandfather and other Jews in this country. No mention that they ghettoized Jews in horrible conditions here as their ancestors did in Europe. No mention that Jews were, and continue to be today in America, blamed for everything from outbreaks of the plague to Christian bankers” predatory practices by ignorant, bigoted elites. No mention that his Republican Party, President Trump, and the 24-7-365 right-wing propaganda machine that is Fox News stokes fear of anyone not of the white elite. How can society consist of different, yet peaceably coexisting groups when one of those groups is intentionally taught to fear and hate all of the others? My guess is Brooks’ grandfather would be ashamed of him for the lengths and depths to which he has gone to assimilate into that upposedly Christian elite.
2
"Lincoln could go from a log cabin to the White House. A Jewish boy from the Bronx named Ralph Lifshitz could grow up to become Ralph Lauren and redefine American preppy.
Well, in those two sentences, you fail to mention any African Americans or Native Americans who grew up to become something. And even the "Jewish boy" had to change his name as did a lot of European immigrants.
1
Thank you Mr. Brooks for your thoughtful piece. I appreciate your attempts at civil discourse, even though we do not see eye to eye on some issues.
Your pieces are always worth reading and worth the time spent thinking about your point/message. Please keep writing, your ideas have merit; conservatives and liberals should pay attention for a path back to civil discourse and a road to compromise might just be in the offing!
Mr. Brooks, are you (or the Times photo editors) really this tone deaf?
The photo that accompanies your ‘uplifting’ essay depicts ‘immigrants on Ellis Island circa 1925.’ If you know your American history, in 1924, after years of lobbying by unabashed, virulent, xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic advocates of what was called the “America First” movement - ‘strong borders’ and all - Congress enacted the “National Origins Act.” The Act imposed restrictive quotas expressly intended to bar entry to all but a handful of members of ‘undesirable races’ - like Greeks, Italians, and Poles, as well as Jews from anywhere on Earth, and “Asians” of all description. At the same time, the Act included liberal quotas for immigrants with “Nordic” blood - in fact, the quotas were never met.
The express purpose of the advocates of the Act was to protect the genetic purity of the ostensibly superior “white American race.” By the end of 1925, Ellis Island, once a bustling port of entry for refugees from all over the world, was nearly a ghost town. Immigrants who arrived in the harbors of major American cities were turned away and deported en masse.
Hitler called America’s restrictive immigration program of the 1920s, and the racist, pseudo-scientific eugenics theories that provided the pretext for it, the inspiration for his own racial politics and later genocide of Jews and other ‘undesirables.’
In 2019, Donald Trump’s Republican Party is preaching that same “America First” gospel.
5
Oh, what a grabber of a headline! How eager we are to see a rainbow, the gardens in bloom, June weddings. Anything but this morning’s news of the start of a shooting war.
Here’s my morning fable for America. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a motley group of pioneers, slaves, deep thinkers, religious outsiders, arrived on the shores of a vast, uncharted wilderness. A land almost without measure not even inhabited, as the natives were not considered human at all. A land where every peasant might seize a chunk of land and declare it their own; open a workplace of their own without the ancient chains of prejudice, government or traditions; a virgin, boundless feast.
A short time later, after importing large numbers of other, not-considered human slaves from Africa necessary for rapid exploitation of the land, after adaptation (theft, one should say) of technology from the old countries, after finally sequestering those natives who could not be further used, after a mighty rift and a domestic war over the nature of economic and human liberty, after digging out the wealth under the soil, turning forest and prairie to dust and concrete, drinking almost all the water of centuries, we have arrived at perfection.
So joy today. If we only had some more planet to infest, a new day for all of us.
2
As a grandchild of poor Jewish immigrants, Brooks' life goal seems to have been acceptance by the right-wing WASP establishment. And he has written wistfully about that group's decline in power ever since.
I have always found this attitude mystifying. Your own people were persecuted by right-wing WASPS (as were my Irish Catholic ancestors.)
Glad you are beginning to accept the idea that non-right-wing- WASPS are people too.
1
Our Kindergartens may no longer be majority WASP, but they are majority white, as the US will be for many decades to come. Being a Catholic with ancestors from Southern Europe makes one no less 'white' than being a Protestant with ancestors from England and Germany.
The vast majority of Latinos are Catholics with ancestors from Southern Europe, and will identify as 'white' in three generations, just like the Italian, Greek, Slavic, Polish, and Irish immigrants before them. That's the commonality of America
1
You write: "...soon there will be no white majority in our society."
This is not true, even though statistically-illiterate publicists have sold most Americans on the proposition.
The claimed magic date is about 2045 for the end of a white majority.
The trick, an underhanded one, for getting this result is to count White Hispanics as Non-white. Thus, for example, if Italian-Argentine Pope Francis were American, he would be counted as Non-white. Unlike the Italian popes from Italy.
If, correctly, Pope-Francis-like people, ie White Hispanic, are counted as white, the US will be 60% white (majority) in 2045, not 48% (minority)
On the other hand, if the Census Bureau keeps counting White Hispanics as Non-white, including people from Spain or descendants, how about a bunch of other groups, counted as white, and arguably no whiter than the Spanish.
A list of these groups: Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern, North African, Balkan, we Eastern Slavs---significantly Tatar-Mongol, Iranians, and other smaller populations.
Suppose we use the same sleight of hand as with White Hispanics, and declare these people Non-white. In this case, we have, RIGHT NOW, about 50% non-white, 50% white. And the age of white domination is already over.
So, doing it correctly means minority-majority is for my aged grandchildren. Maybe. Doing it with all the white-Hispanic-type groups as non-white, ie a la the Census Bureau's white=Non-white arithmetic, but better, we are already seeing it.
1
Bravo on your article but as a Native American I reject your feel good theme
3
"We could learn to be minorities together...." I agree, but I am not hopeful as I see it not happening for some time so long as we have the white aging male in charge. It will take some time for that dynamic to wind down and they will go kicking and screaming and hiding behind, "the good book"
Taking it further, “NOT HAVING A NATIONAL NARRATIVE” could and perhaps would result in the breaking up of the United States. California and Alabama cannot be more different, and that difference is getting deeper by the day. My question to Mr. Brooks is this: do we need a Federal government?
You reference the American Dream. Your father attended PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. The American dream can be realized through a few public offerings, things the GOP fights against with all its might. We need affordable housing; fair pay; public preschool, elementary, high school, and college; access to healthcare; and a system that does not discriminate. We have to stop the indiscriminate killing and jailing of black people. We must close down the concentration camps at the border and acknowledge that there are precious human beings inside.
1
I deeply appreciate your writing!! Thank you!
Optimism? I don't get it from this piece. Fragmentation and disassociation from the common good sound defeatist, not optimistic. We are a nation or we are not. To be a nation we need a common belief in ourselves, in our common good, and the willingness to see its realization. Otherwise we have a Baltic hodgepodge.
The deplorable conditions from the 1890s didnt go away because some white, Christian plurality existed. They went away because of the new deal, unions, minimum wage, and many other policies that shifted the US from third world status to something approaching a decent standard of living for most of citizens. To leave this out of the story is to completely miss the history of our country over the last 100 years. Why does the New York Times continue to give over space to such misguided nonsense.
Brooks writes ever more philosophically and optimistically to camouflage his years as a conservative intellectual which ultimately brought us Trump and "American carnage". Sorry David; just quoting your Republican President.
I'd be a lot more optimistic at this point if Republicans upheld their sworn oaths to the Constitution and force Trump to resign or be impeached. They have the power, and they are moral cowards. It's killing the country.
1
Well done David.
Jim
Wilmette, Illinois
David Brooks: "Nearly 200 years ago, Tocqueville wrote that democracy was creating a new sort of man. Pluralism today is creating a new sort of person, especially among the young. They don’t just relish diversity; they embody it. Many have mixed roots — say, half-French/half-Dominican. Many are border stalkers; they live between cultures, switch back and forth, and work hard to build a multiplicity of influences into a single coherent life. They’re Whitmanesque, containing multitudes, holding opposite ideas in their minds at the same time."
I hope so. But this is pretty much a description of the artistic life, the great scientist's life, the designer's life,--a creative life in other words, one of not so much profit as meaning, ironically prophet rather than profit, one of self-sacrifice and constant rethinking, theorizing to set things up according to a better design. This is starkly opposed by the life of mere profit, the desire to hatch some scheme by which one can gather as many people as possible under some brand or idea or product with the least effort, least expenditure. The prophetic human, a Whitman, looks first to as many influences, lines of direction, contradictions as possible then tries to unite them. The mere profiteer does the opposite, tries to find the single and easiest thing to yoke people, get them all to follow with docility. And of course the profiteer is more likely to get congratulated for his great idea and the prophet blamed for subversion.
The US does have a national narrative. Always has and always will. It is "We the People."
We the people can right our listing ship. We the people can make America greater. We the people can make this country what it should be.
Whether "can" becomes "will" remains to be seen. But it's up to us, the people.
No one forced Mitch McConnell on us. No one forced Donald Trump on us. It is all in front of our eyes, glaringly obvious. We don't have to be led around by phony politicians and their propaganda generating puppeteers like cattle.
Too many of "we the people" are too lazy to vote; too lazy to try to figure out how to get from where we are to where we want to be; too lazy to use their brains.
David Brooks like so many of us are looking for a new narrative, new tools so to speak, rather than looking at the narrative or tools we have.
Radical pluralism is a philosophical concept that clouds the meaning of our national narrative, we the people. Pluralism is how we the people works in government and civil society. It's what we are about as a people. There is nothing radical about it.
105
@Davym Yup, people voted these people in. And too many who can vote, don't. And others, who have benefitted from policies they don't like prefer to rip out that support and leave everyone else in the dirt.
5
@Davym you're right. Use what is available in plain sight.
2
@Davym“Too many of "we the people" are too lazy to vote; too lazy to try to figure out how to get from where we are to where we want to be; too lazy to use their brains.”
America was founded on “We the people”, unless you were black or Native American. Man’s inhumanity to man lead to the Civil War, and even after emancipation, de facto slavery continued into the 20th century. From 1778 to 1871, more than 500 treaties with Native American tribes have either been violated in some way or outright broken. As Solzhenitsyn said, “the line between good and evil cuts through the center of every human heart.” A black man fights bravely in WWII, only to return and be denied a seat at a lunch counter. People do not “naturally” do the right thing. America has always been a test of whether we could summon, as Lincoln said, “the better angels of our nature”. This is more than just “too lazy to use their brains.” If you take a man who is stealing spikes from a railroad track, and send him to Harvard, when he graduates he’ll steal the whole train. America has always been a balance scale between evil/greed/racism,etc. on one side and love/altruism on the other. The best you can do is to clear your own vision and reform yourself. Your vote reflects your condition.
8
We white people need to learn to share, help others, and start trusting. I worked for Nortel Networks before Roth took his famous right hand or left hand turn or whatever he called it that drove the 125 year old Canadian company into the ground. But not before walking away with $140M in bonus money. Anyway I worked with every color, every ethic group in the book and what I learned is that people of different backgrounds don't bite. They are quite nice and helpful actually. Treat people with respect and they will treat you with respect. What a concept.
Also, the American people have not learned yet that K Street lobby money owns Washington and owns both political parties. Until that changes 99% of American concerns will never be addressed. Period.
1
When people do not assimilate there is invariably a price to pay. Be different if you must but don't expect to ever be accepted. This is called human nature.
1
"I used to think that America had to find a new unifying national narrative. Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative." Or, how about detaching from overly freighted emotional dichotomies such as race or religion? We are all one, and that should be our universal narrative, not just national.
"Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative."
"Don’t be afraid to be a distinct, orthodox version of yourself within a larger society."
someone like me, aware of climate change and the reckless, appalling damages it will inflict on future generations, finds the breezy injunction to "go forth and disagree" unsettling and deeply disturbing, coming as it does from a climate denier like Brooks.
"Don't be afraid to be a distinct, orthodox climate denier within a larger society of snowflakes."
""Now I wonder if disagreeing forever about climate change will become our national narrative."
doesn't sound so pearly and iridescent then, does it -- this promise of "radical pluralism"!
what exactly is the "dose of optimism" here? that we all agree to disagree? this is merely the fragmentation and collapse of central authority described by Tainter's "collapse of complex societies."
i would hate to declare our collapse before we had actually confronted climate change. it seems to me too much like a cowardly capitulation.
1
Our planet Earth is giving us a lesson we will have to learn to be together ALL OF US to save our lives....
1
Dream on, Mr. Brooks. I guess it feels better to be positive and imagine a future not ravaged by the horrors of climate change, nuclear disaster, famine, social upheaval, mass migration, pandemic, corruption, and -- above all, to address the subject of your essay -- the racial, ethnic, and religious hatred perpetrated by Trumpian despotism and ethics, and Trump's clones around the globe.
When I hear some of the remarks mouthed by many Trump supporters at his recent campaign kickoff, I lose all hope for humanity. The meanness and ignorance is overwhelming. And I don't want to let the idiotic parade of Democratic presidential candidates off the hook on this. Their internecine squabbling and back-biting typifies the way ALL politicians think: The motive for seeking office is not a desire to serve their community, their fellow citizens. It is a desire for personal power. And achieving that power means condemning their colleagues with bitter recriminations and accusations, all leading to further division and hatred.
Yes, it feels better to be optimistic. Sadly, it is deeply dishonest to ignore the horrors that are upon us.
3
Mr. Brooks, I very frequently disagree with what you write but I continue to read your columns because every now and then you a brilliant piece, something to be treasured and remembered. Today's piece is one of them. Thank you
1
In an age grappling globally with human rights abroad and at home, aren't we all "chosen people?" The necessary juridical and legislative shift toward human rights normative legal thinking offers no panacea. However, it helps put into check notions, such as, misogyny, racism, anti-semitism, anti-islamic, anti-religious, child abuse, child abuse, anti-wealth/anti-worker attitudes: the whole kit and caboodle of global sado-masochistic social, economic, cultural, civil and political tendencies the human race struggles to contain. Brooks seems to be personally and intellectually grappling with all demons by appreciating the truly good, soul-nourishing things that help us all to maintain healthful identities. Best wishes to us all. It is a path forward.
All this typically Hegelian-based "optimism" has to stop, Mr Brooks.
As Cioran said of Hegel himself, he "failed to see that consciousness changes only its forms and modalities, but never progresses."
Unless every single column in this newspaper is about the looming disaster of climate change, the rest is just talking for the sake of doing so.
The country's going to hell in a hand basket, we all know it, and we're not going to have any fresh air left to breathe anyway in about, oooh, 7 minutes, relatively speaking.
There: Fixed that for you. Enjoy your Friday! :)
1
My father didn't graduate high school, enlisting at 17. He spent his life chasing two nickels to rub together, giving up a kidney to fund his American dream. It never materialized and he left my mother a nightmare no sporadic Tom Thumb paycheck could alleviate. I showered and ate on the generosity of friends and strangers while raw sewage permeated my bedroom. Unlike Mr. Brook's easy ascend, doing well in school was impossible, especially in tandem with the violence and neglect at home. When I was shot no one took me to a hospital. Nor when I was raped. We had no insurance and poverty was treated with the medicine of parental removal. Unlike Mr. Brooks who tries but fails to inspire optimism through his proud prism of white privilege, I know my survival was not my own, or my parents, but the manifestation of a community of good Samaritans who believed I too deserved a David Brooks chance.
Mr. Brook's still can't appreciate his 1st (or 3rd) base start was a privileged one. It's arrogant to marginalize the behind home plate experience of others, by just telling them to get over it and get along, especially those who have been institutionally oppressed. With caged immigrant children now housed not far from my beautiful home town, I'm not optimistic we have evolved.
Perhaps it's survivors guilt, but I believe its our duty, once well fed, to feed others. Our common thread, the ties that bind, should be to level the playing field so we can all have a David Brooks advantage.
3
The national narrative is "acceptance"
We accept you - you accept US
And with that acceptance we can build a just society and lead a just world
2
Optimism.
I need to feel that. I read the label and open my mind to take in morning-friendly language of Mr. Brooks. I ingest regularly as a mild thought exercise. No bitter taste. No side effect.
But totally placebo.
America has cancer ptsd chronic otherism pathological mysogony and blood on our hands.
We each gotta break our own daily salty bitter sweat to change our toxic body that is america. Cuz I won't blame the next generation for shunning the funeral if we don't try to clear the air and thoughts we make them breathe as children.
All that to say nice placebo Mr. Brooks but I need Goldenseal root now.
Hey David!
Your column is a beauty! Full of truth.
Good luck trying to convince the Trumpists.
Regards,
SZB
2
"I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative." Well, duh.
Not having a single national narrative has been our national narrative for over 200 years. People came, and continue to come, from every nation on earth. They become hyphen-Americans and their children become straight-up, all-inclusive Americans.
Simple as that.
1
"Plus, there is no longer a single American mainstream to serve as the structural spine of the nation."
Radical pluralism is the single mainstream that can be our spine for decades to come if white male America can get over themselves and out of its way.
2
You lost me as soon as you mention Ralph Lauren in the company of Abraham Lincoln and/or your grandfather Bernard Levy. The connection is so spurious, so absurd, that it edges up on national blasphemy. Radical Pluralism is a truly a fascinating concept; you need to do a lot more thinking about its implications.
Your grandfather's story happens so much less today because of real, empirical facts: salaries have stagnated, public school education is often inferior, higher education costs way too much (CUNY was free until circa 1970); living costs have skyrocketed, medical care is absurdly costly, etc.
Let's get these real things under control and stop with the airy-fairy psychological/cultural musings.
2
@Anne Isn't CUNY free now? I thought NY provides free tuition for middle and low income families. Other states should follow it's example.
"When you grow up with this background," how do you become a conservative voice for privilege?
How do you not see those still struggling? Where are they in this writing? They don't exist in this world, but they do in the real world.
3
And who is furiously resisting this joyful, life-affirming, dynamically positive pluralism which the youth of America are the dramatic exemplars of? It is your Republican party Mr. Brooks, particularly after its surrender to and capture by the amoral authoritarian Trump. You still are incapable to bring your argument to its logical conclusion. Sad that you ideologically cannot take that final step,in tribute to your remarkable ancestors.
2
Maybe narratives themselves are the problem. Perhaps we could just focus on the here and now: there's a person, be kind to them; here's the earth, care for it...
2
Whew. Thoughts such as yours calm my fears of imminent national destruction. Perspective, perspective, perspective!
Could you say that this is another take on E Pluribus Unum?
