David Brooks who wrote as a conservative for the WSJ, now writes like a liberal for the NY Times. His conversion is complete.
4
One word describes this column: Patronizing. For shame.
22
I subscribe to the New York Times because of David Brooks. I may not agree with every he writes but boy, he writes well. In an era of tweets and poor grammar/spelling ( talking about you, Huff Post), I find Mr. Brooks opinons a pure joy to read. I usually print most of his writings and give them to my daughter who wants to be an English teacher. It gives me a chance to discuss current issues with my teenager. She even named our dog Brooks.
11
The context, Privilege, is a strange one. It is an admonishment that is not needed here. Your praise of privilege to exhibit the values we hold dear is shrouded in the sentiment, "Hey, you kids, remember you did not earn your sense of privilege that enables you. None of us did. You are great, but.....you know, remember."
It's off. It is negative, a water douser. Is this "you", David Brooks, writing this?
8
Lets see what “privilege” did blacks get as a result of the revolution against Britain: continued chattel slavery; antebellum “free” blacks got segregation and near-Slave treatment; emancipation with Jim Crow; Civil Rights with police lynchings; poorly funded schools; first fired and last hired; highest unemployment; lowest income just to mention of the “privileges” black in America have inherited from their participation in the American project. We should be so overjoyed at all these “privileges.”
20
You are an idealist. Thank you so much for the audacity of your continued hope.
11
David Hogg talked about his white privilege openly at Saturday's march which I thought was odd. We have heard so much criticism lately from liberals directed at conservative Republicans and their white privilege. No one has said a word about Mr. Hogg's use of the word because he is a liberal. Typical hypocrisy from the left.
Noticeably absent from the march on Saturday were the fathers of two of the girls killed in the Parkland shootings. Andrew Pollack lost his daughter, Meadow, and Ryan Petty lost his daughter, Alaina. These two beautiful young ladies lost their lives way too soon as did all the other victims of this massacre.
Mr. Pollack's son was not permitted to speak Saturday at the march because he did not share the views of the other attendees from the school. This was a terrible insult to this grieving family which proved it was a one-sided event. Mr. Petty said his daughter's memorial had been politicized by the marchers who placed posters with political messages around flowers. Not all the students agreed with the messages presented on Saturday but their voices were silenced.
The students seemed overwhelming angry and when they talked of revolution the crowd roared. That was a bit off putting and maybe more of a celebration of those who died might have been appropriate. Many in the crowd seemed to not be unsure of why they were there.
It was evident that it was a liberal crowd on Saturday and very one sided. All voices should have been heard.
5
"Negative 'privilege'"
Poor Trump, everyone beats on him, no one is fair to him, while he makes $M's--his entire motivation for seeking office, uses the tweets of the most powerful position in the world to attack (often innocent) individuals with far less power, and cries when anyone attacks with half of his viciousness. The world is privilege and he is a victim.
This this what you?
4
These kids have shown all of us what it means to be adults. These kids have publicly shamed all of us for we were responsible for their safety and well being and we failed them. We fail them every day. This generation is kinder, more moral, more inclusive, more intelligent and as we say in Texas, more better than Gen X and Baby Boomers ever were in their teens. I know now our long term future is in good hands, it is our present and short term future that concerns me.
They had asked a NASA engineer who worked on the Apollo missions, how did you succeed in landing a man on the moon? His reply was "We were too young and stupid to know it couldn't be done. That is why we succeeded."
Stay hungry and stay foolish - Steve Jobs
19
Yes!
6
Your column overall was spot on, but I wonder how someone as educated, informed and well-travelled as you could still be milking that old US Exceptionaliism myth that belies the truth of how Americans treat each other, protect each other, govern themselves and live together. There are so many countries in the world that are better at achieving the American Creed than the US. Why continue the myth that the US is better than so many other remarkable and progressive countries. Besides exhibiting ignorance, it makes it difficult for the losers in the American Creed lottery to understand why they are where they are. A bit of respect for them, too, please. Jane
27
According to Mr. Brooks, we Americans should all feel so "privileged" to be gunned down by the thousands every year. In fact, the more firepower, the better! Wow, such American "exceptionalism" and "freedom" brought to you by the Republican Party.