This is a promising first draft of an op-ed column. I look forward to reading the final draft one day soon, after David Brooks straightens out his meandering argument (photos...Grandpa Levy...the Jewish diaspora...pluralism) and improves on his rather obvious discovery that America has become more diverse. (Imagine! Who knew?) The brilliant Randolph Bourne wrote about "trans-national America" more than a century ago, and memorably described the U.S. as "the first international nation." I hope that some kind friend gives Brooks a copy of Bourne's work.
1
I like Brook’s articles, and I’ve seen a trend in his writing: there is always one strong truth hidden in the middle of each article, and here I think it is this one: “ Interact with the world around you, confident in your own particularity, but realize that every time you seek to dominate others, you will wind up dominated.” In other words, know you have rights, but realize it comes with responsibility; if not, you lose.
117
@Roy
Yes. I read this twice realizing the interact thought resonated. This is what I hope our next President can lead with. Planting gardens and seeking peace would be nice too.
9
@Roy Point on!
The single most noteworthy line in this column was: "Mainline Protestantism is no longer the dominant religion and cultural force."
Although there are differences between among them that once caused great wars, mainline Protestantism was really similar to Catholicism: in both tradtions there was a "moderation of practice and belief" that helped shape our notions of right and wrong and that gave a cultural force to America.
I likely have not stated this well in what I described above, but my point is that the extremism of evangelical christianism has deeply harmed the national fabric and our mainstream religious traditions have not lifted a finger to correct this.
For many reasons, these mainline forms of Christianity have failed us and have diminshed their influence on our norms. The evangelica,l fundamentalist, extremist versions of christianism seem to have exerted an abnormal amount of influence over national life.
2
Nice story. Lofty goals. I lost myself in the optimism briefly.
However every word written here about embracing a multi-cultural society is anathema to this Republican president, the GOP congress, and especially the Trump faithful.
Again, nice words though.
2
Alas, those good old days with mostly-white kindergartens, when our nation had a ‘spine” and a ‘narrative”. What a curious flavor of nostalgia you have, Mr. Brooks.
3
"Jacob A. Riis: Photographer and Citizen" by Alexander Alland is a book of stunningly beautiful photographs of NYC in the late 1890s.
This was the era when the Social Gospel thinking of Mainstream Christianity was beginning and was to be one of the greatest influences of the 20th Century - up to the
1970's.
1
1) Show me a city with a large immigrant population and I will show you a city teeming with hope; that most precious of human commodities. That's why immigrants are drawn to them, and why we should cherish them. Thanks for reminding us.
2) As much as the more maleable identity that Brooks describes can be a blessing, it can also be a curse and source of risk. One has to ponder where commitment comes from. And here I don't mean blind patriotism, but an urge towards the public and national (or at least regional) interest. It is not to suggest that pluralism *necessarily* leads to disengagement, but if I am not part of this or that society or nation, why should I strive to better it? Why would I decide that its betterment is every bit as important as my own?
So, in that sense, what Brooks describes is a bit like a cliff. One can leap from it and soar majestically, or stumble and fall a long way. Just watch where you step, is all, and reflect on where your devotion is directed now and then.
Thank you for your optimistic view that we will emerge from the Trump nightmare into something good. I wish I shared your optimism.
We long have called the United States a melting pot. Our melting pot, however, has become a centrifuge. The new power structure that has emerged to polarize Americans, in my view, is a right wing media that disregards or distorts the facts to match its world view. Yes, I know that the left does the same but not as effectively.
What is missing now is a mainstream media that moderates the conversation. It is missing because modern media is competing for advertising dollars and moderation does not sell these days. So, there is a vacuum in the middle, in the media, in politics, in governance and in everything.
So, will diversity bring us back? I look for the rainbow in every storm and the rainbow is indeed diversity (at least in sexual identity) and it is rejected by the right. So, at this Trumpian moment, when 40 percent of Americans approve of a President who is as incompetent as he is corrupt and immoral, I find myself in doubt. Can we really just click our slippers together and end up somewhere over the rainbow?
3
Sure, Mr. Brooks, you can see optimism but that’s because you live in a place that is liberal, you have a high, steady income, you have your friends and family who surround you, all this let’s you live in a bubble. Out here in the heartland where “real americans” live it’s turning into a dystopian plain. We can’t pay our bills on $10 and hour, we can’t get an education without taking on obscene amounts of debt, forget about buying a house, who would want to bring a child into this world. Our new motto for the US has become “Can’t”. We can’t fix things, can’t have nice things, can’t compromise on the most basic of needs for most Americans, can’t fix/change healthcare, can’t do anything about the environment, we can’t stop dying early because of suicide and opioid addiction. The only thing it appears we can do is prop up the rich and corporations with another tax cut, we have killed of optimism with a hundred cuts and we can’t do anything to stop it.
4
By identifying some as “real Americans” you may have missed the point that we are all Americans, and hopefully in that we continue to strive towards a better future.
Perhaps it is possible to build a peaceful and prosperous democratic society of creative minorities such as you imagine, but it would run against the grain of history. Instead, on Tuesday our President presented a different vision of America through his spiritual advisor. Speaking to a worldwide audience, she prayed before a cheering mass: "Let every demonic network that has aligned itself against the purpose, against the calling of President Trump, let it be broken, let it be torn down in the name of Jesus." Apparently, from the perspective of Trump and his white evangelical supporters, the rest of us are all demons now. The idea of creative interaction would seem unlikely in such a society.
1
Some minimal level of social coherence is a prerequisite for trust and cooperation in ANY society. Our current political/cultural predicament is a stark testimony to what happens when such coherence is lost. What you are suggesting is a dangerous pipe dream. Let's hope we don't ever go this road. TG
1
It is strange for me to think America was once "monolithic" culturally. I came from Europe 20+ years ago and my experience was of great diversity with no clear ethnic majority except for my short stay in Oklahoma.
Also, I am not sure how much people identify as Americans first when they have complex histories of living out of the country.
There are ideals of freedom, democracy, opportunity we embrace together. America does not have exclusivity on those and may no longer be seen as the best champion for them.
As the lone remaining superpower, this is sad that politically we are giving up the opportunity to lead making this world a better place.
I am optimistic that a multiculturally aware America will be better and do better as a citizen of the world. Looking at the democrats house representatives diversity, I say this is us, this is progress, united by purpose not ethnicity.
Thank you David for mentioning Walt Whitman, perhaps the quinta essential. He contained multitudes, but also sang the song himself. He was probably gay, sang of glories of both men and women. He was not an optimist for he saw the horrors of war first hand and watched his hero, Abraham Lincoln, assassinated by those who would tare us apart. He was never rich nor sought to be, but only longed to find that core that embraced the world within and without himself and yearned to transcend time in a blade of grass. He was a poet of the individual and the collective,but as a poet was always partially the outsider looking in.
Americans as was Walt Whitman are restless and foolish as well as wise and kind hearted, accepting and selfish. The question has always been as Lincoln pointed out will our better natures preserve us or our worst destroy us? The jury is out, but sad to say our choices have not been good ones lately.
Mr. Brooks asks whether not having a single national narrative will become America’s national narrative. However, he began to outline that narrative – an extension and broadening of the standard narrative.
That narrative brushed by the significance of diverse groups of Americans. Even in colonial times, different parts of the (now) US were settled predominantly by difverse cultural groups – English, Scots, Germans, Puritans, Sephardic Jews, and more. In many ways they remained distinct, but in the 1770s they united enough to form a nation.
The “melting pot” heated constituent groups hot enough to cause intermixing at their mutual interfaces, but not to create total alloying.
By Tocqueville’s time old and new constituent groups had spread across much of North America. Even during the huge immigrations of the late 19th-early 20th centuries, the process of partial intermixing continued. The US was becoming a polyglot nation.
Today, ethnic awareness and a renewed rise in immigration are writing a new chapter; and African-Americans finally play greater and more visible roles. “Rights” and “diversity” may seem to presage revolutionary changes in the narrative, but in many ways it resembles the rises of “ethnic groups” – Irish and Italians, for example – during the 20th Century. Because of an increased ideological overlay and politicization to immigration and other politics, centrifugal tendencies may fracture the nation. On the other hand, American history may rhyme again.
Here is a reality check.
Either way we are doomed.
Climate changes that are irreversible, tax cuts for the rich that will keep us in debt for generations.
Anyone under 30 will NEVER see their social security or Medicare.
Thanks to climate change anyone under 30 won’t need it because they won’t have quality of life to go past 65.
The end
You know, 50 years ago I saw the same comment about Social Security and Medicare.
2
I share your optimism, sir. My family is diverse and I see diversity all around me. I also see fear and animosity, but I feel the Trump era is a movement of last-gaspers whose incompetence and irrationality will be their only legacy.
But I do have signposts that may someday point me to an even more optimistic county. I believe that soon we will have a popular movement that pushes the education of Spanish language into all levels of school. People will realize that, if we are all bilingual, we will finally be connected to the rest of the hemisphere. There are also many cognitive benefits to bilingualism. And, finally, we will be able to greet our Hispanic neighbors, who work so hard and are genuinely grateful for their lives here in the United States -- a gratitude not shared by too many Americans, I might add -- with the warmth and compassion they have so richly earned. From the beginning, we have needed them. We need them more now. It is time we spoke up.
3
David's "new narrative" could be the old gem: Live and let live>
2
I'm on a bowling team with 3 other people. The changing structural spine of the nation enters our thoughts very rarely, if ever. We have never had a conversation about our multipolar society destroying the national narrative. You know what we do care about? Three of our team have trouble paying the $21 weekly fee, and one man just spent a solid week in bed under heavy painkillers (probably opiods) because he couldn't afford to fix a simple abscessed tooth. Our American dream is that someday our financial hardship will be abated to the extent that we can care about the subtle nuances of national narrative theory.
5
Bravo for your refreshing absence of nostalgia (and fear), for clear sight. A snapshot: in a local Brooklyn restaurant, I noted that the mostly 30-something crowd looked half indigenous tribe(s), half global brand. Yes, it's New York...but yes, like a kind of prophesy, that's about it.
1
It would be nice if most of us had the time and energy to navel gaze like Mr. Brooks, but I guess that in part what he is paid to do. Today many are too busy working two part time jobs or doing contract labor with no benefits, many younger people also trying to pay off student debt, older people dealing with being unemployable, the homeless I see everyday in tents under the viaduct and a president and Republicans telling us they they will take Obamacare away because its "really bad" without offering a better alternative. David I hope that in all of your contemplative time you can come up with some solutions. The only way out that I see at the moment is an eventual revolution.
3
The nostalgia expressed in this piece is not as nauseating as some others penned by the fabulist, Mr. Brooks; however, it does imply that somehow that WASP puritanical patriarchy is somehow missed. Not really. Happy to see it sunset. Perhaps now we can begin to truly embrace our Enlightenment founders. The immigrant family photograph is poignantly iconic of our people some years past, and worth remembering. But we have moved forward slowly, unfortunately, stopped currently by the Cartel Trump and neoliberal capitalists who want to appropriate and brand as their own ancestry the struggles of Ellis immigrants while funding a border wall and paying ICE mercenaries. I hope the new narrative will be both pluralistic and absolutely positive, a story that tells of the last gasp of polluters and conmen who failed in their efforts at self-enrichment and resource annihilation before they were able to destroy civilization.
4
@C. Davis
"however, it does imply that somehow that WASP puritanical patriarchy is somehow missed."
I believe Mr. Brooks used this to suggest the idea of cohesion and with such unity societal improvements were more possible - not that WASP was the ideal but it was the makeup of the country.
1
Mr. Brooks captures in his article the core difference between conservative and progressive thought in this country. Climbing your way our of sub-human living conditions, as Mr. Brooks' grandfather had done, is a tale told with pride by the conservative; questioning why these terrible living conditions should ever have and continue to exist, for those left behind, in the richest nation on earth, is the concern of the progressive. You tell me which viewpoint is more human, and I'll tell you which one represents the real story of the American experience.
8
The new society is digital. It is the world of information and dis-information that helps and hurts settlements of new communities with like-minds and cooperation. We live in a bygone era. Persecution has always existed for some ethnic groups more than others. But now it moves at the speed of a tweet that brings fear and paranoia and mostly, lies that build walls, not communities.
I believe there is hope. People aren't all bad and there is momentum now in running for office, action, pushing back. But not enough action by all of us. As the people who have established comfortable lives "north of the lower east side", I think we should be doing more. A lot more, to help people who are the landing on our soil in search of a better life. After all, previous suffering of generations before us laid the pathway. We should be doing the same.
1
As is often the case, when Mr. Brooks is having a good day (that is, when he is not deep in some spiritual quest) he circles and flits around a valid idea while avoiding the crux of the matter. The elections of 2016 and 2018 show that over half of Americans embrace his goals of diversity and enlightened self-interest. Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of others who cling to nativist xenophobic values and conspiracy theories and who are emboldened by Trump and the GOP sycophants in Congress, many of whose policies are those Mr. Brooks has supported in the past. Consider the good folks in St. Cloud, Minn. profiled in a news item in today's NYT, obsessed with the fears of white replacement and Shariah law. How do they line up on the optimism and diversity issue?
3
No majority, no unifying culture, no nation, and soon - no country. Not even a Federation will be left behind. Maybe a Corporation of cities.
1
This is the hundredth anniversary of the the end of World War I, which we entered late and with difficulty. Large constituencies didn't want to go in at all. Those of German descent didn't want to fight Germany. Those of Irish descent didn't want to help the English. I could go on. The point is, we were trying to make one country out of all the countries of Europe and we succeeded, albeit with difficulty. Now we're trying to make one country out of all the countries in the world, and my guess is the same thing will be true.
1
It seems to me that nowadays our nation is becoming less and less organized by culture, skin color, and income level, and more and more organized by political affiliation. Today's version of the 1967 movie, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner would focus on the relationship of a young man or woman bringing his or her Bernie Sanders supporting fiancé home to meet his/her Trump supporting parents. Culture, color, sexual identity, income--all would matter less than the fiancé's politics.
3
@fourfooteleven
Nothig new under the sun. That's what that Archie Bunker show, whatever its name was, was all about.
1
There is one thing we must all share, and that is respect for each other's inherent dignity as a human being. But that doesn't arise in a vacuum. What is a human being that we should respect him?
Without that commitment, how can we avoid civic strife?
1
@Thomas Alderman Regardless of person, most of us want the same thing; we want to be loved. We love music, our favorite sports teams, family, community, work and our faith. But do we love ourselves? Before we can truly love any of the latter we have to love ourselves and be proactive in so doing. It starts by seeing ourselves living life in a healthy range in regards to diet and exercise. We all think about what we have to do to lead better lives, but do we have a plan? Can we visualize a plan? Where do you see yourself in 4 years in regards to health, weight and emotional state? How are you managing work, family and me time? As you seek answers for these questions keep in mind to be alive is to connect with all living things around you. Most of us have an abundance of love and good intentions we want to share with the world. Begin with yourself and a clear vision of the best you possible. Once this starts to become a self fulfilling prophecy a light will start to glow from within you. As you take care of this light your glow will gradually encompass the room you're in. All the people around you will start to fell the warmth emanating from you. Soon all those around you will see it too. In time it will spill over into the streets reaching all your friends, family, neighbors and
coworkers. We are the stories we tell ourselves.
@José Franco
Thanks for your thoughts, but you didn't answer my question: What is a human being that we should respect him?
My answer, of course, is that we have value and dignity because we were created in the image of God. There is no other possible basis for a healthy society.
1
I'm continually amazed that David can blithely write column after column about kindness or optimism, never once mention the heinous acts and policies of his political party.
And yet, he clearly considers himself not only a moral person, but superior enough to lecture others on the subject.
That is frightening.
It's a classic "hey, look over there!" diversion tactic, designed so neither the reader nor him have to believe their lying' eyes
rather than his diversionary platitudes.
I can only conclude that David supports the acts of Trump and the GOP, and has therefore also lost any moral awareness.
5
David Brooks makes an excellent point when he comments: “Pluralism today is creating a new sort of person, especially among the young. They don’t just relish diversity; they embody it.”
Sounds like the optimism of the 1960s, and a call to once again dare to dream!
1
Your daily dose of despair from a Thycididean realist:as both a farmer and historian by profession I despair over climate change, a subject many scientist but few historians publicly address. History makes me profoundly pessimistic about the human prospects. Our democracy wasn’t very fast on the uptake when it faced the clear and dire emergency of fascism in Europe, and won’t be with something as abstract as climate change.
The indifference has been a historic crime, and we are facing our first waves of catastrophe. E.g., few historians or national security analysts would dispute that climate change was what was known as a “stressor” (i.e., not an ultimate, but a solidly contributing cause) resulting in the outbreak of civil war in Syria. Why?
In 2005 record heat in Russia depressed wheat harvests; Russia exported no wheat that year, the main markets of which are the Middle East and North Africa. The attendant rise in bread prices resulted in all manner of regime change and destabilization throughout the region, but in Syria the unusually warm weather impoverished small farmers, adding further to Syria’s instability and civil war. Need I go into the refugee crisis that resulted?
And what happens if two nuclear powers – say India and Pakistan - go to war over, say, disappearing waters in the Himmalayas? What happens when the tens of millions who inhabit vulnerable deltas (in Egypt, or Bangladesh) are displaced?
So excuse me if I've no patience for feel-good fluff.
2
"Jeremiah was saying you don’t need to assimilate into the new place. "
Yes, you do. Your security and survival depends on it. I say this as an immigrant. And as far as I'm concerned, 'aggressive interaction' is just another way of saying assimilate with strong boundaries.
The internet (social media) now dominates culture, Mr. Brooks and there is a dominant musical genre - hip-hop. It's what connects and controls young minds. It's misleading to say that a 'single American mainstream' no longer exists. Protestantism may no longer be the dominant religion, but power and influence still grows out of the same lines.
We were and hopefully always will be a nation of never-ending change predicated on individual freedom and collective hope. Our core never stops changing as each new wave of migrants changes the landscape and is absorbed into the main. The idea of rags to riches, under attack today, is still the beacon that guides people to our shores. A better life. A life without want. All brought to you by what some see as evil, capitalism. Our migrant problem is actually not a problem. It is a validation that while we squabble over petty details, the rest of the world knows that the dream is still alive.
"We have no choice but to build a mass multicultural democracy, a society that has no dominant center but is a collection of creative minorities."
Republicans do not support that statement. America could be a land of milk and honey if conservatives stopped fighting America becoming multicultural.
4
In truth I find it hard to understand what "being American" is anymore.
At least not since our entire national identity has become so inextricably linked with this President, that it leaves little room for anything else.
Of course being bi-racial and a duo-national certainly adds to the complexity of the situation because the narrative is that much more diverse.
But it does allow one to look at this country both up close and from far away.
And I'm often afraid of what I'm seeing.
The promises this land once held for many, from thousands of miles away seem to have faded.
Even though they still keep coming.
And our present-day society has all but been reduced to nativists and tribalists who have little interest in anything other than themselves and those of like mind.
While it's almost nostalgic to think that once we lived up to our motto E pluribus unum -- "out of many, one" it has become as much a memory as an ideal.
This may not be optimistic. But sadly, it's true.
1
Good job, Mr. Brooks. I like the personal history!
And I like the diversity that is allowed by the "pocket" version of the Declaration of Independence which is hinted at in what we call the "Pledge of Allegiance," and to which we all subscribe:
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Especially that last bit.... "...with liberty and justice for all." We're not there yet.
1
David Brooks should remember that the Progressive movement empowered his grandfather and other workers. Unions gave employees a bigger share of the fruits of American enterprise. Brooks is in favor of neoliberalism which allows capital to wage war on labor. That must change before many Americans will have hope.
5
@Boston Barry
Well put.
The sink or swim approach is what has put over 40 million in poverty with the lower and middle classes teetering on the brink.
So, I won't be optimistic as long as I see the problems being ignored.
2
I gravitate to any opinion piece that cites Walt Whitman as a source of inspiration and explanation!!!
His poetry celebrated America's richness, complexity, diversity, confusion, expansiveness and inclusion.
Exactly what we need now.
Well done Mr Brooks!
4
I believe Bernard Levy, and his grandson, embody the sacrifice of parent for child; of the present for the future: family, community, hope, rather than despair, thoughtful and engaged, not tribal!
That is a cultural element seemingly in descent, but very much alive in emotionally healthy people, families and communities. It is not a cultural artifact, albeit some of us choose to make it so.
“Worlds Apart” is a Greek film that well shows us this cultural dichotomy, in a part of the world that has suffered far more than have we!
Too many of us put our problems into the world, rather than understanding that they are our problems. We have a much better chance of solving our own problems if we try to assist others, the world, with the problems we share.
2
There is a Puritanical tradition in this country (it started with the Puritans) that asserts that it is not enough that individuals be good in the eyes of god. Those individuals have a right and duty to force their family to be good, their fellow church members to be good, their neighbors to be good.
.
We see that tradition today on the right when they seek to limit the rights of women to an abortion, even in the first trimester, or trying to ban Drag Queen story time. We see that tradition today on the left that tries to shut down Catholic adoption agencies, try to sue bakers out of business if they won't make a cake for a gay wedding, or fire public employees with non-approved views on social issues.
.
Please don't tell me how different those are; try to see it from the other side's perspective, for once. There is a clear difference between right and wrong: limiting the rights of others to act according to their beliefs is wrong. This is clear with abortion, but do we really need to sue bakers who don't want to bake cakes for gay weddings? If a teacher or a fire chief publicly opposes gay marriage, do they need to be fired? Or can we tolerate that.
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The religious right needs to learn that they don't represent a majority of Americans. The secular left needs to use their cultural dominance with a light touch, not using it to punish and banish those who commit thought crimes. Can everyone please limit the self-righteousness?
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@Tom Meadowcroft If a teacher or a fire chief publicly opposes gay marriage, it does call into question their ability to properly serve the public, all of the public. We are, after all, dependent on their services and we do pay their salaries. They are entitled to their views, privately. But when they feel the need to publicly air their opposition to a segment of society, then we have every right to question their ability to perform their job with respect and fairness to all. It has nothing to do with self-righteousness.
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@MD
But we no longer have private lives, private views. In the majority of cases, these individuals are 'outed' because of something that was on their facebook page, a comment that they made in a blog, or a club they are a member of.
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We cannot punish people for what they THINK, only for what they DO. If there is a case that the fire chief has actually discriminated against or otherwise ACTED against gays or lesbians, then he should be disciplined or dismissed. Not simply for opposing gay marriage, whether his views were public or not. You can't have a society that is tolerant of minority views if having a minority view gets you fired from a public office. That's no different than saying it's OK to be Jewish, as long as you're not on the public payroll. Are we going back to that America?
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And of course it has to do with self-righteousness. Anybody claiming that another's views are unacceptable is being self-righteous.
@Tom Meadowcroft
You've put your finger on something fundamentally important. The "push back" to your comment, that it's less than ideal to have a public servant who publicly opposes gay marriage could be (and is) mirrored on the right when someone claims it is less than ideal when people act outside of traditional cultural norms. Perhaps the fundamental mistake people on both sides are making is comparing what exists against their idealized, imaginary, and diametrically opposed visions. But the hidden, unexamined, and erroneous assumption is that we can force our imaginary vision on others without resistance. In the real world, people on both sides will react to intrusive, coercive legislation. Instead, visionaries should abandon fanciful options and think of choosing among real options. Likely, the best REAL option is to cool the impulse to force or legislate a world in our own image; we must live with people who, in our view, are less-than-perfect and simply try to hear their story.
As Rodney King, the victim of the infamously brutal police beating in the LA riots, said in his first public statement after that appalling incident, "Can't we all get along?" That graciousness, in the face of sickening brutality, has stayed with me for decades. Thank you, David Brooks, for expounding on it so well. So simple to learn and yet so difficult to master.
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Brooks seems to have a least for little while shaken off his weltschmerz over Trump destroying his Republican party.
I completely agree with his optimism based on my interactions with my grandchildren.
The past weekend my wife and I attended our older grand daughter's high school graduation party in a suburb of St Paul, MN. In the mix of students attending there were two young men one of which was wearing a Princeton tee shirt the other was going to Johns Hopkins. Both of whom mixed in with the other young people in a just normal way.
Both were born of first generation parents from Africa. The older grandson's best friends parents are first generation from South America. They met and bonded not at little league baseball but at soccer.
I believe our metro areas are leading the way and the rest of our insular country will be increasingly on the outside looking in on our progressive and prosperous future.
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@Edward B. Blau
Weltschmertz!
A new word and idea for me.
Thanks!
Rare for me to agree with Mr. Brooks, but I do think he is insightful here. The column is not about forcing optimism as some of the comments seem to suggest. It is about the idea of moving from the melting pot metaphor, in which I have always been invested (and as Mr. Brooks indicates he was as well), into more of a construction type model in which different types of materials (steel, concrete, stone, copper, etc.) are used to erect new kinds of structures. Each material retains its characteristics and unique qualities yet build the contributes to the strength of the whole. An interesting idea I had not previously considered.
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Thank you for arriving at my conclusion years ago, of course I lived in Texas.
We do need a common goal, we do need a Congress, a Supreme Court, and land that reflects our different beliefs and ideas Mr Brooks, we cannot just want "yesterday" as it's gone. Perhaps it will just take time. Having listed in Texas, NY, Maine and NC I have seen many different styles of people. All of us wanted a place to succeed. So we need to ensure that the door is open for this, maybe if we centered around the 'good' that is American values we can move ahead with the young and old.
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I consider myself politically left-of-center, and thus am often at odds with David Brooks. When I step back from the specific content of any given column, however, I often note that what he appears to be doing is trying to find a place of balance. A place to rest, to think, to both criticize and praise and ultimately, to accept. I am roughly David's age and I too wish to locate this place. Perhaps it is the age. Regardless, a place of balance is desirable because it is necessary. Our time now cries out for it, desperately.
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Your family's story is common, David, because America appears to be unfolding on a bell curve. They arrived with other early immigrants on the steepest part of the upward curve.
To anyone without rose-colored glasses, it seems pretty obvious the curve is no longer as steep as it once was for most American families, yours included.
Given the equality statistics with the bottom 99% who are 50% poorer than in 1989 (including your family) and the 1% who are $21T richer (excluding your family) (see https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/Z1/Current/default.htm and https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm) --
If we are on a bell curve, the steepest rise is certainly in our past and you know what happens with normal distribution.
Did Mr. Brooks notice we had an “election” in 2016 and the very existence of the republic has been in question ever since? It sounds like maybe he missed it.
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well said David, but we now get to assimilate with climate change as well - it will not be easy
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If this column had been written by one of liberal credentials, it would garner praise from most readers. I see no idea expressed in this column that could not have come from, say, Barack Obama.
But as it was written by David Brooks, readers ignore what he writes (they usually do), and, finding him guilty by association, attack him “on general principle” and ascribe to him all manner of evil.
From the tenor of some comments I read here, it appears that being optimistic about the nation’s future is now a crime, and despair is the only politically correct stance.
Many commenters also seem ignorant of the fact that op-ed columnists like Brooks are forbidden by Times policy to explicitly endorse candidates or parties. In his columns, Brooks has never done either, and I am sure never will.
I am to the left of Brooks and he often irritates me. Despite all that, I still respect him, and am ashamed of the way people on “my side” treat him.
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The reality is this. For Trump's America there aren't enough people in the boat pulling the oars. Consequently, the boat is traveling in a circle, getting no where. They are convinced excluding other groups will have no impact on the ability to make it to the desired port. David's America welcomes anyone willing to pull an oar to help get you to your destination. Two different boats. Trying to achieve the same result. One trying to do it with a diverse crew. The other boat tries to pull up along side and attach a limpet mine to the side of the rival boat. So they can keep rowing in circles.
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I hate to see David Brooks give up on the melting pot approach that worked so well. We all need to strive to be Americans first and whatever ethnic, religious, or cultural identity second. Otherwise the fracture lines are too easily sites for wedges to drive us apart.
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All Americans except of course native American Indians share a story of immigration (their story is one if how we impacted them).
Some came here to escape, some to seek a new life, some as slaves.
Through all that we have now elected and at least half the country fervently supports a President who is openly anti-immigrant, racist and misogynistic.
Sort of drained out my optimism.
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The US is a case study in economic decline - like the surface of the modern ocean, vast ships of inestimable wealth, sucking all life from the ocean, while underneath there is an emptiness that capitalism cannot fill.
The contrasts are stark - the country that embodied democracy is now finding it incompatible with latter stage capitalism, instead it finds allies not among the democratic nations, but among the most repressive.
And inequality - once opportunity was available for most, even the uneducated and poor. Now, social position is established at birth, in a remake of feudal power, where inheritance is the main route to wealth.
History tells us, that the calcification of energy among the elite - and entrenchment of privilege - is what collapsed Rome and Constantinople - along with the despoliation of environment.
Climate change is coming, and the USA of today is uniquely positioned to be ground into history as a testament to stupidity. The US has created its vast wealth as a CARBON SOCIETY, and the forces of the "carbon elite" are actively stopping the US in its tracks, failing to adapt and see the opportunities.
On the micro-level, the US is a nation of minorities - opiated, depressed, violent, angry - watching a thin layer of elites take 90% of national income and hoard it into monopolistic silos of extreme privilege
Thousands of negative forces are rampaging through the community.
Where are the positives?
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Those in despair are delusional. America is great again and getting greater. If you don’t like it, move to Denmark...or wherever. If that’s what you want America to look like, then we don’t want you.
THANKS DAVID BROOKS! I needed that flash of optimism in your article. It was a brilliant analysis of the Jewish experience in the US. Going back in time, there was a financier in New York who moved to Philadelphia, Haym Salomon, descended from Sephardic Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition. He loaned the bankrupt new government of the US $46,000. A personal loan. He pardoned the loan. The US thrived! Salomon, alas, died in poverty. Of course he was one of many who helped to launch the US at its birth. Jews have indeed prospered in the US. Some of us worry, though, that the Jewish experience in America is an aberration. The fear of persecution, always present, is currently fueled by the 197% increase in the last year in attacks against Jews and their property. Around the world we see the ugly specter of Anti-Jewish forces gaining influence and power in places such as Hungary, Germany, France and even in Holland. In France, Jews who live in Muslim neighborhoods must live in fear of attacks. I never thought that I would see an uprising of Neo Nazis and White Supremacists in Charlottesville, VA. Much less see a "president" say giving moral equivalency, saying that there were "very fine people on both sides." He has never renounced the KKK or David Duke. So while Jews and other groups are thriving, we must be ever watchful to protect our precious freedoms. All of us.
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It's hard to see the "Jews will not replace us" MAGA crowd taking this vision to heart. "Build a rich moral community"? "Interact with the world around you, confident in your own particularity, but realize that every time you seek to dominate others, you will wind up dominated"? Those Americans who seem most concerned about becoming minorities in their own country seem distant from these ideals. Sometimes I wonder just what "way of life" or "civilization" want to preserve.
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DB maybe right this week. Born in 62 and I thought this was already true “Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative.”
"One Nation" has been blown to smithereens everywhere by the internet. The genie isn't going back into the bottle.
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The people who believe in Blood-and-Soil ideology in the South would probably disagree with Mr. Brooks suggestion. Rightwing conspiracy theorists have long argued that Jews always wanted to "dilute" a country's national identity wherever they went to set up their community. This was because Jews realised that they were weak - and the best way to fight as an underprivilege group was to rely on the rule of law, human rights and multi-culturalism.
Lord Sacks' sermon sounded brilliant in the post-imperial UK, but America is not the same. America wants their immigrants to be humble and eager to assimilate, rather than being too confident in their own identity. A similar talk in this country could provoke considerable anger.
David,
Your Republicans are going to start enough wars, that, soon enough, there will be pictures of the Chinese Navy in NY Harbor and the Russian Navy in the Houston Ship Channel.
Then, "we will see what happens".
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I don't know whether I would call it optimism but I am see greater hope for a future as commenters such as myself get less and less coherent as they confront their own particular demons. As the so called conservative movement sees low taxes and impotent government become ever more a reality I suspect more and more understand they have destroyed all of what they sought to preserve.
Meanwhile most Americans want to know when to draw the line in the sand that says when the country is no longer worth trying to save.
As a Jewish Canadian I gave up on America when Reagan was elected but as a Canadian Jew The Book of Jonah tells me we can never give up.
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Be positive! Think different! Collaboration is mindfulness to the state. The sky is red when raining. David Brooks and retirement are synonymous words for a victimized Republican political party. It’s over.
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I often admire Mr. Brooks' ideals even when I don't like his ideas. This time I admire and like both. Sell this vision to "the Evangelicals" and we'll never again have a president so vicious, petty and divisive.
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@Steve :O I think with the right anecdote evangelicals would be more approachable. Non evangelicals often ignore new ideas too, despite knowing a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many. Yuval Noah Harari describes this phenomena in his book "21 Lessons For The 21st Century", “When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month, that’s fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years, that’s a religion, and we are admonished not to call it “fake news” in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful (or incur their wrath).”
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Sometime Brooks writes these lines, and you can’t quite tell if he realizes just what he is saying: “Mainline Protestantism is no longer the dominant religion and cultural force. The WASP establishment no longer rules the roost. There is no white majority in our kindergartens, and soon there will be no white majority in our society.” Does he lament the loss of these things? Was the prosperity his family experienced possible only because of the WASP culture? Would a brown / Jewish / Catholic / Other culture not also provide opportunities for growth. And how is the creation of a “Preppy” fashion at all a redeeming event. Soon there will be histories of our culture’s exorbitant greed and solipsistic drive towards egregious consumption that tells the origins of climate change and our inability to realize that change and face the fundamental challenge of realigning these priorities not toward the acquisition of property, but toward the preservation of species. Until then, all of this is just so much inanity.
Some people who write enjoy showing their verbal prowess are missing the goodness in David Brooks’s aspirations...I believe if you took his name away, like above reader states, he would be praised, but, even if right, his past affiliation makes him wrong and meaningless points are made. The sentiment in the article reminds me of D day, because we all believed in democratic values, and making democracy and humanity we all bought into and had to pay for, despite where we came from or what deal we got or didn’t get in the United States based on socio economic class...our values for freedom transcended all of that because we believed in it. Go David Brooks!
excellent. Something new is happening for sure.
Back in 1991, Mrs Kupchin, a sociology teacher at Monroe College (The Bronx) gave a lesson on self fulfilling prophecy that made me very optimistic & changed my life. Her lesson described a hypothetical neighbor who goes on the subway or streets begging for money and faking a mental illness for the money without fear of consequences. As the days turn to months the mental illness act takes up more of the beggar’s time, slowly shifting their sense of reality.” In the end, the person will stop being able to separate the act from reality & real mental illness will set in. An idea occurred to me. I asked, “Can the same
thing happen for someone who wants to do something good? For example, I dress up to come to school because I see myself as a business manager & owner already. I ignore my lack of experience & visualize all the case studies in my business law books as my reality. Despite my inexperience, I see myself working smart, graduating, being successful & running my own business.” Mrs. Kupchin smiled & said, “the only thing you are leaving out is that you’re going to drive all the girls crazy. I see your future as a wonderful journey, enjoy the ride". With this encouragement, I read all 36 chapters in my sociology book in 6 days. My relationship with my mother was rapidly improving as the sociology text drew attention to how generous, wise, selfless and exceptional she was—especially considering her life circumstances” I now believe we are the stories we tell ourselves,
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Dear David,
Please try to cut back on those little pills marked "ESOTERIC". While your intentions are probably good and you've turned the corner on the Cassandra you once were, now you've become what sounds like a naive optimist. America has and always will be a melting pot. A country where people from all walks of life, ethnicities and fairy-tale beliefs come together to share tax burdens.
America's narrative has been hijacked by politicians, talk radio, social media, and religion. Cell phones have done the rest.
In your search for a single, national narrative, you miss the obvious. What is it that makes a Jew a Jew, even in diaspora? Logos. The Book. The Torah. Once the Temple was destroyed and Jews were freed from the tyranny of a patch of Earth, modern rabbinical Judaism grew and flourished.
So what is the American Logos? I think it begins with this;
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Maybe after Trump destroys our temple, the American diaspora will plant this seed around the world, and in the process, cleanse ourselves of the vulgar materialism that has perverted the dream. America was always more a creation of the mind than an actual place, so maybe our best chance to survive is to send our many cultures out into the world to spread the one American Word.
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White nationalists are holding on by their fingernails to prevent this from happening. Evolution to the proposed Brooks result is, and will continue to be, painful.
We are all world citizens, citizens of planet earth. Nationalism is a stupid trap. Sure, we are Americans or French or Brazilians, but first and foremost we are earthlings. Our responsibility is to the planet. Don't take the nationalist bait.
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If Lebanon can do it I'm sure we can too.
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Starting with their oppressive 1924 immigration quota law, designed to keep people like David's grandfather out, and which trapped millions in Europe in time for the Holocaust, the Republican party has undermined the font of what actually made America great:
Refugees and other immigrants, i.e. people not simply settling for and/or complaining about problems, but setting forth, with little more than dreams, whether spending weeks in steerage or carrying a child a thousand miles in the heat, to work to build a better life.