16
Mr. Brooks, Since you have opined on this topic several times, could you please explain to me why we need "moderate" gun reform? What is moderate gun reform?
What is the point of individual citizens owning guns in a non-professional capacity? What good to they provide either to our society or to individuals? Some kind of recreational benefit? Some kind of symbolic feeling? Does that outweigh ONE death? Does it outweigh 30,000 deaths a year?
Ask a Japanese or British citizen what they think of as moderate gun reform and they will be baffled. No casual gun ownership means no casual gun ownership
When did moderate become another word for intellectual cowardice?
19
David Brooks conflates two opposite meanings of the word “privilege.” “White skin privilege” or condemnation of the privileged “liberal elite”, implies the income, education, and other life circumstance advantages some Americans have are undeserved. The American Creed, the concept that Americans have a unique ideology of freedom, democracy, equality, and opportunity, has historically been seen as a positive “privilege” by most Americans. But this American exceptionalism was the ideology that drove us to bring democracy and freedom through war in Vietnam and Iraq. Brook's murkiness on privilege is exactly what Trump plays upon. He uses class and racial resentment to stoke nationalism. He discards democracy and equality to focus on American superiority and exclusivity. I think speakers at the March for Our Lives like Edna Chavez and Naomi Wadler expressed a clear understanding of the relationship of race and class to democracy and equality.
11
This might've been written in the 1950s. It is, in fact, a soliloquy on privilege written by a privileged white man.
This country is increasingly approaching--and arguably, has reached--a zero-sum power struggle.
If the policies of the current administration and the concurrence and perpetuation of these actions by Republican Congress are not examples of the powerful stomping the vulnerable, I'm flummoxed.
Rather than identifying this article as praise of privilege, I'd say it's more "in defense and exaltation of American exceptionalism."
14
What critics of privilege object to is arbitrary or ill-gotten privilege worn as if divinely ordained & then used against others oppressively or arrogantly. Yes, that leaves a lot of room for sanctimonious anti-privilege police grandstanding. But there's a lot more there than hollow spite/resentment, as the pro-privilege typically claim.
The "check your privilege" stance basically demands that any enjoyment of any privilege whatsoever entail an implicit oath that it is deserved & not ill-gotten, by cheating, theft, abuse, or luck (including accidents of birth including rich parents or even success in the "genetic lottery"). If any of these non-merit elements account, even partly, for one's privilege, one is designated corrupt.
Nevertheless, the discourse of anti-privilege does not support meritocracy, because any competitive outcome is ipso facto tainted by the aggressiveness, venality, & egoism necessary to compete in contests for social privilege: success in school takes on the taint of grade-grubbing or venal conformity; *all* success is suspect.
Most readers won't know at this point if I approve the meritocracy, "earned" social hierarchy crowd or the outcome-egalitarian, anti-meritocracy crowd. The truth is, they can both be grossly smug & mendacious.
Well, sorry Mr. Brooks, I think Jane Austen & Edmond Burke (both of whom you philosophically emulate) were wrong; most people really must cheat to get ahead; therefore I vote for *more* (but not nec. 100%) real equality.
5
I just can't read you anymore without being smothered in the privilege of your 3rd base start.... this ongoing need to justify you are right to be in your rightfully privileged position. All of your historical and philosophical leanings bleed your white male privilege. The very case you make, to be grateful for the opportunity to earn our "American" privilege only suits you, the white man, who controls all the societal, economic, judicial and government pillars of privilege. What about those who have suffered the great American nightmare, to be born poor in this country. Poor and a girl, now the prey of privilege. It's an argument I now come to expect of you, from a most privileged perch, the old grey lady still giving you undeserved cover. As the discarded white trash of my rapist father who left me to rot in his feces infested mess, it wasn't appreciation of my American privilege that propelled my own voice and successes or helped me find my "character" and "group". It was Survival. Hunger. Fear. Bravery. Your ongoing quest to prove you deserve your privilege, your right to preach when and how to be an activist, what "group" deserves to be heard is more than about your privilege. It's about your white male protectionism, hoping beyond hope, that the wave of home plate beginners aren't about to finally displace your old and tired privileged voice and finally end the nightmare that for many has been no American dream.