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@Lynn I agree with you 100%. Things may be different if most 1st generation American family members kept daily journals. Daily reading of these journals would've ensured empathy from the author's ancestors towards immigrants. @Lynn stay positive. We will always have vice & we will always have virtue. It is up to us to choose the path we want to follow. We are the stories we tell ourselves.
Alas, we are not all members of a minority group in the same sense. Our smallest minority (call them the Forbes 400) own "a greater share of wealth than the bottom 150 million."* With Gollum-like greed, Thanos-like indifference to human suffering, and a president who represents them, members of this group have used propaganda and corruption to increase their power and wealth with civilization-threatening consequences. Follow the money.
*http://fortune.com/2019/02/08/growing-wealth-inequality-us-study/
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Great teachers can make you optimistic too. Back in 1991, during my first week of sociology 101, I remember the lesson on self fulfilling prophecy. A self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true. The example the professor gave was, “a person who goes on the subway or streets begging for money faking a mental illness does it for easy money without regards to consequence. As the days turn to months the mental illness act take up more of the beggar’s time slowly shifting their sense of reality. In the end, the person won’t be able to separate the act from reality and begin to suffer from mental illness. Before the professor could continue, I asked her "can the same be true for someone who wants to do something constructive? Take me for example, I dress up to come to school because I see myself as a business manager or owner already. I ignore my lack of experience and visualize all the case studies in my business law books as my reality. Despite my inexperience, I see myself working smart, graduating, being successful and running my own business.” My professor smiled as she replied “the only thing your leaving out is that your going to drive all the girls crazy”
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Our family bought into the idea that there was equal opportunity for all regardless of the economic circumstances of our birth (dirt poor for us) and we succeeded. Born both before and after WW II, we were the first to college. Now, observing the grandchildren that have playmates of many kinds, we see that equal opportunity no longer exists. If you are born poor, you are likely to remain that way and America has lost something special.
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Although I don't always agree with Mr. Brooks columns, I find them very instructive. As a foreign national who has been almost 40 years in this country, I have always learned from stories and reminiscence of other immigrant families, including that of Mr. Brooks. However, I beg to disagree on the daily dose of optimism.
In such a time of divisiveness and hatred for the other, how can we see America as a land of "milk and honey"? The narrative has indeed changed. How can we get it back? Not under this administration that is for sure. A scorched earth policy that puts us in danger every single day is a recipe for soured milk without honey. Poor America!
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It's a constructive article -- thanks Mr. Brooks.
The most important word of the column is the word "learn". It is the one American value that transcends economic class, race, language, religious affiliation, political persuasion... we all need to commit to learn about our world, our neighbors, and ourselves. "Learn to be minorities together." Abraham Lincoln and Brooks' grandfather were both radical optimists -- they invested in education and they learned to work together with a wide spectrum of Americans.
America has a unifying national narrative... it's education and learning... and if you want to see how it can work today, visit your local community college on graduation day in the spring. You will see an amazingly diverse set of Americans who are not sitting on the sidelines -- they have invested in their own future.
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@Dennis Mancl I heard once that learning defined is a change in behavior. Well said my man - well said!
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@Dennis Mancl
As a retired educated, I always equated education as a means to power . . .the more you know and knowing how you use your knowledge gives you power in the larger society. And participating in a free Public Education system(not private or charter schools)provides one with the knowledge and skill to walk through a very diverse and pluralistic society. Public Schools tend to be a microcosm of the larger society in which we live. Public Education is the bastion of democracy in a diverse and pluralistic society.
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Americans have been sold a bill of goods called the American dream.
Once upon a time, for a short time, it was possible to have single earner families, live in a house of your own, work a decent job and live in a strong vibrant community. It wasn't that way for everybody, but anybody could imagine that life and go get it. Somewhere along the way, the wealth that labor created got taken away. As prices rose, wages stayed flat. Where college was once affordable, it became a sinkhole for debt. Where once we cared about the future, our leaders told us we couldn't afford it.
Three men, Bezos, Gates and Buffet, own more wealth than 50% of Americans. That's 160 Million people give or take a few thousand whose combined wealth is considerably less than three men.
We may not be all living in a tenement with no running water, but sometimes I think that that is only a matter of time. We are back in a gilded age where the power is in the hands of a few wealthy people who care less about the rest of us than their next spa visit.
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@Zeke27
The American dream is alive and well. Defeatists just cannot see it, so they complain that it disappeared. Their blindness will condemn them to a life of complaints and misery.
If only Americans could learn some lessons from immigrants.
"... Lincoln could go from a log cabin to the White House …"
I feel compelled to flip this Horatio Alger narrative over on its head. This is a myth. It does not exist today, and the overwhelming evidence is that it has never existed anywhere at any time.
In the same year that Lincoln was born in a log cabin, millions of others were also born in a log cabin. It is unlikely that Lincoln was the only exceptional person in this log cabin demographic. Also, there is not only Lincoln's work ethic, intelligence, etc., there were many elements of chance and luck in Lincoln's rise. And what happens to the bulk of the 'average' persons? Everybody cannot be at or near the top.
Can we please ditch the Horatio Alger, pulled myself by my own bootstraps nonsense? With precious few exceptions, it is not supported by the evidence. It is not working.
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@oldBassGuy
For a brief period, and I am a beneficiary, we provided free public higher education. I went to an Ivy League school as an undergraduate where I could afford the tuition by working part time/summers, so while not free it was affordable. Then, I got an advanced degree at a state institution for free. All my peers, second generation Americans for the most part, were encouraged to get an education as the way to make our lives better than our parents and grandparents -- who could easily be in that photo of immigrants at Ellis Island.
That was Horatio Alger: small scale, for the masses. We're not all going to be Jeff Bezos, but we could all make a living wage and get out of the log cabins if we had a decent political system.
To be clear, that small scale Horatio Alger thing was primarily available to white people back in the day. I expected that to change, but it didn't change as expected--now kids no matter what color end up living with their parents with or without a degree.
I worked and paid a ton of money in taxes. I believed the next generation should have my opportunities. The shock came when, about twenty years ago, I found out how much public universities cost now. Private colleges? Forget it.
It's far easier to descend into a society of billionaires and serfs than it is to spread the prosperity around for everyone's benefit. Horatio Alger: small scale--can only be accomplished by governments. Trickle down, obviously, doesn't work.
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@oldBassGuy
I'm happy to have you flip Horatio on his head because he's dangerous and needs to be put down and stomped.
He's just a myth and needs to be given a mythic black eye. He was conjured from thin air so that, when we fail we're failures not just in the world, but in our own eyes - never that the deck was stacked against us as it so often is these days as well as yesteryear.
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@CF
"... I am a beneficiary …"
Born a white male in 1950's middle class suburbia, I am a beneficiary also.
I essentially agree with your comment.
Stating the obvious, I, like virtually everybody I grew up with are not 'Lincoln-exceptional'. There existed decent schools, note worthy mentors, and a government mostly populated by honorable decent human beings. I had a fairly decent life. This no longer exists.
But my larger point is, and I believe that your comment actually supports this view, is that precious few if any simply do not resemble even remotely any Horatio Alger type, either large or small, and neither do most of the people I met along the way. Like most I knew, I did my fair share of hard work, serve the country in the military, etc. This was made possible by a community, there was help and guidance all along the way. There was no I-did-it-all-by-myself, pulled-myself-by-the-bootstraps nonsense. I even have the my-grandparents-are-off-the-boat thing also.
Even Lincoln had his stepmother.
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Such optimism works best when a community, a nation is in ascension.
But we unfortunately seem to be not not only in despair, but suffering from cynicism, rage, tribal division, and hopelessness -- traits we have earned from unchecked consumerism, ego, and greed. Reversing those trends doesn't seem likely soon.
I very much want to be wrong. But America's best may be behind us. And despite daily acts of goodness, as a country at large we may be on a trajectory that leads straight down from the mountain.
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I don't agree with everything in Mr. Brooks' column, nor do I have to. Being left of center, I usually don't. Nor does he expect me to. He's expressing, articulately, his take on America, and America's capacity for reinvention. And yet almost all of the comments seem offended. I don't get that. There's a difference between disagreeing with an opinion and objecting to it, as though in our tribal times every thought is laden with moral (or immoral) challenge. One doesn't have to agree with an intellectual proposition to consider it intellectually.
It never occurred to me that optimism could make someone sick, as one reader revealed. I yearn for the days when exchanging ideas to create a better one was what folks did. I hope we're friends again, soon.
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Thank you. You sound like a liberal. That’s what I am. I want to hear people I disagree with. I want to read comments from people who recognize nuance, but the comments that get the most likes are what I call cheerleading comments, meant to make you say, right on, rather than think twice.
While this column talks about optimism, it also talks about uncertainty, which is appropriate. Brooks is saying that America increasingly lacks a dominant culture, so we’ll need to find a new model for it to prosper. Brooks has no idea if that will work well, and neither do you, i, or the sour-tongued commenters.
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@Jersey John
Perhaps the problem isn't what's out there but what resides inside so many commenters. They seem stuck in deep negativity, mentally and emotionally.
A little soul searching is in order. Life has always been about what we make of it. No one is gong to give anything to us. We must make it happen. This is anathema to many people. They no longer know how to make things happen and seem to be awaiting a hero or heroine to rescue them. They will be waiting a very long time.
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@Jersey John, it seems to me that most agree or find some good in the column...
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We just had our power out for 24 hours. When it was restored, I thanked the utility workers profusely. They said how horrible many customers were to them today about losing power, for one day or less (hello Puerto Rico?). Too many Americans are lacking gratitude. Too much of America cares more about their own comfort and wealth accumulation, often at the expense of the third world. This needs to be restored (or created?). Then perhaps diversity will be celebrated among the more close-minded (and the least of their worries).
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@Joanna, I was thinking similarly. Most of the conditions Brooks describes in his first paragraph is still the situation in much of the developing and undeveloped world. This is true even if they live within a few miles of clean streets and tall skyscrapers that represent modern capitalism. Most people don't want to believe this is true; easier to believe it existed 100 years ago.
Further, white Americans are trying to avoid the truth that kindergartners are not white-majority. White Americans move ever-further into the suburbs and exurbs to find the whitest schools with the highest test scores.
We think that we can isolate ourselves from these truths, and for the most part we can. This thinking must stop.
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@Joanna @Justin Koenig Regarding gratitude and lack of appreciation to utility employees is because they expect something they pay for to work all the time. Others freak out when Twitter or their Internet is down. I also find myself saying thank you to store clerks first when they should be thanking me. We get plenty of rude customer service. I say thank you all the time. Some people are just that way.
Justin, I grew up in a middle-class town in the 60s and my family was an “ethnic” minority and not considered white just as our Armenian, Jewish, Italian friends were called “olive.” My childhood doctor was Indian and with a fancy house. A Filipino girl graduated at the top of our class. My dentist was Jewish, our principal Armenian, the majority was English, Irish, Scottish heritage. Eventually in 7th grade there were two fellow black students. They moved there for good schools, comfortable houses and yards. Your idea of white people looking for white schools is nonsense. I live in the city now though I wish I didn’t. I pick up so much trash, the loud noise, inconsideration of neighbors, crime, etc. The schools are not as good for a variety of reasons and it’s not funding. So, those few black families that moved to my town were educated, made more money and wanted their kids in good schools-they weren’t looking for white schools either-it’s more a class issue. Who wouldn’t want that? To them they achieved the “American dream” and they worked for it. Their parents were poor.
2
On the contrary, Mr. Brooks, many of us still feel that optimism. The idea of "inequality" is a modern day one. The world was every bit as unequal then, even more so. They lived with more hardships and greater threats. They didn't have the luxury of whining about not having as much as others. That's a recent phenomenon and a real luxury.
There's nothing more privileged than believing the world will end because Trump is president.
@AACNY I don't think the world will end due to Trump's boundless stupidity and avarice. I do think lives will be lost and the world's ecology injured.
It is a privilege to have an inquiring mind. It is a crime not to use it. A bit of thought about the results of Trump's reign of hate should make you worry for the well being of this world.
You are privileged if you ride around your golf courses in small cars. You got there on a huge airliner, diverted just for your pleasure. You didn't work for the money it costs to operate these places. You mostly stole it, by declaring bankruptcy and/or abundant threat of legal pain for anyone who wanted to collect bills due from you.
1
David always looks at the American past through rose colored glasses. For every immigrant who came to the United States looking for freedom and opportunity 3 or 4 failed. Hasn't he ever read books like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which tells the terrible story of lies and exploitation many immigrants suffered in the stock yards of Chicago? There have always been hierarchies among subgroups and the winners have never welcomed competition. The history of education, one of the much touted pathways to social mobility has always been loaded against minorities, people from the wrong backgrounds and the like. I would agree with David that in comparison with many places at least our idea of a nationality based on citizenship rather than blood, race, or ethnicity holds out a possible promise of a more equitable pluralistic society. But we are far from this yet.
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@Rebecca Hogan
I disagree; most immigrants succeeded, because their goal was for a better life for their children.
.
Identity politics happens when we seek to be identified as the victim in all social and historical issues through group identification. It feels good to feel wronged, but if we all do it, we end up with Trump as president and everyone fighting to claim the largest grievance, rather than seeking to improve ourselves and our country. The only way to fight identity politics is to scorn those who seek to identify victims, rather than solutions.
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@Rebecca Hogan
If you were even close to correct that "for every immigrant who...3 or 4 failed" the country never would have survived as it has. Tom is right: despite the racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, over time most immigrants and their progeny were wildly successful, especially in comparison to the prospects faced by those who stayed behind. And the politics of the alienated, the resentful, are enjoying a resurgence in America almost solely because of the manipulation of social media, a new phenomenon in 2016.
14
@Rebecca Hogan I guess you missed the first part about the tenements in New York?
5
I so very much looked forward to reading this column, having been an optimist most of my life. I need uplifting these days more than ever. I felt worse after I read it. My hat's off to Mr. Brooks for trying to find some kind of silver lining in today's American experience, but I simply cannot.
On virtually every measure of health and success of a democracy, America today is less than mediocre at best. Comparative metrics for life expectancy, quality of and access to medical care, personal safety, press freedom, public education, environmental priorities, race relations, drug use and addiction and happiness rank America extremely low in relation to other countries of the world. The only thing extraordinary these days about this country is having the largest military in the world, the most awesome weapons of mass destruction and a very large economy which is structured to benefit only a very few at the top.
But on the most compelling issue in the history of humankind, climate change, America is driving straight for the cliff with the pedal to the metal. We are suicidal. So as the Titanic sinks, with only her stern still barely above water, I guess we all need some cheering up. But as an optimist there comes a time when you just have to be on the level and look at the situation around you and realize there is no bright future for the citizens of this country unless we stop pretending that there might be on this present course.
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@Rich D
We can do something against the corruption that sinks the hopes of the ordinary American citizens, vote for honest politicians who are not bought by big money. There are some fortunately in America.
16
@Rich D Brooks almost sounds like a rational human here. But it is hard to forgive his long support of draconian conservative policies that have resulted in our present crisis. He seems amazed that it is all falling apart, and is less than willing to hold those responsible (including himself) accountable.
It is much easier to engage in wistful nostalgia about "the way we were," or to fabricate limp gauzy fantasies about the future.
The problem for Brooks, and all conservatives, is that conservatism is rooted in the past, in tradition, in contrived “timeless” values. It is a land where little changes, and time stands still - “the past is never dead. It's not even past." It may surprise some conservatives that America is no longer the small agrarian society it was when the Constitution was written in response to those simple social conditions. Conservatives like Brooks are modern Rip Van Winkles, waking up in a world they no longer recognize.
Failure to keep up with a vastly changing world leaves conservatives with two options: 1) grab power by any means possible, no matter how unethical, and shut the system and progress down – which is what the Republicans have resorted to, or 2) or exist trapped in a strange limbo, a Twilight Zone between the gravity of the past (i.e. a romanticized past), and the incontestable force of change.
The second option seems to be where Brooks dwells. It almost makes you feel sorry for him – but not really.
13
if we are to be "one nation," as we say in the Pledge of Allegiance, then something must bind us together. To me, that something must be the Constitution.
There is a citizenship (civil government) test which aliens must pass before they can become naturalized citizens of the U.S. (you can find sample test questions online). I wonder what percentage of native born citizens know enough about the Constitution to pass that exam.
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@Diogenes,
Whether Jewish, Muslim, African or European, they all passed their citizenship test in flying colors, except this American born on the Dutch Island of Manhattan.
7
@Diogenes
Yet even those who claim to know the Constitution well have wildly different ideas of what it means.
And the Constitution was written to be changed as needed by amendment.
4
@Miss Ley
If you are referring to Trump, he was not born in Manhattan - he was born in Queens.
5
I rarely agree with David Brooks, but I not only agree with him here, I'm also powerfully moved by this column. The key to progress is not absolute individualism or absolute collectivism -- these are false goals. The way to a better world is a global society of individuals who learn how to respect each other's differences and work together.
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@Michael Simmons
A short while ago I wrote a piece almost identical to yours of which I was unaware. I too was quite moved particularly since David Brooks piece reflected what Rabbi Sacks once referred to as "the dignity of difference", something I have never forgotten.
1
This column is spot on. About a year ago I was in a small town (8,000+) in West Virginia. We went there for a funeral of a 55 year old woman who had died of cancer. The service was at a small non-denominational evangelical church. The woman’s daughter and her somewhat large core group of racially diverse thirty-something friends spoke of how the deceased had taken in several of them who, at various times and for various reasons, had found their home lives less than ideal. One particularly moving story was of a gay man who came out to her and found a level of acceptance that was lacking in his own family when he later came out to them. At the traditional after funeral lunch in the church basement I got to speak to many of these interesting young people. One, a man who gave a most moving eulogy at the funeral, told me he was a high school English teacher. Another chimed in that one this teacher’s students had placed first in a statewide composition contest. They all seemed to be engaged in occupations that gave them purpose. I walked away from that experience with a kind of optomism that I didn’t realize was in me, waiting for a reason to show itself.
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@Dale Irwin - Thanks for the beautiful letter. I feel much the same way.
3
@Dale Irwin: this is a great reminder of how powerful the kindness of one person can be...
At an earlier point in my life I was taught, and accepted the idea, that America was a melting pot. Throw the total variety of people and their ethnic and cultural backgrounds into a pot and produce a homogenized America. I have come to understand, however, that a far better metaphor is that America is a mosaic. It's beauty and value are all the small, distinguishable pieces that fit together, sometimes loosely, into a large, broad canvas that is strong, enduring and inviting. No wonder so many dream of becoming a part of our mosaic. I like Brook's optimism.
1
Sorry to be the pessimist in the face of an optimistic column.
But, by and large, hope for opportunity has been replaced with anger and scapegoating; hence, Donald Trump’s presidency. And whatever subdivisions Americans had already identified with, Trump magnified the lack of empathy for one another.
That doesn’t mean, though, that all is lost.
What we need for 2020 is a Democratic candidate who will show voters that success, both personal and national, is within reach and not a zero sum game. Turning against one another is a surefire formula for defeat. The person who can defeat Trump and right our course has to demonstrate, simply, that united we stand, divided we fall. Together, all is possible.
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@NM. The Trump thing is like a national fever. It will break. People will tire of it.
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@NM
You mention the need for a Democratic candidate who will show voters understanding and appreciation for all, not just a few. As Mr. Brooks speaks of his Jewish grandfather growing up on the lower East side, I think of Bernie Sanders growing up in Brooklyn in a working class family - refugees from the Nazis that killed many in his family . I believe Sanders learned lessons of inclusion that shine in his FDR-like proposals which aim to help us all, not just the rich and powerful.
14
@Flaminia - I sincerely hope you are correct, preferably by the fall of 2020.
8
A bit of optimism now and then is refreshing. Thank you, Mr. Brooks. Yet, I think that for America to survive we must stick to the original unifying narrative, namely, liberty and justice for all. If in the past, that was premised on a core Anglo-Saxon protestant culture, then what from that old core must be retained in order to continue the narrative?
Well, if more of us had jobs that paid us decent salaries we might be optimistic. If more of us were able to save money instead of living on credit we might feel better about our chances in the future. If we had a functioning government instead of a Mitch McConnell refusing to work for us we might be able to point to our government with some pride. If we didn't have to drive on roads that are falling apart, wonder when we'll be downsized on our jobs, worry about our next medical bill or the next tuition bill, or the next mortgage or rent bill being paid because, as always, our salaries are inadequate, we could feel optimistic.
It never ceases to amaze me how those with everything think that they have done it all right. No luck was involved. It's all them and if they can do it so can everyone else. That's the American myth. The reality is that if you are handicapped in America, if you are over the age of 55 and out of work in America, if you are a single parent, if you are anything but born rich in America, optimism is not a good substitute for strong leadership and government at all levels. Why? Because what we have now is capitalism run amok. And that is leaving no room for the rest of us.
America is the rat race where even hard work is not valued. We show our values in who we elect to serve us. At this point we have an incompetent president, an incompetent cabinet, and a Congress that is determined, on the GOP side, to do nothing.
6/20/2019 7:53pm
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@hen3ry
Henry - It takes a bit of energy to be optimistic, and when one is (lucky enough) to be working in the gig economy, it's almost too much to make supper at the end of the day. Waxing eloquent, as Mr. Brooks does here, about the "America that lies beyond our current despair", is a luxury many have no time nor energy to indulge in...and this is the pity of it. And this rat race is getting worse and worse, in our nation with the greatest rich-poor divide in the world.
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@hen3ry
Doesn't Brooks' reminder of our history, as in that of Bayard St, tell you that things have also been far worse than they are now? Did those people have good governance, decent roads, medical coverage and much of any education, let alone a tuition-free one? As I recall, the Progressive Movement of 100 years ago was borne out of what you call "capitalism run amok." There was a Golden Age in the US from Sept 1945 through maybe 2008 (time will tell). Now is no longer the Golden Age, certainly not, and wealth disparity is far worse. But neither is now equivalent to 1925 Bayard Street.
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@MB
The "Golden Age" was from 1947-1973 when real wages stop growing. This is where income inequality began. Not 1980, not 1990, certainly not 2008. 1973.
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I sincerely appreciate David's effort to inspire us and offer some measure of hope in dark times. Having said that, I see nary a ray of sunshine piercing the storm clouds over head. I struggle every day to envision a route toward reconciliation through our current political climate. The world wide web has provided an ecosystem for every weird and wild conspiracy theory. There is no gatekeeper for all the malicious content that causes the most impressionable among us to embrace ideas that are demonstrably false and divisive. Given the fact we continue to put enormous resources into inter-connectivity across the globe, the problem of disinformation is expected to overwhelm the best of intentions. In the spirit of multi-culturalism, I say adieu,
nos vemos más tarde, and arrivederci to to civil society. It was nice while it lasted.
1
I agree with Mr. Brooks that lack of a coherent national narrative is a strength. Most national narratives are based on myths, falsehoods and whimsy and can easily be manipulated by political grifters. (There is also the case of MAGA which refers to an American past that Trump has never defined...probably because he is as ignorant of American history as he is of everything else.) In my view the U.S. is rapidly becoming the world's first post-national country. The problem is that the super rich global elite and the corporations are currently in the driver's seat. That must change.
I don't know what Brooks is getting at. Of course all of us want to do well in a diverse America.
But what I find missing in the piece is the imperative to help others to do well. That is what will make America great.
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The definition of that doing well is different for each of us. Mr. Brooks speaks of his grandfather who "rose" to become a lawyer. That resonants with my own story. My father became a physician. His father completed the 8th grade. There's a nostalgia for the past when things seemed to be simpler. That's the message that propelled our current President into the Oval Office. Make America Great Again. Who could argue with that? I don't find Mr. Brooks sentiment confusing. . I share it. In my opinion though, he needs to tone down the optimism and look reality in the eye. We can't change what we don't acknowledge.
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@jfs One of the harshest lessons I've learned in my attempts to help others is to afford people time for self discovery. Regardless of my good intentions, most people are reluctant to unsolicited advice. Is it because unequal results of human achievement conjure up simplistic notions of injustice? We most often learn these harsh truths through self discovery in the pursuit of purpose, happiness & sustainability. Unfortunately, prior to self discovery, human impulse is generally towards equality or generosity. Equality is as undesirable as it is unrealizable. Attempting to achieve equality requires that each of us forego who we are and what we can do in order to create something in which no one ultimately believes - a society everybody is the same or has the same. let us by all means seek to increase opportunities for all. We have to proceed knowing to increase opportunities for all is likely to favor those better able to take advantage of them and may often first increase inequalities.
To the rest of the world America is America. We may not feel it the same way, but we do have a world view that is distinct. That world view is not expressed by the Rabbi, or the Priest or Minister or Imam, it is more how we treat each other. Except for our persistent disregard for our African American brothers and sisters (and even that is receding) we have learned to respect our differences more or less. I grew up in post WWII DC where there was an amalgam of veteran's kids, from various cultures. We joked about the Poles and Italian and Jewish kids but we were brothers, there were no "Neighborhoods", except for Black people. I later moved to Chicago where I can count 10 different cultural neighborhoods without trying, and today each has a festival where the others are invited, Kumbaya.
I wrote a comment recently about how much the African Americans have added to our culture and got racial replies, which shocked me. It is still a sin in our culture and though we are getting there, it is too slow. The Movie "Gran Torino" explored our native acceptance of honor over culture after the struggle for honor over culture. That is the central cultural mandate, eventual acceptance of new cultures, we are way ahead of Europe and Asia. We should be proud of this openness, but shocked that we still don't fully accept our African American siblings.
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So much attention paid to a national narrative and so little concern about national economic inequality is like a deep discussion about what color to paint a school whose students are failing, have no money for lunch, and suffer from serious health problems which their families can't afford to treat. Before we tell stories at bedtime, we need to deal with the real world during the day.
13
Unlike some who comment, I am not as irritated by Mr. Brooks's optimism, although a little less piety would be welcome.
This column, albeit unintentionally, is a near-perfect explication of the America that Trump supporters are willing to sacrifice the nation to avoid.
That is our essential dilemma.
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My family has some of this story, my immigrant grandfather came from the Russian Empire, died in a coal mine, but his grandchildren prospered. But the part that he omits is how in the US, political power adheres to the small towns (at least in terms of electing a president and the senate) and despite the suggestion that whites are no longer a majority, in fact for people who live in most of the land in the US, they are. These folks are suspicious of the cities and don't accept the changes that have occurred already. These folks, led by cynical power hungry men and women (like McConnell) are like the extremists in Iran who continue to believe in the Islamic Republic even as it has failed.
I myself do not share the writer's optimism.
15
As I read the comments here I found myself agreeing with those who said our only national value now is acquiring money. Then I had to think that to a large extent this was probably true of those on the Lower East Side Brooks describes, or those who came from Europe to avoid famine and poverty. So, how have things changed, really?
Maybe it's that the earlier immigrants came to feed their families and to rise up in the world, and once their bellies were full, could appreciate the value of working together to create a society that functions for all. Now amassing money seems an end unto itself, not just what we need to allow us to envision that greater happiness for all.
13
Multiple narratives may be the future. Yet those narratives somehow will need a common moral code well beyond materialistic individualism, the practical and empowering central tenant of which is that I get MY share of the pie. Common good, duty, service and sacrifice are becoming quaint ideas of the past. Without a governing shared purpose worthy of pursuing, a nation and a people will splinter.
9
Toronto, Canada may be one of those hubs - a nice example of a multi-cultural city, whose citizens celebrate their diversity and are also proudly Canadian.
19
Optimism comes with opportunity and for far too many Americans the opportunities are not there. Major American industries are vastly underpaying their employees, providing little or inferior benefits, and yet are making record profits, all on the backs of American workers.
Even in many of the Silicon Valley tech titans and others major corporations huge numbers of their employees are “contract employees,” a second-class, lower paid group, that toil just like an employee but will never get ahead and are not given the full opportunity to succeed.
Seniors in record numbers are continuing to work or returning to work because they have to just to get by. For many seniors aging is a frightening prospect with uncertainty about health insurance, ever rising prescription costs, and escalating cost for most other essentials. It’s certainly not a recipe for optimism.
Lastly, America’s political and social fabric have changed. National and state elected officials have for decades failed to address systemic problems and just kicked the can down the street and more recently devolved into warning tribes, producing little real change. Most Americans are yearning for political leadership and stability and want to see a fair playing field for all, not just those with wealth.
I still have hope for our nation and I’m optimistic about its future but it’s going to take a lot of work and a major change in the wealth inequality to be achieved.
18
It is all fine and dandy for those who can afford to live a middle class life and more in the US, but there are fewer and fewer. I taught public school for 25 years, then established my own successful business and retired at 67. I live in Mexico now so I get the idea of Sacks who noted "that when Solomon’s temple was destroyed and the Jews were cast into exile, the prophet Jeremiah had a surprising message: Go to new lands. Build houses. Plant gardens. Seek the peace and prosperity of the cities in which you settle." I live in Mexico peacefully. Love the Mexican culture that is mostly about family and not about more and more money as in the US. You well know that the opportunities afforded to immigrants and their children are not the same as they were. Our culture is all about money now. The people with the most money call the shots. They are provided with "get out of jail free cards" and go on to higher mega paying jobs. My daughter and SIL do quite well. She owns a couple booming businesses and he's a successful attorney but I think they are the exception. College isn't even affordable for the average wage earner. How do those people get a step up?
20
@Ellie Yes and your money goes a lot further in Mexico than it would in the United States. And you probably have a lot more of it than the average Mexican.
Charles Kimball said: The mystery and complexity of particularity within pluralism is worth pursuing.
It is one lesson he learned serving as negotiator in the Iran hostage crisis of the 1970s.
8
America has always been radically pluralistic, in at least one sense. The wonderful opportunities that enabled your touching family story have been consistently denied to African Americans. After emancipation, the were denied land in tha South that might have served as a basis of wealth the way land in the West did for poor whites. Fleeing harassment and lynching to come North, they were again denied decent and affordable housing and education. This was reinforced by racist redlining policies and actual denial of FHA loans (suggest you listen to Brooke Gladstone’s series on evictions currently running on NPR’s On The Media).
In other words, your pretty picture of a unified population is just a fairy tale we have told ourselves. The bill has now come due.
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Hillary Clinton wiped the floor with Trump in the popular vote in 2016 by a margin of almost 3 million votes.
Until the country can find its way back to a single national narrative, obliterating Trumpism will be sufficient.
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@A. Stanton:
Yes, Hillary was the people’s choice. But that doesn’t take away the fact that many millions of Americans chose Trump, or the more alarming fact that Trump was able to win the nomination of a major American party.
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@A. Stanton. Destroying he stain of progressivism, which is Marxism in increments, will be sufficient.
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@A. Stanton
You are dreaming if you believe getting a lot of votes California and New York will decide the presidency.
We in Canada are also struggling to build this strong multicultural society you speak of. Here, it is embedded in much of our policy and I hope we can endeavour to lead in embracing pluralism.
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I like and appreciate the message expressed in this column. While I respect the right of the critics to express their opinions, they might reconsider how the optimism expressed in the column fits into a larger and more productive narrative. There is much to be done in the United States to make things the way they could be, to create the "liberty and Justice for all" that is expressed in the pledge of allegiance, which is not something with which many Americans currently identify.
Without optimism, and without hope there is no motivation for positive change. People turn to leaders like the current president because they do not have hope and have forgotten optimism and they wallow in self pity and anger. What Mr. Brooks expresses is the optimism that is needed to go forward. One does not need to be the dominant majority or an oppressed minority to have the right to move the country forward. What people who want to make things better need is the motivation to do so, and that comes from having the hope and optimism of possibility. And possibility is always there for people who look for it. But there is no guarantee of success; people need to accept that. People like Mr. Brooks...like any of us, need speak up and remind the public that optimism and hope are possible. The key will be to take that optimism and put some effort behind it and some focused energy to make the changes that are very badly needed. Optimism is a form of hope and we need that.
9
@KG
One gets the sense that people are waiting for opportunity to come knocking at their door. America has always been about taking risks. Are Americans simply growing more risk averse and waiting for the government to take care of them? There's no shortage of political candidates promising this now.
Many social conservatives decry aspects of modernity as “decay.” Confronted with these facts, some propose the “Benedict Option”—a plan to withdraw into ideologically purer communities, at least until circumstances change. Others call for abandoning the classical liberal effort to recognize diversity and respect differences, and instead pursue power for the sake of enabling the minority to impose its will on the majority.
Adrian Vermeule shares many of the concerns noted above—but his remedy is closer to Brooks’s. And to illustrate the remedy, he also looks to stories about how the Jews of old navigated a world in which they were minorities. Rather than seeking to dominate or withdrawing into pure enclaves (fight or flight), the stories of Joseph, Mordecai, Esther, and Daniel describe a people who maintain their distinctive identities and values while integrating into the larger society. By demonstrating their excellence to those in power, they rise within their societies to positions where they can influence events in a manner consistent with their own values.
In 1969, Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope John Paul II) called on the Catholic Church to become purer if smaller, surrendering much of its dominance, returning to the role of being the church of the meek, freed from the pursuit of clout to be able to pursue faith. I begin to see the wisdom of this approach.
Moral: Let us defend the rights of minorities--and then embrace our fate of becoming minorities ourselves.
7
Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict.
@Gideon
Yeah, JP, Benedict, Francis--one pope is as good as another, amirite? :-)
Oops. Good catch.
The immigrants in my family came here in variously in the 17th, and 19th century from Holland, Ireland, England, Norway, and Sweden. They struggled, and did well.
The thing I take from family stories, and count as my legacy, is a willingness to do what was necessary to adapt, form community, take advantage of possibilities, and while believing that nobody owed us anything, taking pride in the belief that we were made of tough stuff.
While there was also strong commitment to social justice, and belief that we, and others, could contribute to making the world a better place, the onus was on us to shape our own lives.. The familial assimilation struggle between Dutch Calvinism, Scot-Irish "dissenters," and Swedish Methodism was overshadowed by a commitment to education as the hope of the "new world," and served us well. I am not as tough as most of my ancestors, and I feel lucky, and grateful, for my heritage, but I also feel responsible for having lived a life that so far has been rewarding, and has been almost entirely of my own choosing.
This week I read a NYTImes article that suggested that those of us who don't hear so well anymore deserve disability status, and restaurants need to cater to our needs.
We can do wonderful things when we feel empowered by education, family support, and a culture that provides opportunity for dreams to be fulfilled, but I worry that empowering notions of victimization lessens our ability to do so.
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@Ben Bryant
I am aware that I speak from a place of cultural, educational, and racial privilege. From that point of privilege, I am nobody's victim. I think that being old and a bit deaf is something I can deal with on my own...when juxtaposed against a world where people are displaced, and starving, where civilians are killed by U.S. bombing, where black lives do not seem to matter in the same way white lives do, where lies fill and fuel the political conversation, and where we have an ignorant unqualified fool as our Buffoon In Chief taking a reality TV show to problems beyond his understanding.
I am hoping for a world where perhaps there is not a "single national narrative," but wherein there are more people who can feel that they are actually in charge of shaping their own lives.
Bernard Levy, Brooks' grandfather did this in urban New York, not rural Alabama. And New York still has to live with Alabama.
America has always been a place where a few could do really well, and leaves these few to do really well because the rest of us dream that we could do really well, too, which means that we all could become one of the few. We live through these dreams as reality dumps on us, and are satisfied with the dreams as Southern whites were satisfied with the dream that their color made them superior.
But America was also a place where most could do OK, unlike the countries from which they came at the time they came here. The few are doing better than ever, but most are struggling, running hard and yet slowly falling behind. And in the countries they came from, more and more are now managing to do OK even as fewer and fewer of us do.
Average people here have seen their lot improve, but not by moving past more and more of their countrymen. Their lot has improved in unison with the lot of their countrymen, and this general improvement has happened as they also moved up or down by small degrees in comparison with their neighbors. They got indoor plumbing, bathtubs, refrigerators, cars, trips, time to relax and raise the kids, televisions, and tiny phones that were also computers, but so did most people.
The opportunity to do this is much more important than the opportunity to be a pundit for the Times, and it is shrinking.
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David, it's a pleasure to read your ideas. While I'm not in favor of orthodox cultures, I think you are right to show how the history of the Jews influenced our culture for the better. In Babylon and Persia, Jewish people picked up new ways of thinking. Re-thinking things, I think, will be the dominant narrative of our time. When future historians look back on this time, I think they will see us slowing down, rearranging things and reconsidering ourselves––it seems to me only a dark night of the soul can do this. Nothing can stop time. It moves too fast, making pleasure and glory fleeting. But ours is a time of slowing down and cogitating on who we are, of looking back and imagining the future. If we take that time, we will emerge better people and produce a better country and world.
10
What a wonderful and unique point of view. Yes, optimistic too. The way David Brooks ties his family's immigrant experience to the current flowering of our multicultural society is the optimistic way to look at our changing society.