20
The amendment we can use to counteract an overreaching government is the 1st.... Anyone who thinks guns against the government are an effective tool is a fool.... and if he/she tries it will soon be a dead fool.
Vote! Stop this guns nonsense.
Clearly Wayne LaPierrre and Dana Loesch are completely nuts.... as is the NRA.
No one says you can't hunt. No one says you can't have a hand gun for personal protection. And we all KNOW that assault weapons will not dissuade a corrupt government.
But your voice and your vote will..... THINK!!!
7
Be specific, David. What bothered you so much that you accuse some speakers as being pretentious?
10
Perhaps David Brooks should read White Trash by Nancy Isenberg. Ask them, blacks and other minorities about the Privilege to be American. The shining city on the hill is a sham, just like all other fictions about the American Dream. Is is a pity to see someone like Brooks, who should know better, still in thrall to those delusions.
9
This OpEd seems to me to be an attempt to marginalized the March. It's as if Brooks is figuratively patting these young people on the head and saying "there, there little fella". He would be wise to read Justice Stevens editorial in today's Times and truly weight the ramifications of his party's descent into hell. Unfortunately, they are taking all of us with them.
6
Brooks wrote:
"But the march I saw was not extreme. It was a responsible moral answer to right a very specific wrong, gun violence. It struck me as a very characteristic burst of American moral passion."
You must've seen a totally different march than the rest of your Conservative peers:
"These young activists are making our public debate even more poisonous and less civil." Richy Lowry
"These teens have sucked up nearly every available second of possible air time on CNN & MSNBC (while obviously avoiding actual journalism.) They’ve also had ample amounts of cash and exposure thrown their way. Saturday’s march has largely been propped up by false pretense. These young people are angry, opportunistic... driven by a leftist media, and financed by uber-rich and hard-left celebrities willing to use them." Kevin McCullough
"How about kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something; maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations where there is a violent shooter? They took action to ask someone to pass a law. They didn’t take action to say, ‘How do I as an individual deal with this problem?" Rick Santorum
“He is a kid. He has just been through unspeakable tragedy. You're definitely not fit to be making policy for the rest of us. You are by definition an extremist." Tucker Carlson
"There is discourse, and there is propaganda. The show that the marchers put on this weekend was untethered from reality and from civility." National Review
5
My favourite sign on the march:
"If you need a machine gun to hunt, you suck at it."
11
I'm glad Saturday's march made Mr. Brooks feel optimistic. I wish I could feel the same way. I'm afraid there are powerful forces that are going to overwhelm our political culture. Trump is terrible but really he is a symptom rather than the disease itself. Politically this country has been on the verge of sickness for a long time. It is finally here. I hope sensible gun laws are passed. I hope we will eventually have political leaders that have the maturity to remind us we are one nation. But I believe we are on a downward trajectory. Sadly, I think we are a nation of individuals. Many of us are only in it for what we can get. We are easily manipulated and divided. Would the 800,000 that showed up for the rally on Saturday support a Black Lives Matter Rally in support of the atrocity that happened in Sacramento? Nope. It wouldn't happen.
6
• One of the great privileges of life is to be born an American citizen.
David Brooks, born: August 11, 1961 (age 56), Toronto, Canada
Both born August 11th, I in 1945 in Puerto Rico, that place the U.S. overlooked. Talk about privilege!
On Friday, March 16, I proudly accepted the privilege of becoming a Canadian Citizen. As the oldest in the group of new Canadians I was interviewed by the Halifax Chronicle Herald.
It was with the greatest pride and pleasure that I was quoted: "And I decided that I didn't want to die American."*
THAT was my 'privilege'.
Sorry, David, "all that glitters is not gold." You exchanged gold for chattel.
* New Canadians welcomed at Pier 21
FRANCIS CAMPBELL
http://m.thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1553770-new-canadians-welcomed...
5
Always a veiled dismissiveness, a kind of blindness, a hewing to the line however subtly.
One always hopes that a 'conservative' might be capable of clear hindsight, since what they seek to conserve seems always some greatness just behind us and slightly to the right.
4
David, Thanks for this piece, for once I agree with everything you wrote. And as far as I noticed there was no mention of the word Tribal. It was a privilege to read. Peace brother.
3
I wish there were another word in the English language that could convey the concept of "privilege," because that particular word has invited two distortions.
1. Many people hear it as a synonym for wealth, and balk at the idea that they enjoy any kind of privilege when they aren't wealthy.
2. Others (like Brooks) hear it as a petulant accusation of bias.
It isn't either of those things. People on the left who use concept of "privilege" are trying to get individuals to see things systemically, and thereby move the conversation *beyond* individual bias or personal wealth.
It is a very important concept. We have seen just how easy it is for people to claim they harbor no bias toward any groups (and often they may not), and yet still want to preserve systemic benefits that favor their group. Because of the vicissitudes of English, the word "privilege" has give people an excuse to deny and ignore systemic inequities--and worse, allowed them to willfully misunderstand what progressives are actually pointing to.
9
"Somebody accuses someone of not checking their privilege. This leads the accused to respond that in fact my group has also been marginalized everybody’s good will and doesn’t actually lead to social action."
Funny. I mean really humorous. A dumb guy like Trump gets into Wharton even though he is an atrocious student. Then, even more mind boggling, he actually graduates without even going to class, just like George W Bush the Dumb, at Yale and Harvard......Bush drank his way to sleeping through all his classes, by his own admission on 60 minutes!
and you respond that your group has been marginalized if somebody points out you are missing some point in a debate?
C'mon David. How can you not see that white privilege is ruining America, and, large swaths of the world.
We have to start with Ivy League white affirmative action based on white privilege.
We need competitive ONLY admission standards at Ivy. If that means more blacks and Asians at those schools, well, that would be generating the Meritocracy you write about that does not exist.
Competitive admission only at Ivy would sort Bush and Trump out into Community College where they would flunk out because nobody in at DCC would pass those two jokers.
Then, would they be President if they flunked out of DCC?
I doubt it very much. Stop white privilege at Yale, Harvard and Ivy.
White affirmative action admission practices at Ivy are ruining America.
9
One reason the young are so beautiful is that they represent HOPE.
Most of the comments here are about arguing minutiae, “get off my lawn” complaints/criticisms, and “this is how the world works” assertions. All of which have led to the present malaise of “nothing can be done” and “things will never change”. As a retired white male I see my generation offering little but stagnation and nostalgia.
The world that these young people represent gives me HOPE!
47
Yes, "we must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately"
5
Clever: If I enjoy the (unearned) privilege of being American, in principle I support unearned privilege, as against the "check your privilege" movement, which claims unearned privilege automatically morally discredits anybody so-advantaged. Ergo, I must support inequality.
Not exactly: this trap merely forces anyone enjoying unearned privilege to scrutinize the sources of inequality and substantially use their resources to give others the same opportunities and advantages one had enjoyed oneself. Failure to do so does indeed take away one's moral credibility. Enjoying the unearned privilege of being American compels one to fight for equality.
9
I used to have an idealized image of the United States, like Mr. Brooks does. But then I went to college and learned that our history is far less noble than they teach us in public schools. America is a country where our students do poorly, mass transit and healthcare are a joke, and citizens rank their contentment as "meh," when not being shot at.
Mr. Brooks implores us to focus on the American mythos, and bind our real-world wounds with the salve of idealism. Don't rail against the corporate elites with words like "privilege." Nay, fell privileged yourself for being born to this great nation. Never mind the staggering number of gun deaths and a perplexingly high infant mortality rate. Such are the trappings of exceptionalism.
7
Really, there is not a French Creed? Why do you think that they put "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternite" on every public building?
13
Why is it that certain angry commentators get off on referring to this particular author — a public figure likely not known to them — as David? It is the progressive equivalent to Trump’s favorite mode of ridicule. Here “lil” is not stated directly, but implied via inappropriate familiarity. It is the style of bullies, left wing or right wing.
2
Finally, a column by Brooks I can wholeheartedly agree with. I'd even like to have a beer with him.
2
This article was written by the "privilege in chief". Only someone from a very privileged and "willfully ignorant" position (seeing false equivalency) could possibly have written this column. Well, done, Mr. Brooks.
6
America is a seedy and violent country. Americans are apparently indifferent to not only the suffering of the outside world, but to the suffering of their fellow citizens as well. The creed has bred a victimhood and a dog in the manger mentality. Donald trump is presiding over this dangerous and regrettable exercise of mindless bullying.