And the references to Jeremiah resonate with me. It is true from Jewish history writ large and small that the Jews carried their religion and culture with them wherever they were exiled—whether forcefully sent to Babylonia or desperately and bravely escaping to the US for a better life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as his family and mine did. They kept their religion but made their home in the new land, where they contributed to the melting pot culture.
New groups have done the same. We have welcomed them. Let’s continue to add their energy, vibrancy, and diversity to our mix. It makes us stronger—and more democratic, with a small “d.”
Thank you for this uplifting piece. I have saved it to reread and savor.
4
E Pluribus Unem. The motto of the United States of America. But what should the definition of "Unem" be? What did the Founders want it to be? We know it means the unity of the 13 original colonies, but I agree with Mr. Brooks that the USA is also a country of individual minorities and will grow even more so in the future. This means that "Unem" must apply to the American population as well if the American experiment is to succeed.
I believe the Founders also meant "Unem" to imply a unity under the humanistic principles of the Declaration of Independence and the democratic principles of the Constitution. We can all find unity there, and use that unity to repel any attempts to establish a dominance by any one group, either politically or culturally. But it will always be a work in progress with due vigilance required. OK, we may never be satisfied with the unity that we manage to achieve at any moment, but at least we will not allow ourselves to be overcome by the disunity of intolerance. Given our human inability to reach perfection, that is perhaps the best "unity" we can expect.
10
I don’t mean to be picky, esp. since I appreciate your thoughts here, but the Latin you mean to quote is “unum.” I would have ignored it as a typo, but you repeated it several times.
Thank you! Given this injection of optimism Mr. Brooks are you of the view that Mr Trump and other populists elsewhere in the world are symptoms of a last stand of what once used to be?
4
Fall 2016 was less than 3 years ago, but it feels so far away, less like a past and more like a previous life
30
"I used to think we could revive that story for the 21st century, but we probably can’t. Too many people feel left out of it. Plus, there is no longer a single American mainstream to serve as the structural spine of the nation. Mainline Protestantism is no longer the dominant religion and cultural force. The WASP establishment no longer rules the roost. There is no white majority in our kindergartens, and soon there will be no white majority in our society".
Mr. Brooks, you have just made the case that it takes social cohesion to make progress and achieve a better world. I certainly agree with that. That's why the effects of huge numbers of immigrants over the decades make that prospect less likely. I've begun to wonder if this lack of cohesion is, maybe, what our corporate masters want.
10
@Blanche White
"the effects of huge numbers of immigrants over the decades make that prospect less likely."
Are you a Native American?
Because for the rest of us, the story of America, is that of "huge numbers of immigrants over decades", starting with the Dutch and English colonists in the 1600s.
Read, e.g. ___City of Dreams: The 400-year Epic History of Immigrant New York___
And argument for white supremacy? How about a different way, a way that would rely on finding common ground with diverse ethnic groups and not basing a society on the exploitation of the poor and the working class?
1
In my prayers every night, and I do pray every night. I give thanks to the little things, which tend to be local and human. A friend, family member, some buddies at the YMCA, the coffee shop, deli, bakery, the senior center. I go for kind heartened things and moments of appreciate in people being good to each other. I am the type of American that looks at my taxes as investments in others.
American blessing are still good.
44
@concord63
Me too. Thanks!
3
We have a single national narrative. The Bill of Rights, the Constitution, our national history. They are amazing. They are our narrative, not WASPness or any other race, ethnicity or religion. What we lack in one ethnic narrative we more than make up for in the celebration of many, many narratives, under the potentially very powerful umbrella of our own unique national narrative. I wouldn’t trade it for that if any other nation.
37
History is a series of events that are singular in time and outcome. We just celebrated the D Day, a moment that just barely worked out well for us. Hitler didn’t listen to Rommel and Germany was defeated.
Yesterday is dead and gone, and tomorrow’s out of sight. And it’s sad to be alone. Help me make it through the night.
I don’t know how or Trump will be seen in 15 years, all I know is I won’t be around to see it.
3
I have no idea what country Mr. Brooks is talking about now. He waxes on about lofty notions such as national narratives, while we are under the boot of our nation's first dictator.
Since January 2017, Trump has destroyed all of our national alliances, and has toadied up to the world's most ruthless dictators. He demonstrated that he was Putin's boy toy in Helsinki. We are now an international laughing stock at best, and a pariah at worst.
He has told us, more than once, that the neo-Nazis and the KKK are some very fine people. His lies number into the thousands, and his base literally worships him, not at all concerned about the damage he's caused this country. Hate crimes have skyrocketed during his presidency. He has ordered Hispanic infants and children be put into cages. Thousands of them are still separated from their parents.
And if this weren't enough, he is just one more unhinged tweet into plunging us into war with Iran, a war that would be disastrous for this nation, for the Middle East, and for the world, all to avoid a certain prison sentence.
Now, maybe it is just me, but I must sincerely ask whether Mr. Brooks has any real notion of what has gone on in this country since January 2017. Trump has become the nation's first dictator. He is now only limited by his imagination and the laws of physics.
And so I must sincerely ask one more question: Exactly how much longer are we expected to pretend any of this is normal?
310
@Robert Neville
Here's my exact answer to your concluding question: As long as the Republicans hold the Senate and McConnell is majority leader. Trump is too weak-minded to have gotten away with all this without McConnell. With an honorable man leading the Senate, this nightmare would've been over long ago.
Or until the 2020 elections, if we come out in massive-enough force to overcome rigging. But that's what I'm not optimistic about.
28
Colorful comment! I don’t know where to start rebuking. It’s all about Trump you’re right...
2
@Robert Neville
I've noticed Mr. Brooks RUNS FOR COVER and gets lofty notions when he can't find anything of merit from the GOP to talk about.
27
I have no idea what country Mr. Brooks is talking about now. He waxes on about lofty notions such as national narratives, while we are under the boot of our nation's first dictator.
Since January 2017, Trump has destroyed all of our national alliances, and has toadied up to the world's most ruthless dictators. He demonstrated that he was Putin's boy toy in Helsinki. We are now an international laughing stock at best, and a pariah at worst.
He has told us, more than once, that the neo-Nazis and the KKK are some very fine people. His lies number into the thousands, and his base literally worships him, not at all concerned about the damage he's caused this country. Hate crimes have skyrocketed during his presidency. He has ordered Hispanic infants and children be put into cages. Thousands of them are still separated from their parents.
And if this weren't enough, he is just one more unhinged tweet into plunging us into war with Iran, a war that would be disastrous for this nation, for the Middle East, and for the world, all to avoid a certain prison sentence.
Now, maybe it is just me, but I must sincerely ask whether Mr. Brooks has any real notion of what has gone on in this country since January 2017.
Trump has become the nation's first dictator. He is now only limited by his imagination and the laws of physics. And so I must sincerely ask one more question: Exactly how much longer are we expected to pretend any of this is normal?
18
I feel like I'm watching David Brooks' slow journey to becoming a Democrat in real time, written over hundreds of columns and many years. When will it happen?
34
@JS27
When he's ready to retire.
2
@JS27
Why be obsessed with labels?
Why must we constantly be asking, “Which side are you on?”
Brooks has never been a member of the Trump Party, and op-ed columnists are forbidden by Times policy to explicitly endorse a party or a candidate.
Brooks has always seemed to me to be a right-leaning independent, a free-lance conservative and heir of Alexander Hamilton.
In this paper he suffers continuous and often vicious attacks from people who read his columns only to find things to attack: and if there is nothing to attack (and there usually isn’t much - and I say that as a person of liberal views) they just attack him for who he supposedly is: ONE OF THEM.
@Bejay
The person who writes these perceptive and lyrical articles has no excuse for some of his other more dense GOP flavors.
When I see this kind of piece, it convinces me that he is not who he purports to be when he writes something like "The Tawdry" column which is where he, after all these years, lost me and I look upon all of his work, now, with a jaundiced eye.
2
Mr. Brooks, many of your columns boil down to the same useful message:
Don't be one or more of the following: racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic, or selfish in your personal life and don't allow "leaders" to prey on your ignorance and/or fear to divide you from your fellow Americans.
Based on the last several years, I am not optimistic.
8
Or as a long lost friend used to say “we’re all weirdos on this bus” and that’s a good thing.
Spending a big part of my time in a rural area where that is empathetically not the case, I appreciate the big city where it is true.
7
A good read. What you’re describing sounds a lot like Canada.
34
It may be only the beginning, but our nation can easily have both republicans and democrats begin what West Pont cadets must live by. They are told all the time: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do." A good 40% of our population has not internalized this principle most likely due to our current dilemma with world wide populism. Even though the root of populism is inequality, all people can easily agree that politicians, especially our current president should not be allowed to lie, cheat, steal or consort with those who do. Yessirree…...that's a simple national narrative that could work. Why? It's obviously not nice to lie, cheat or steal.
14
But you can't just straddle a river, thump your chest, and arrive in the land of Whitman, who couldn't afford to be a poet in NYC anymore, or probably even a hobo.
You can't snipe at every single support in our society, things as simple as basic education and museums.
You can't defund school lunch programs and be cheap and shrill about every penny it takes to support a healthy multiculturalism. You need to foster the differences and get a lot of incarcerated people out of jail.
Your world is not fair just because you crow.
The Republican party has done everything in its power to deny broad culture its due place. It still won't look at poverty and race. It still won't look at the tragedy of the plundering of Native Americans. Your Protestants won't look at all the china they have broken in this big tea shop they've been romping in, as though they were the only ones.
Your Protestants have been really greedy.
A pleasant word, Mr Brooks, just one or two, that isn't a pronouncement, that shows a fondness for people and a willingness to foster those, to share, to give to them of your bounty, those who aren't just like yourself, a pleasant word for them, generosity, has not been part of your writing style.
It never happens.
There is no kindness.
Multiculturalism grows in spite of you and your mean spirited conservatives.
I don't think you are in the position you think you are.
22
Is Brooks finally caving into the crushing reality that America is not the “land of milk and honey” – if it ever was? You can only buy into the conservative fantasy of America - one big happy family living the American Dream - for so long; then it collapses under the weight of reality, under the hypocrisy of religion and meritocracy, individualism, federalism, a feral free market, racism, and an anachronistic Constitution written almost 2 ½ centuries ago for a small agrarian society, but inadequate for realities of 2019
All of those socio-political paradigms are traits of bedrock conservatism – a vision that has failed to hold the country together because it couldn’t tolerate anyone outside that vision. “You could be born on the fringes and assimilate into this new thing called an American”- or so goes the myth, as long as you were white, Christian, and preferably male. Or, were willing to transform yourself into a simulacrum of those - or willing to game the system
The column reads like a list of broken dreams for Brooks. But I suspect he thinks hope springs eternal for his beloved conservatism; it just needs to be tweaked slightly - still anchored to its pillars of individualism and localism – but now manifested in “a dense network of minorities and subgroups, and the distinct way of life they fashion to interact and flourish together”
And all of those groups will need jobs, healthcare, and education. Somehow, Brooks believes, the magic of conservatism will provide.
14
The problem with the narrative of the feisty hardworking ancestor who “made it” is that it’s told as if that individual was just better than everyone else, and is used as a stick to beat the others. Everyone acts like their grandpa was the last good immigrant.
As if social programs, investments, technology, all kinds of things didn’t come together so we don’t have thousands of people living unemployed in squalor without toilets and showers.
(Well, we have the immigrant holding pens but that’s another topic)
16
"In a world of radical pluralism, we are all Jews"
Mr. Brooks' column made me think of the highly consequential 2020 election, and of the highly unusual, "radical", and FDR-like candidacy of Senator Bernie Sanders. Bernie grew up with extremely humble roots in Brooklyn, the son of Jewish immigrants whose family had been decimated by the Nazis. He offers us a chance to unite across all colors and creeds and take the country back from its current wild imbalance of rich-poor. His policies cut across all slices of diversity and give a leg up - once again - to the "common man", instead of all the benefits going to corporations and the rich. I am very inspired by his vision.
4
With all due respect to Rabbi Sacks, let's also remember Jeremiah chapters 30-31:
"This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ..... The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity[a] and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess,’ says the Lord.”........
Assimilation and accommodation are temporary plans to survive. First chance, though....back home.
6
This column yada-yadas over the minorities struggles and prejudices. Each group that came over was treated poorly by the previous minority group. The last thing some probably worried about was too few bathrooms.
4
@Sheela Todd
One of my in-laws complains about the Dominicans. They don’t work hard like my immigrant ancestors!
Who were they, I ask?
Grandpa came from Puerto Rico in the 50’s!
All I can do not to start singing songs from West Side Story.
1
@Sheela Todd
Immigrants are still coming, struggling mightily, taking risks and achieving success. Meanwhile Americans complain about the lack of opportunity. What's wrong with this picture?
The fascist overthrow of the government is almost complete. Advice from one of the people who has worked endlessly for this coming fascist regime is not likely a good idea.
I am optimistic, that the people of this country, because they worry only about themselves, will fail to turn back this fascist wave.
Fortunately, most people believe in magical things and will likely agree that being optimistic about the future is a good thing, even as it is ignoring the reality.
7
From David Brooks' "Golden Book of Bedtime Stories."
Stories that make deliberately and emphatically clueless conservatives so happy to read to us.
Too bad listeners cannot find enjoyment in hearing these fairy tales.
12
"I used to think that America had to find a new unifying national narrative. Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative."
Mr. Brooks, I'm very glad you've given up on that fool's errand.
Now maybe you'll stop condescendingly lecturing us about how we all "should" be thinking and behaving?
7
"I used to think that America had to find a new unifying national narrative. Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative."
The problem is this: diversity without unity is a recipe for war. It would be nice if human beings didn't fight violent wars. But guess what? We do. If people in a society don't feel any sense of connection at all with each other, they will start to form their own groups and then start killing each other.
For example, if our elections just turn into head counts of how many people there are of different ethic groups, why bother having an election? Why not just fight a violent war and get things over with? Everyone will know that's how things will end up anyway.
1
Never has life been so great and full of promise and at the same time so insane, awful and imperiled. No wonder the younger generations have become adept at multiplicity. I think that overall it is a very positive picture. Humankind may be slow to change and accept change, but they do change and for the better.
2
Diversity beyond two generations is a myth. Third generation Italian-Americans who visit Italy find they do not feel Italian and have more in common with their neighbors or office mates back in the USA. Somali Americans will feel the same way. It’s fine to preach respect for diversity, but recognize that we are (heaven forbid!) a melting pot. Third generation Italians marry Poles. The same for Protestant and Catholic immigrants from Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, we all work and study together, watch the same television stations, etc. Yes, despite what the pundits and college professors are telling you, we still are a melting pot. I write this the evening before I fly to New Jersey where my Skull-and-Bones-Yale-Graduate-Mayflower-Descendant niece is getting married to a descendant of slaves.
28
@Israel Zangwill
Sweet! I find more hope in this than David's column.
Having spent 5 weeks in Portugal I was impressed by the effects of several millennia of miscegenation.
@Israel Zangwill Ethnic ties might loosen over time, but they bind the immigrants and their children.
Odd that you mention Protest and Catholic immigrants. When my Irish grandfather married my Orange grandmother in the rectory of a Bronx church (rectory because mixed marriages were required to be low key), both families disowned them. Their son, my father, happened to be born on Orangeman's Day (July 12). His birthday was celebrated on July 13 and he did not find out his real birthday until he was 18 and had to get his birth certificate to register for the draft. He, an only child, did not get to meet his cousins on either side, which was a big misfortune for a kid in an Irish neighborhood in the Bronx. All that has receded into the mists of time for my family, but I imagine today's immigrants face the same sort of thing.
1
At the root of every column by David Brooks is a false equivalency. In this instance, it is in his idea that we are all minorities and, thus, we are all pulling America apart. No. People of color, immigrants, LGBT Americans, and other traditionally marginalized people just want to be accepted and treated with dignity. Progressive white voters support these aspirations because they believe in civil and human rights. The pursuit of these aspirations does not pull America apart. The 90% of Republican voters goose stepping behind Trump refuse to accept these groups and would deny them any share in the American dream. Brooks needs to get past this massive blind spot in his perspective.
76
In April 2019, there were 61,782 homeless people, including 14,826 homeless families with 21,709 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families make up three-quarters of thehomeless shelter population.
I used to monitor homeless shelters when I worked for the coalition for the homeless. We fought hard to report rats, broken fire alarms, horrible stench, violence - we saw it all, and then some. But I never saw any honey, and sadly,.no milk either.
17
David, we have to be optimistically realistic. Individuals must know and understand the probability and effectiveness of their actions in order to reach their individual goals. I think Americans need to be both constructively skeptical and virtuous while helping those in need. Since gauging need is subjective, it opens up the door for misinterpretation and disagreement regarding distribution. How do we qualify, quantify and communicate an individual’s need? Who’s the agent of interpretation? Optimist Americans have to avoid being reluctant to work or be unreliable. If you’re undependable, it doesn’t matter how positive your speeches and writings are, no serious person is going to trust you.
1
Thank you David Brooks for this meditation on America and, for me, a new way of thinking about the meaning of “Out of many, one”.
A beautiful and sacred effort.
5
It takes all kinds.
Your difference from me doesn’t hurt me, doesn’t threaten my identity or worldview, but it does challenge me.
And from that comes growth, learning and creativity.
I am okay with it taking all kinds.
9
@Clare
I could not pass up commenting on the above posting. My beloved father used to quote one of his employee's wife who would say "It takes all kinds..." This woman was poorly educated but very religious (Pentecostal) and hard working. I always thought that her saying was a bit of wisdom. I repeated her saying this to a conservative, right wing co-worker who immediately rebuked her, saying "no it doesn't take all kinds, but unfortunately we've got all kinds." I often wondered which "kind" he would gladly eliminate.
1
Some lovely sounding chiasmus here: "I used to think that America had to find a new unifying national narrative. Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative."
However, concretion is important. Who is the "we" and "our" here? People who need mechanisms of life, of trust, of survival.
Policy matters, and the policies that would bring your (apparently newfound) hope in "no single narrative as a narrative" into being will likely include some protections provided by sound labor, housing, health care, and education policy. Please vote for those!
7
Our external uncertainties are likely to be most relevant to the structural dimension of social capital. Other influences on social capital include the social structures & the environment, which surround individuals, as well as their culture, norms and sanctions. This demonstrated in the three different types of networks within social capital, which include bonding, bridging & linking. ‘Bonding’ can be described as the social support we may receive from the people we are close to as part of our backgrounds, it “Relates to common identity, for example ties among people who are similar to each other within communities., which include family members, individuals sharing the same ethnic groups or clubs. While ‘Bridging’ can be described as the social cohesion between individuals and groups, bringing people together who would not normally relate to each other, it “Relates to diversity, for example ties among people who are different from one an other across communities.”, which includes the conversations of varied views and interests between associations.