7
Brooks again doing more harm than good as the perfect exemplar of white privilege himself. It's the very hallmark of privilege that he can't see his own. Self-fulfilling prophet.
8
We all have the “same” American privilege?
I know what I saw. I saw 800, 000 mostly white marchers being able to protest peacefully the fact that 17 white upper middle class students (Parkland’s average income is $131,000) were killed in their school.
Meanwhile two unarmed black men were shot by POLICE in California (22 y/o Stephon Clark hit by 20 rounds in his back yard) and Houston (a man with his pants that had fallen down around his ankles and hands in the air shot dead in an intersection) and their protests ended in people spitting on them, with people spitting and telling the protesters that they wished they were shot with 20 bullets.
Check your privilege? I want to see the day that 100 black protesters can march without having someone spit on them and arrested while white people marched and were called heroic.
David? White privilege still exists.
And for me white MALE privilege still exists when I as a woman surgeon and champion golfer cannot walk onto a mens-only golf club.
75
I was in Washington. There were plenty of African Americans, young and old. Many Asians. The marchers and the speakers were very diverse.
Also the Parkland survivors have been insulted, vilified, and their lives have been threatened.
8
"I think the decimation of American history in the schools has left a generation ignorant of the creed and ungrateful toward our ancestors’ heroic sacrifices that brought it down to us."
So you made that sacrifice in the rice paddies of Southeast...where...Chicago?
Been shot at Mr. Brooks? No? They have, and seventeen died. They earned the right to speak.
So get down off your pulpit Father Brooks, find a spot in the pews, shut up, and listen. The world doesn't need the your sacrament of Holy Sanctimony.
7
You accidently omitted the planter, slave owner, President Jackson and the Trail of tears. He became a very wealthy man.
11
"....extremism on the other side..." What on the left is remotely comparable to Donald Trump? Always, always the apologist, David. When will you finally acknowledge that one side has gone off the rails? Your side.
10
Brook, like Cheney and Trump, creates his own reality: American is exceptional , the home of freedom and opportunity . Yeah , tell it to the Indians and the Blacks . Sadly, the real reality is that America is an oligarchy and Brook is ok with that .
6
"Speaking as a White Male...." was the title of his last column. It really could be the title of every column he writes.
12
"Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious. "
Kind of like this column.
12
As tather of a young man who served in the Israeli military, rather than in the US Military, Mr. Brook’s condescending remarks are striking, and mind numbing.
9
You keep using that word. But I do not think it means what you think it means
5
Very eloquent, David. Although I do not share your politics, I do respect your insight, your measured objectivity, and your sense of historical perspective. Without historical perspective, we are often overwhelmed by the power of immediate events. We need the power of perspective to remind ourselves that there are not many things entirely and totally new under the sun. Others had trod those same footsteps. There is wisdom to be gained in those steps. And, I get to learn a new word today! "Reify" is to make tangible that which is an abstraction. Well done, David!
We do not share "the great privilege" together: markers of inequality are all around you. As long as we accept capitalism as our operating system-- especially the regressive rape and pillage model Trump et al are reviving with other bits of the worst of our past, we accept the moral stain of hopeless working poverty, substandard schools that cripple the children of "lesser privilege" who attend them as surely as bullets have crippled the bodies of students attending the "better schools" of wealthy suburbs, and a degrading environment whose toxins, erosions, and extremes will affect the least of us the most (globally and at home). What kind of privilege is that? Exemption from compassion and empathy, from work for justice defined as equal opportunity for the pursuit of a life of meaning, purpose, and hope? (Not a bad definition of "happiness" as it was understood by the framers, by the way). We need to surrender our privileges to the idea of citizenship and to taking up the ongoing work of first restructuring and then perfecting a union that has fallen into shambles. And we need to extend our willingness to sacrifice for the common good to the planet itself. That we need to begin by assuring basic safety for our children is to our shame: "seed corn should not be ground" is the oldest wisdom shared by the species; that the whole planet is being ground to feed a corrupting economic system and the grossly privileged who direct it is a crime against life itself.
1
All true, but Europeans have the privilege of having far less fear (with some exceptions) of being killed by guns.
5
I agree that this march showed privilege, but only the privilege of a certain sect of America. When black people peacefully marched in protest of the same issue last year, they were not met with the respect and support that these teens have.
This march was powerful, and I loved every bit of it, but it also showed that the privilege of the American Creed is only extended to certain citizens, not all, and that defies the notion of freedom for all.
5
I was in Washington. There were many African Americans marchers and speakers.
1
Trying to hijack the march for your own soul deadening thesis is at least better than the right wing hate machine unleashed against this magnificent kids. Though the demands were modest, the imagination, determination and breathtaking genius of the students were through the roof. Your desire to tame them won't work.
6
David Brooks, dumbfounding as always.
What "positive" American privilege did the 17 dead students experience? To be killed by a legally purchased gun, unique to American commerce, while at school , a uniquely American Tragedy.
"Saturday I saw people motivated by idealism and humbled by gratitude." I was there, strange that I thought they were motivated by their murdered friends and family?
The "negative-privilege" mindset is something that can only be cooked up in the Ivory Tower that David must reside in. Silly me to think that children murdered in school by military style rifles were somehow not included in what David describes as the "great privileges of life is to be born an American citizen." Who again is "imagining" themselves as the Zero in the zero-sum struggle when the American experiment murdered you?
Think of the dead next time you consider writing.
10
"I have to say, I loved the gun-control march I observed last Saturday in Washington."
Well. Thanks for that. Quite a concession.
I'm sure everyone involved is relieved.
You ever listen to yourself?
6
I don't usually read Mr. Brooks but the title interested me. With his harshly disdainful put-down of protest against racism and his charge that it leads nowhere, he seems to have gone full racist.
6
All I can say is it is heart warming to see the growing list of congressional and and senatorial retirements announced. Mr. Brookes, perhaps you should head the political pun-dent retirement list?
3
A very reasonable and dare I say it, moderate/liberal article by Mr. Brooks. While one should expect an extremely benign reaction to this articles's positive homage to the good aspects of America, I still see a barrage of angry postings after taking a somewhat brief glance at the other postings. I guess no matter how benign the article/topic might be, the internet/online environment inevitably gives the most unpleasant, troll like, agitators the "courage" to post.
5
But, Mr. brooks, aren't you grandiose yourself.
You can fawn all you want, even with reason, over this country and its contributions over the last 300 years but this is a mere drop in the bucket of time. 400 years ago other countries were carrying the load and, at the rate we are going, this country may not show the way anymore. Talk about a flash in the pants!
Hopefully, men and women of good will will re-emerge, but it may take a crushing of all the Trump supporters and the 1% to reach that point.
2
“Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious.” —- Really? As you mention Mr. Brooks, you likely behaved this way at age 18. And apparently haven’t outgrown it.
2
As usual, Mr. Brooks just makes stuff up, then uses his inventions to "prove" his points.
First of all - could there be any more absurd statement than that France doesn't have a "creed"? They might not be so pretentious as to call it that, but France does have an extremely strong national self-image, made up of liberty, equality, fraternity, and laicity, along with an enduring trust in the center (whether King or Republic) to take active care of citizens' needs. Either Mr. Brooks knows nothing of France or is, as I say - just making stuff up.
Second - why does he persist, week after week, in talking as though the left's playbook is as extreme as the right's? Mr. Brooks: Republicans have rallied around an ignorant, racist, quixotic, hate-filled, self-obsessed extremist. Meanwhile, despite a range of voices on the left, some of them more extreme than others, this is what has actually happened recently: Connor Lamb, hardly a fire-breather, has been elected. Doug Jones, hardly a fire-breather, has been elected. Obamacare, hardly a radical program, has been defended. Attempts have been made to support the Dreamers, something desired by the vast majority of Americans. The list goes on and on. Why does Mr. Brooks act as though the Democratic part of the conversation is characterized by wild-eyed extremism when the evidence right in front of his face is that its victories reflect anything but that? Is he really that unaware of current events? Or is he just - making stuff up?
8
Unreal, how this man can wrap a genuinely heartfelt affirmation of collective political action in the dirty diaper of his ideology. It is simply stunning; apparently, he can’t help himself. To pull from the student march a ridiculous either/or between “negative” and “positive” privilege is the intellectual knee-jerk of an ideologue—as if our national history could not—did not—involve BOTH debates about the implementation of shared ideals as well as oppressors stomping on the oppressed!