Lastly, ‘Linking’, where the associations between those gaining independence and democratic lifestyles due to status are links with those in authority, it “Relates to power, for example ties with those in authority or between different social classes between communities and organizations and with structures outside communities.”, which includes powerful institutions and the decision-making process for example, local authorities.
While I appreciate Mr. Brooks' optimism, I think his assumption that the dominant white culture has shrunk to such an extent that we now live in a pluralistic society is suspect. Living in South Florida, I get to see the multi-cultural experiment up close. What I see is immigrants, as always, working hard to make a life in a new land. Those who can, rapidly assimilate. Those who can't, live in immigrant enclaves. Regardless, their kids are just like my kids and I mean white representatives of the dominant culture.
This may be a tragedy or a triumph, but declarations of the dominant culture's demise seem overstated.
2
I must quote Faulkner, “The past is never dead, it’s not even past.” America’s founders came here to exploit natural resources & forced poor Britons to migrate & do the work, followed by the rest of us, all slaves. Is the twenty-first century much different from the seventeenth?
5
"The America that lies beyond our current despair"?
Speak for yourself David.
Every morning, I arise, take breakfast and go to work. The work is routine, same as it ever was. Then it's back home for the typical diversions and, finally, back to bed again.
What despair? I didn't see or feel any.
3
Dear David,
Our optimistic illusions are self-cast enchantments that sever our contact with truth by paralyzing what Bertrand Russell called “the will to doubt”— the vital moral faculty that protects us from manipulation and from the credulity Russell considered our “intellectual original sin.” It is a vicious cycle of delusion — one which W.H. Auden described in his incisive meditation on enchantment: “We must believe before we can doubt, and doubt before we can deny… The state of enchantment is one of certainty. When enchanted, we neither believe nor doubt nor deny: we know, even if, as in the case of a false enchantment, our knowledge is self-deception.”
To break the spell of self-deception, then, is one of the greatest moral triumphs a human being — or a society, or a civilization — can claim.
3
The destruction of identifying good vs. bad of immoral behavior being accepted and the lack of individualism is destroying America. Dems and their collective mentality are antithetical to our founding principles. America would be better if these people would voluntarily relocate to the socialists country in Europe they seek to emulate.
1
@Matthew
I'm one of those "Dems" who believes in a more collective community. I'm a former member of a labor union and it taught me about the strength of the collective. I am not going to live in Europe as suggested. I am a red blooded American through and through who flies the flag on Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and by the way, Flag Day, June 14th.
I also vote for those "Dems" who are on Election Day ballots. No way I'm going to Europe nor am I going to tolerate the USA being dominated by a lying dictator.
And maybe, just maybe, we could have avoided the need for this article entirely had only the author been better able to resist his urge to sanguinity when it came to the trajectory of the GOP over the years.
23
Known as an 'ice-breaker', thanking Mr. Brooks for telling his readership of his grandfather's arrival in America.
Jeremiah is my grandfather's name. Descended from devout Irish Catholics, his family name means 'Priest' in Hebrew, and naturally I would not be shouting this from the roof-tops in Occupied Europe during WWII.
'How long does it take an Irish-American to become an American' asked my father, having reached a stage of mobility in his flight from what he called, the bigotry of New England, and pitched his tent in New York.
After a flamboyant alliance with my French mother, followed by a divorce, The Red Queen solemnly sailed past in Paris, announcing 'Your Father has written a book that We are all Jewish'. Apparently I was guilty of having committed an act of treason for reasons unknown.
'Tocqueville' arrived later with my stepfather, one of his descendants, then Bonaparte, and here we are today in America suffering the premonitory pangs of living under a police regime ruling in the name of Democracy.
Mr. Brooks, what makes America unique and rich is our variety of Minorities. This is not the time to sink into the boat of despondency. We are a universal Nation, and those of us willing, capable and fit have a responsibility to enlarge on the above.
Wishing All and Sundry an enjoyable and pleasant summer season celebrated now, while I remember the birthday of my American Austrian friend, whose family perished in prison camps under the thumb of Fascism.
4
The internet in our hands, our smartphones and the cameras therein, and the ability to post videos and pictures has transformed our culture.
The big three TV networks of the past have given way to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook. Main Street has a little more power over Hollywood and Madison Avenue.
SoundCloud rappers can self-publish, novelist can gain momentum online, artists can reach millions with one viral punch, a teen streaming game commentary can strike it rich.
And, we can all tap into and watch this diversity on our smart phones.
That is the primary difference from past cultures -- the pipes of mass media have been diluted, spread out. The masses have been enabled to create and consume creativity from the streets.
Now, after reading an NYT op-ed, I can sort of publish my thoughts in the the New York Times, if approved. People all over the world could read this. In a way, what Brooks' grandfather Bernard Levy dreamed of has become accessible to almost anyone in the world.
It is an optimistic time. People are not being silenced. With the emergence of radical pluralism, there is opportunity for great leaps in our evolution.
4
David, this is great stuff.
It's refreshing to think that the prophet Jeremiah had the kernel of a hopeful jeremiad in him: "Go to new lands. Build houses. Plant gardens. Seek the peace and prosperity of the cities in which you settle."
And the closing paragraph is positively bracing:
"I used to think that America had to find a new unifying national narrative. Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative."
May it be so. Many debilitating national problems result from the strain of trying to fit a wonderfully diverse society into the procrustean bed of the ossified WASP mythos. I say this as a substantially ossified WASP.
A single national narrative gets to be encumbered with articles of faith that have no basis in fact -- or in genuine faith, for that matter; points of tribal pride that displace intelligent ideals and healthy self-knowledge. A narrative of diversity is the truth that will make us free.
11
David, I'm pumped too! Our concerns regarding diversity and miscommunication are also hindered by most individuals avoidance of putting in the work required for continuous transparent conversations. The goal should be to implement a sustainable process that addresses all relevant concerns. At the societal level, this is a major obstacle which filter down and affect how the individual perceives his or her needs, i.e. if particular social structures are inherently inadequate or there is inadequate regulation, this may change the individual's perceptions as to means and opportunities. For whatever reason, many of us opt instead to project our lack of awareness and consciousness. We struggle with the frictions and pains we’ve experienced and look for ways to satisfy our needs with little regard to empathy. A solution for the diversity problem has been theoretically resolved for some time through a process that consist of 5 beliefs:
1. Citizens (all races) and government want the same things.
2. Technique counts less than intent.
3. Solutions don’t have inherent value (one size doesn't fit all)
4. We all Should Promote Methodology
5. World - class inquiry precedes world - class advocacy
Visualize the beginning of America rising again. Be part of our self fulfilling prophecy.
I can appreciate what you are writing, Mr. Brooks. Our world is getting so much "smaller" and too many, terribly frightening. When people’s lives are marked by anxiety and precariousness, economic uncertainties, constant threats of war, a changing political landscape along with a shattering of their traditional belief in the stability of social structures, fear dominates. They fear losing everything. They are reminded of their vulnerabilities - how they could so easily lose homes, jobs, loved ones, and, most importantly, control of their lives. Living in this state of continuous uncertainty breeds tribalism, which can turn vicious and deadly. I suspect this is evolution, at work.
6
The USA was truly great until the 60's generation infiltrated higher education and politics. We have been going downhill ever since. I totally disagree with your premise. Present day Europe is now a boiling pot about to boil over. We are next. That is a nice family story but it really doesn't make me feel optimistic at all.
3
@Donald What is your definition of great and who benefited from this greatness prior to the 60's? Help me out by providing detailed examples. I worry that you may be over embellishing the past. I think nostalgia is often anti enlightenment and regularly contradicts reason with no clear philosophy or theology that can be easily used for both teaching and/or learning. By Enlightenment I’m referring to the intellectual movement emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. The best that you can be you are right now!
7
@Donald
Yeah, all those 60’s people who didn’t think it was ok for black people to sit in the back of the bus, for disabled people to be warehoused, for parents to beat their kids black and blue, or for married women not to be childlike legal dependents of their husbands—they sure made a mess of things didn’t they?
25
"Not having a national narrative" is just another way of describing the orientation of focusing on what divides us rather than what we have in common.
It's quite sad to me that we have so lost focus on what we share. We all exist in this time and this place where technology is rewriting everything about the way we live, where climate change is rewriting where we can live, and where shifting racial and economic demographics are rewriting who we live in proximity to. And we all live in a time where it is going to take all of us working together to navigate the challenges ahead.
If that's too big picture for some, let's look closer. We are all human beings and at our core we all want the same things. We want to feel secure, we want to be able to take care of the people we love, and we want to feel that our life has some purpose. We want to feel valued.
How's this for a national narrative? We have a lot of work to do, as a nation, as part of the global community, and as human beings, if we are going to survive what is coming. We need to grow up, stop our bickering and our shaming and our blaming, drop the victim mentality, and start spending on our time on things that will actually matter as we move through the coming years.
13
Very well said.
1
@Kristin
Thank you.
Long ago even foreign observers such as de Tocqueville and Martineau were able to see a connection between America’s corrosive hyper-individualism and the early influences of what would become an equally corrosive capitalism.
Yes, de Tocqueville admired American individualism. He also believed that a society of individuals lacked the intermediate social structures such as those provided by traditional hierarchies with which to mediate relations with the state. The result could be a democratic “tyranny of the majority” in which individual rights were compromised.
de Tocqueville also warned that a society of individuals can easily become fragmented yet, paradoxically, uniform when “every citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost in the crowd.”
BTW: It's good timing/luck that your ancestors arrived in the US when they did, before the anti-immigration targets were “eastern" and "southern" Europeans, (“Russian” Jews and Sicilians). The Immigration Restriction Act of 1921 (The Emergency Quota Act) and The Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson–Reed Act) were both signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge, a Republican president.
6
When was the last time you talked with a 'street person' about community?
It can be done but only with the patience of someone who displays that patience with humility and a desire to learn about where, in fact, she/he will spend the next night.
If that is what David Brooks is saying about being Jewish, over such a long time and so many places, then, yes, count be as Jewish, too. Or at least one of our many 'minorities' in this country.
A mosaic not a melting pot.
Weren't you born in Canada?
1
I fail to understand what David Brooks is saying. Even as my maternal background is similar to David's I see a different America. The America of William Jennings Bryan and Trump World are the same and the NewYork of thieving peasant refugees is a now city of bankers and lawyers.
Perception is real in its consequences and Red and Blue America are no more open to each other than they were in 1896, 1964 or 2016. Nobody seems willing to acknowledge their real history.
I find it ironic that the most perplexing tome of America's founding and what is roiling America today is the same story. Then as now it is the Question posed in Milton's Paradise Lost is it better to rule in Hell or Rule in Hell? It is little wonder Milton called himself a "Liberal Puritan."
The only thing that might give me optimism would be a mutual effort at truth and reconciliation. Milton gives us compelling arguments for both sides and I suspect the argument will continue to overwhelm America's intellectual resources.
6
@Montreal Moe
Book 1, line 263 of Paradise Lost:
"Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n."
3
@Montreal Moe
This should clear things up for you: David Brooks has been looking at polls.
I spent a bit of time on Peter Wehner's twitter feed recently--he's an ex-Republican who often writes op-eds for the NYT about how horrible the Republican Party has become. Anyway, there was our David Brooks, chiming in about how polls show our American youth to be largely uninterested in their conservative vision of America, you know, the one where an established intelligentsia, mostly wealthy, white and Protestant Christian, sets the standards and the rest of us should all be happy about it because, well, they're right.
So, with the handwriting on the wall plain to see, he's dipping his toes into "radical pluralism." He's thinking--maybe it won't be so bad, maybe we just have to tweak the American narrative away from WASPism and more toward Multiculturalism.
I have to give him credit, he does see exactly what's coming. I'm sure he and his conservative pals are figuring out a strategy to convince the Multiculturalists that taxes are bad, government is evil, and trickle-down is going to work any day now. That part of the Republican Fantasy Dream-World will never die.
2
@CF
I know my American history from when Franklin edited the Montreal Gazette and Dr Samuel Johnson gave us his letter to the American Congress Taxation No Tyranny
https://www.samueljohnson.com/tnt.html
that explains conservatism and the Social Contract.
Not only did Johnson define English with his 1755 dictionary he defined poetry when prose was in its infancy.
As infantile as is your current President, Brooks is a devotee of the President that destroyed America Ronald Wilson Reagan and the master of Newspeak William F Buckley Jr.
There is no Republican Party the 1964 GOP convention saw Buckley, Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan turn the Republican Party into a cult.
In 1964 my father an Amerophile knew the Southern Strategy and the Civil Rights Act would never allow for a continued USA. Some of us still remember Prescott Bush's Connecticut and the ghettoization that some might say made America great.
Unlike Brooks I grew up. in an ultra conservative white male patriarchy with low taxes and impotent government and churches that ran health education and welfare.
I still remember my school's Vice Principal telling me the place I wanted to go to school was not for people like me.
I lived through Quebec's quiet revolution and the WASP establishment that remained and adjusted has become as fine a people as exists on this planet. There is hope, nothing teaches as well as wearing other's moccasins and if America survives its Kakistocracy we may see a better tomorrow..
2
And that is what precisely threatens Trump to his core.
3
Mr Brooks continues to compare, by implication, the white immigration experience with that of slavery. As long as he and other conservatives perpetuate the myth of American meritocracy, we will be what we have ALWAYS been: a nation built on a white supremacist foundation, with liberty and justice for the fortunate few.
15
David, during the turn of the 20th Century it was not only the Jews escaping the pogroms and poverty, but also other ethnicities like my own Southern Italian/Sicilian grandparents who came to America with hopes and dreams. At that time, they were considered "people of color" with their dark, curly hair and olive complexion, and "Papists" to boot. Believe me when I say they were discriminated against by those who came before them. However, like the Jews, these Italians contributed with hard work and solid family lives. Out of social necessity and protection, they needed to stay within their own group from their extended families to their neighborhoods and communities. (My own lived in SF's iconic North Beach..when it was affordable.) But simultaneously they made sure their kids learned English and with gratitude in their hearts they sent their children to the local public schools. THIS is our nation's legacy. THIS is who we are. And because of it, we must do likewise, i.e., provide hope and a future for our new wave of people of color and of a different religion. To do anything less is un-American.
21
@Kathy Lollock I am one generation closer to the immigrant experience and like you, my ancestry is Italian. My parents, born and raised in Central Italy, left as illiterate teen-agers and escaped "la miseria" to America where there was need for manual labor. Like so many others in that era of mass immigration, they dreamed about returning to the homeland some day but decided against it when their first child went to school and learned English, "American" ways - such as brushing your teeth! What concerns me most is that experience of adapting to another culture is considered, by too many today, as losing one own's ways and traditions. The inability or unwillingness to keep the essential values of the old culture while assimilating to the new one shows an inflexibility and a lack of courage. On second thought, that transition may be more difficult in a world where opportunity to rise in social class is shrinking.
1
And then there is the reality of our present government and the general populace. Interment camps. Growing right wing violence and murder. A plutocracy on the rise. Sorry Brooks but we don’t all share your shiny view of what’s possible. Not anymore.
11
Mr. Brooks, Your column does bring me hope, but I have a question.
You said, "I used to think that America had to find a new unifying national narrative. Now I wonder if not having a single national narrative will become our national narrative." is that sufficient? NO universal narratives?
Surely people come here (or used to come here pre-Trump) for our RELATIVE (we were never perfect) openness and tolerance compared with many other nations. But there was always an implicit bargain: Even if you do not believe in American exceptionalism, agree that this is a pretty good place, do your best to contribute, to make it better, and if you do not want to totally assimilate, help your progeny be successful here and the rest of us will respect your (and our) differences. So what is the minimal universal beliefs that we all must share?
3
This column makes me think of all the people "in the shadows" these days - the half-million people with no homes, those stuck in "inner cities" with little-to-no hope for honest work, the many trapped in small towns long abandoned by industries that sold out our jobs "on the cheap" to nations with no unions. All these tragedies are a result of our politicans of all stripes who sold out to their wealthy patrons instead of representing we, the people, and standing up for the common good. When, if ever, will there be a correction before it is just too late for our country to redeem itself?
19
@Ellen
I'm glad you resisted the feel good optimism of this column to make very legitimate observations and question whether we can ever recover.
4
@Blanche White
Feel good optimism is a necessary bromide in these times. But it's tough to take such medicine from Mr. Brooks, who has long aided and abetted the policies of Republicans and elites. Sorry to be a bit of a grinch about it.....
3
This is an inspired column. Maybe the best by Brooks that I have read. It's been said that seeing the horizon, the new frontier, is the most important step in actually reaching it. Mr. Brooks has caught a glimpse. From this forward-looking perspective, many of today's headlines are the last breaths of a dying world view. Death is noisy, disruptive, full of resistance to what is. Trump and his followers are mourning a world that is passing away. Brooks sees the world that is coming into being. Good for him.
22
I like this column but find it somewhat ironic. Mr. Brooks expresses a yearning for a time when a collective aspirational spirit was alive and well, when America was seen as "the land of milk and honey" and "Lincoln could go from a log cabin to the White House."
In reality, when Lincoln got to the White House, 625,000 Americans (2% of the country then) killed each other over whether slavery could continue or not. And at the end of the war, Lincoln was shot dead by a political fanatic.
I don't mean to downplay the challenges we have today but looking at our history should generally make us feel better about the future, not worse.
20
@Jim C. I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but my understanding was that Mr. Brooks yearns for a time when many people *believed* in the story of America as a place where Lincoln could go from a log cabin to the Presidency. I think he's not saying that we can succeed as a nation despite our greater challenges, but rather that as Americans, we have to come up with a new national myth that everyone can believe in and feel proud of.
Personally, I agree! Although it also gives me hope for the future that our predecessors were able to change so much about their societies, as you said. We'll just have to make it happen!
14
I agree with your interpretation of what he's saying and I don't disagree with him. I was just pointing out the paradox of having a history in which the national narrative/myth was unifying and aspirational but the reality was often harsh (including a brutal civil war), versus a present in which the reality is comparably prosperous and peaceful yet the narrative is fraying.
3
@Schmo, there are enough myths about this country. We don't need any more.
Mr. Brooks has a good point.... We are all part of the American experiment which is shaped by the people and resources that have come before us. We've been blessed by many gifts in the past, but it can't stay the same forever. Therefore, what are the drivers that will change the dynamic and how can we best adapt to this change? That's the key question.
It amazes me how caught up in the past we are as a human race. It's all we know and it give us comfort, but it won't last.
3
In spite of recent challenges I continue to be a radical optimist. The brilliance of our founders is that the idea of United States was not based on some religious or ethnic affiliation. To be American is to buy into a set of ideals set forth in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. America never fully lived up to these ideals, but each generation has strived for a ‘more perfect union’. It’s understandable (yet regrettable) that certain groups are feeling left behind as the county becomes more diverse. In the long run, this is America’s strength. Trump, and his cult-like supporters represent a time when white Christians were the majority. Their ‘identity’ may have served them well (at the expense of non-white, non-Christians) but it no longer will in the future. We will all be better off when we recognize what unites us all. Not what divides us...
17
The photo at the top of this piece really captures the imagination. If a photo could ever speak 1000 words, this is it. That photo represents a dream. What was their dream? Was it realized? We will never know.
For every American success story that came from Ellis Island, there were undoubtedly many less impressive narratives that went unreported.
What is true is that the times in which we live represent an amplified version of former times. Those who work hard "make it", and those who don't "don't." Neither of these is completely true. Certainly ambition plays an important role in upward mobility, but so do a lot of other factors, including race, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental fitness, and last but not least, luck.
When I toured Ellis Island and then the tenement museum on the LES a few years ago, it was easy to romanticize the American dream. But history tells the story of a difficult entrance to the United States for many. Immigration has never been easy.
What has always separated the United States from other countries is the fact that we supported pluralism. As you aptly point out though, this played out in a white unipolar culture with many minorities.
We needn't fear cultural pluralism. When we finally move beyond this current period of xenophobia that dominates a certain populace, we just might begin to understand that our country actually benefits from multiculturalism--and not just paying lip service to it. Pluralism gives me hope.
21
Sounds like Canada. We’re creative but pretty chill. There’s little animosity between subgroups. And many of us feel that the nation state matters less than it used to.
51
@John McLeod
As an American who now lives about 30 minutes down the 401 from you (and was also a classmate of Brooks's at the University of Chicago in the early 80s), I read this thinking "mosaic, not a melting pot." I had never heard that phrase before moving to Canada. Now it's in my mind all the time. I love the mosaic.
12
@617to416
At 71 I grew with the idea of Canada being a mosaic and the USA being a melting pot. I still don't know what the expressions mean. Adrienne Clarkson's Massey lectures, Belonging : The Paradox of Citizenship (Available at CBC or in paperback) goes a long way in explaining the reality of of our different sense of ourselves. For many of us who grew up watching our former Governor General on TV Adrienne Clarkson defined Canadian.
Being Canadian is like defining the hate speech we have outlawed we can't tell you exactly what it is, but we know it when we hear it.
Although I never attended the UofC it was where I finally discovered how utterly insane we are as a species. UofC was where I learned how much you had to know to be abysmally ignorant.
4
What feeds the difference in our cultures? Is it that America is the seat of empire, so the stakes for ambition are high? Is it that America resists looking after its underclass, so there’s a constant state of near-war between subgroups?
2
Race, religion, culture and other distinctions we make for ourselves are social constructs that stem from inherent insecurity. What's interesting is that as society becomes more plural, we're forced to develop a more individual sense of self; and this aligns perfectly with America's democratic ideals.
4
Assimilate.
Census data is online for each state (and is amazing).
Why move to a new country if you want to keep your old language, clothing, etc.? If you’re here for better opportunities, that will happen a generation faster by assimilating earlier.
7
@JDoubleu Yes, indeed. Just "Assimilate" quickly! You left your country...now just do it!
Assimilation is a process, and it is different for each individual. Try to not judge what you may or may not have an understanding of. We're dealing with human beings, not robots.
2
I don't even understand why we have to have this conversation. Are we really this tribal? I don't give a hoot and holler where anyone is from or what they are made up of. I only care what kind of person there and if I can learn something from them.
This column makes me sick.
It's the 21st Century. Are we really still fighting over this ridiculous nonsense?
26
@mj
Sadly, yes, we are. Resistance to our diversity has become the national pasttime, led by people we expected to lead us to better things. Fear and anger are used to collect votes and it works.
8
@mj
I don't know if your question is the rhetorical question of the day, the week, the month , the year, the decade or the century.
Of course we are still fighting over this ridiculous nonsense. Can you imagine how much more we could hate each other if we fought over our real problems?
2
Freud did not make a contribution to the world. What he wrote was pure nonsense, with no redeeming value.
8
@Jonathan Katz seriously? he was the first to pioneer inner work and acknowledge the unconscious drives that often drive us. While he got a lot of stuff wrong, influenced as we was by his Victorian culture, he also pioneered modern psychology in so many ways that continue to reverberate.
7
While many of Freud's theories have fallen from favor, his theory of the unconscious is still the foundation of psychodynamic therapy. It was a leap of insight that can only be called genius.
6
@Jonathan Katz,
Let us remember William James, the Father of American psychology and one of America's finest philosophers.
2
"We're all minorities now," says the man who is not a minority and has absolutely no idea what it's like to be one.
82
@karp I think we're supposed to do a little dance because Mr. Brooks has discovered tacos, at the same time as his party has required tacos to be sold under the table, at risk of deportation or jail.
14
@karp Ummm.... David Brooks is Jewish. Please say I don't need to explain further.
11
@karp Well, he is Jewish, and as Jews make up just 2.2 percent of the U.S. population, you could say he's a minority.
7
Jews did not flourish in a world of radical pluralism. As you say they acted as a bridge between civilizations and did not try to dominate the places in which they lived. In this country, radical pluralism would result in a free for all last man standing wrestling match. Not interested.
6
What's the common thread in this history? Self-responsibility. It seems that today, whatever anybody doesn't like becomes somebody else's responsibility (fault). They should have a right to shift their responsibilities (costs) to whoever they declare to be at fault, or at least to whoever they decide can afford to pay. One of our political parties actively promotes this idea. Some people are now even shamelessly (yes, without shame) campaigning to be paid retrospectively for their long dead ancestors' hardships. People need to stand on their own two feet and make a go of it on their own, the living have to stop leaning on the dead. No more whining!
5
@Ronald B. Duke I am white and grew up in the south. Those long dead ancestors hardships you cavalierly dismiss are not so long ago. I am in my 60’s. I remember “white and colored “ water fountains at the zoo, I remember my dentist had a plaque pointing to the back of his building for a “colored “ entrance, I remember segregated schools. The nurses I worked with when I graduated from college had previously been required to eat their lunch in the hospital basement and the hospital where I worked had been the only one in town to accept black patients because it was a teaching hospital. I also remember when a black family moved in to a neighborhood real estate signs sprouted like mushrooms overnight. Don’t talk to me about long dead ancestors- I am a witness to these humiliations and injustices and I’m not that old!
104
@Wonder
My father has a picture of himself as a toddler in the 1930s sitting in his back yard listening to music played by an elderly black man who was born a slave to my father's family.
My father knew his family's slaves—1865 is a long time ago, but it's not ancient history.
8
@Ronald B. Duke
If it were only so simple ...
2
Ellis Island has little or nothing to do with the enslaved and separate and unequal black African Americans.
Ellis Island has little or nothing to do with the colonized and conquered brown Native American aboriginal pioneers.
Black African Americans and brown Native Americans are still physically identifiable separate and unequal people whose lives don't matter as much as any white European American Judeo-Christian life.
21
@Blackmamba,
Good to have your latest input, and perhaps you have noticed that the Voices of some of our top commentators have gone missing.
David Brooks is telling us of how America greeted his family on arrival. After WWII, Jews in the Nation were regarded as suspect. There is no denial that The Holocaust took place, and those in flight for their lives were not greeted with a marching parade.
There was a time in the days of the Wild West when the value of a man's life was less than a chicken.
In a goodwill attempt to offer atonement to Black Africans and Indigenous People, the latter better known as the Native Indians, there is no way of erasing the soul scars and suffering the European Settlers inflicted on the above.
'Racism' is often a two-way street in the times we are living but when America is threatened and under siege, We unite.
In "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", an American Black doctor has plenty to say with resentment and bile. His daughter has a different point of view, and you might find their exchange of interest.
Let us not be our own worse enemies, where we become 'The White Man's Burden'. Revisit what Charles Blow of The New York Times has to share in a recent essay on race relations in America. We have miles to go - Let us keep away from despair and a heavy dose of depression, while no African acquaintance of mine is still living in the slave plantations or graveyards of the Past.
Yes, but the US has been multicultural for a very long time, as in always and ever increasingly. This myth of some monolithic cultural past needs to be killed off.
8
@Frunobulax What are you talking about? When I grew up in Va it was illegal for people of different races to marry or cohabit or anything. It was illegal!!! That changed less than fifty years ago. There were only two races and almost everyone was Protestant. It is much better now, but that time was not so long ago
6
This is a decent column. We can have a lot of visions in America, not the racist, sexist, and xenophobic vision of the GOP. Now, if we can avoid a war with Iran and get Trump out of office in 2020, we might be on to something good in this country.
17
“Radical pluralism also necessitates retelling the nation’s history.” How to do this, Mr. Brooks, with our nation awash in “Make America Great Again?”
When have we confronted our blemishes?
When have we truly welcomed Christ’s stranger?
Your utopia of a diverse community of acceptance and welcome is anathema to most Americans and their representatives have, accordingly, voted to lean hard against the closing iron door.
I would be proud of a Bernard Levy, too; I’m almost certain that he would be proud of you. Contrast that with the president whose German antecedents visited horrors upon your religious community, a holocaust that he was probably alive to see.
We are a nation of neighbors who are afraid of one another. We claim different honors and places and are scornful of differences. We lack the basic humility of appreciating the wonder and gladness of life because we would refuse it to others.
America is the melting pot of refusal and denial. The honest introspection of national cause and effect are rejected because the blinding glare of acknowledging evil is soul-awakening, and it’s easier, as “Make America Great Again” makes plain, to construct a satisfying fantasy of myth, legend, and self-deceit.
Perhaps the day will come when your vision will find expression. We won’t live to see it, just as Bernard Levy did not.
11
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18,
The propaganda 'MAGA', and its slogan-sell of red hats, has now been changed to 'KAG', i.e., 'Keep America Great' since the last hale Trump rally.
Please keep writing. Your voice is needed more than ever.
4
When I read what's going on in Washington, nausea sets in. Then I go out for a walk and bump into our two maintenance men in the courtyard, one African-American the other a Latino, we exchange greetings, then there's the Asian lady who I've known for years coming through the front gate, she has the best smile, we chat for awhile. Then there's the Russian neighbor from Brazil, we work together on volunteer projects, he's a Republican. There's the couple from Iran, and it goes on and on.
Thank you David, we all need a breather once and awhile from the daily onslaught that Washington deals out.
15
I am Jewish and disturbed by the narcissism exemplified by Mr. Brooks' piece. This unqualified, shameless self-celebration carries with it the belief that we-are-right because of who we are -- or who we believe ourselves to be. it's a perilous road for anyone to travel, and it's utterly unjustified by history.
71
When I read what's going on in Washington, nausea sets in. Then I go out for a walk and bump into our two maintenance men in the courtyard, one African-American the other a Latino, we exchange greetings, then there's the Asian lady who I've known for years coming through the front gate, she has the best smile, we chat for awhile. Then there's the Russian neighbor from Brazil, we work together on volunteer projects, he's a Republican. There's the couple from Iran, and it goes on and on.
Thank you David, we all need a breather once and awhile from the daily onslaught that Washington deals out.
2
This is not entirely unlike what Randolph Bourne advocated in his "must-read" essay of 1916, A Trans-National America.
1
America’s plurality is its strength. The “white culture “ of the past contained much suspicion of Jews, Blacks, and at one time, Italians, Poles, the Irish, etc. America is more open to all than its ever been and that will keep it young and vital. We still have a long way to go with reckoning with racism and discrimination but we are headed in the right direction despite trump. The economic disparities are the most alarming- in the past college was cheap and a way for anyone to better themselves- a great equalizer for many stories of success. The author references it’s importance to his family. Free or low cost college needs to be a huge priority in the next election- without it we will see America fall behind and the economic gulf grow. As we have seen, if you are afraid of economic failure you’ll forget all the things that make us great and hang all your hopes on a bigot and a scoundrel.
8
Jeremiah's advice that Jews did not have to assimilate is the crux of the problem with immigration, especially learning English. Too many immigrants have formed separate enclaves that require no assimilation. Their only need to interact with anyone different from themselves is public education and hospitals, which are strained to the limit because of them.
4
There's room for everyone, as long as they let go of hate and fear.
4
This is optimism ?
3
@Tim c,
Perhaps a dose of joyous pessimism is needed on occasion to make us realize that we are not as divided as we are being led to believe.
Ok David Brooks. Here I am again, reading you. But this time not finding myself ablaze in disagreement. This beautiful line is an example of why I keep coming back: "Interact with the world around you, confident in your own particularity, but realize that every time you seek to dominate others, you will wind up dominated."
Thank you.
41
"too many people feel left out of it" but that is a feeling, and that feeling is just that - a feeling, not a truth unless they succumb to it.
it's up to you.
4
My own family's history is somewhat similar to the one described by David. And we were raised to appreciate the diversity of cultures in our society. But there are parts of America where the expectation of white Christian hegemony is widespread. Gallup did a study in 2016 which showed that fear and resentment of immigrants was strongest in those counties with relatively few immigrants. Those people saw the tide of demographic change as a threat to their culture and their economic status. Those folks are a key component of Trump's base.
8
It's tempting to think diversity will undo the American narrative, but some things persist. All souls understand opportunity, and freedom, and an even break. Those simple principles sustained the lowliest newcomers in earlier times. And later, when it was convenient, they were capitalized and became the badge and mantra of conservative elites, who managed to twist them into barricades and obstacles to the lowliest newcomers.
It's hard to imagine a time when the powerful few held such sway over so many Americans, and that's oppressive. Perhaps the optimist sees the hungry drive of those who still see, and seek opportunity and freedom, and carry hope, even if they can't catch an even break.
3
@Neander,
Let us leave The Powerful Few lonely at the top; while we have the Power of facing unpleasant facts.
Thanks. Your essay makes me more optimistic, and happy to engage with non people-like-us, who are people like us.
6
One of the more fascinating aspects of the conservative character is its obsession with minorities, race, differences, and dominance. Seeing America in terms of dominant religions, ethnicities and classes is to use a lens that ignores the values and institutions that brought people here in the first place and are still bringing them.
The dream of equal opportunity, justice for all, and freedom to choose animated the founding fathers and still drives a vision free from the demons of difference and dominance. We can revive those values by ending the decades-long drift of our government to the right with an overwhelming turnout for next year's presidential election that restores government of, by, and for the people. Let's let the losers of that election obsess about color and creed while the world and the rest of us move on.
125
@Eric Caine
"The dream of equal opportunity, justice for all, and freedom to choose animated the founding fathers and still drives a vision free from the demons of difference and dominance."
That perfect sentence describes exactly what brought people here in the first place, throughout the past 200+ years, and are still bringing them. We truly are a nation of immigrants - beginning with the founders.
And yes, the "far right" (not the conservatives, per se) - especially under Trump - has always been afraid of the "different" and afraid of losing their "dominance." And that must be ended.
But I worry about this - what we are seeing more of is "whites" claiming "minority" status. And why not? Because it comes from minorities having demanded and receiving special considerations and opportunities.
This slew of 2020 Democrat candidates is so focused on "minorities" fighting "white privilege" instead of remembering and valuing "equal opportunity, justice for all, and freedom to choose" - Doing so will prove detrimental to America.
3
@Eric Caine. Glad you agree with Brooks.
@Mimi "conservatives, per se" vote for Trump, who is the wildly popular -- esp. among "conservatives, per se" -- head of the Republican Party.
The problem with conservatives is that they are so angry, so depressing (the R Party embraces the tone set at the top).
3
Thanks for those thoughts.
A richer mix of cultures and communities may be a soil in which individuals better grow towards their personal fulfillment.
15
Wow I enjoyed this column. Perhaps you can get some fellow conservatives to try to understand it.
There is nothing to fear in a multicultural society.
I think it is beautiful.
200
I enjoyed this column, too! As FDR said,
“There is nothing to fear but fear
itself. “ Vote against fear and lies in the primaries and the 2020 elections!
21
@LFK
There is nothing that could do more to reverse the polarization of our political society than a prominent Republican candidate espousing Mr. Brooks view of our multicultural riches. Unfortunately the party has gone down a rabbit hole of insularity and from there, there is no chance of them seeing a broad horizon of optimism up on the surface of our land.
5
THIS, David, is why I don't fear a takeover by the People's Republic of China. They don't have this weird ability to coexist that we in the US have grown up with. This is why I keep arguing that the British and the French should embrace their newer citizens: they equip these old countries for the future better than anything else can. Just as you ascribe to the Jews--and I agree with you on that--we are equipped to provide the bridges, as individuals and also as a nation.
22
I think the key to community is contained in your short phrases:
Plant gardens. Seek the peace and prosperity of the cities in which you settle.
It's as simple as that. I'm a gardener and I believe in their ability, at whatever scope, to create community.
51
@Lisa, I have eight raised beds in my front yard because my backyard is like a jungle. I also live on a street that gets a lot of foot traffic and I love to be outside gardening and engage with people walking by. Once my Golden stops barking at them to pay attention to her. I have a neighbor several houses away who finally planted a garden and it is huge. I was commenting to her that she will be very busy once she starts harvesting. Her intention is to not harvest, but give most of it away!
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I wonder too aloud, but it is to ponder how long it will take until each and every one of us is truly free - free to be thy own self.
To be oneself, you do not need to be apart of any specific community, but you do need to be a part of society. There is no threat that we are becoming less and less tethered to our past, and there is no threat that we are becoming more and more unique. (especially as our population grows exponentially)
We do not need to opine for any day of yore, for we are in the present and must keep an eye towards our future. (if we are even to have one) There is no need to box one in, and there is no need to categorize or label. We are all brothers and sisters. (if you go back far enough)
There is no need to build massive walls, or raise the drawbridge, for soon, the whole idea of keeping ''them'' out will only lock ''us'' in.
This imperfect union seems threatened, but it will stand, and become stronger as it is now tested. We will become more resilient. We will overcome.
It is only a matter of hard work, perseverance and dedication to the spirit of humanity, that human rights denied to one, is human rights denied to all, whereupon we will continue the fight for those rights for all.
We are getting there.
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