On top of this gross simplification of American history Brooks then piles two more dubious claims: first that there IS one “American Creed” and second that it just happens to jibe with Republican “distrust of central authority.” But that’s the great thing about being a pundit and not an historian—you can just throw this loose, ideologically-tainted manure at the wall and it sticks, at least to those on the right looking to confirm what they already believe.
But what galls me most here is the suggestion that the true source of our current national bickering is anyone who calls out oppressors for their oppression, all those unAmerican negative Nellies addicted to feelings of moral superiority. This blatant ad hominem argument is a preemptive attack on anyone who might take issue with his ridiculous claims—a truly despicable way of silencing voices in a national debate he claims to so fervently desire.
4
Illusion and unreality, deception and misdirection, plausible piety and pernicious chicanery seem to be the essential ingredients of an empty suit version of American life devoid of its real outrage and injustice, violence and privilege, division and deception...why? To publish a column that is Pablum?
2
How can these students feel privileged when their fellow students were massacred down by an crazed young man wielding an AR-15 he never should have been allowed to purchase in the first place?
How can they feel privileged when they know -- as John Paul Stevens argued today on these pages -- that the NRA has perpetuated the biggest fraud on the American people in our lifetime?
How can you sleep at night knowing you have squandered your privilege with your unyielding support of the NRA's side -kick aka the GOP -- knowing you have been complicit in this massive fraud?
7
The privilege to own firearms is much better protected than the privilege to a good education, a good job, a safe society, etc, ... Isn't the obvious conclusion that guns are a more important privilege than our citizens?
I'm a white male too, but I have a bit more of an inkling what it means to be privileged than you do Mr. Brooks. You can cling to one definition of "privilege" if you want to--it's your column--but you are abusing your privilege as a columnist by talking about one type of privilege and poo-pooing the other as if it is unimportant in the scheme of things.
Where privilege comes into play in the Parkland massacre is within the school and neighborhood before the shooting. The privileges the students of Parkland enjoyed pre-slaughter was generally economic and their public school, as a result of being well resourced, was able to educate these students in how to address others and the media in general.
Their privilege is not from 'being born American' but from being born into a wealthy enough neighborhood that their school was well funded. Properly educated people know when they are being abused and know how to fight that abuse. The freedoms that education can spawn are omnipresent, and our grand country's promise that everyone be well educated is an unrealized privilege as a result of the disparity of privileges in our country.
8
But David, whether you want to admit it or not, you were born in Toronto, Canada!
4
David, you are truly lost. You're splitting hairs and changing the subject. It is true that we're all privileged to be here! All of us are blessed to live here vs. N Korea or in Poland in 1939. And it's totally irrelevant to the 'privilege' you claim to be discussing. Watch how the Parkland kids used their awareness of their privilege to consciously include people of color. Oh, did they sound grandiose to you? Thanks for judging. Get the Tide pod out of your mouth and *listen* and be educated by these kids. Wake up.
8
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas students actually pointed out their privilege numerous times in interviews. They acknowledge what Mr. Brooks seemingly cannot - that they are relatively wealthy mostly white kids and this provides them the privilege of a platform and implied credibility of their views and experiences. They explicitly discussed the differential treatment of white vs. black and brown victims of our uniquely American form of gun violence. Mr. Brooks seems to be denying that this is really the case, but the kids know better and they are brave enough to say it out loud instead of appealing to some aspirational but inaccurate American history. That's my (middle-aged white man) take away from the fresh take these students showed us.
9
Just wait until nothing happens and these privileged kids start tossing stones and kicking in window fronts. It might happen.
1
Sad to say but nothing changes in America without violence or the threat thereof, especially against the one thing our nation's plutocratic leadership holds dear above all: property. All the civil rights marches and sit-ins were well and good, but the riots after MLK's assassination and subsequent urban unrest was what really got their attention. Persuasion, reason, and moral argument didn't end slavery: war did. Not advocating nor condoning: that's just the way it is.
4
Mr. Brooks, why do you "have to say" you loved the gun-control march? What good reason could you have found to disagree with thousands of students taking to the streets because they're tired of watching their contemporaries get killed while their elected representatives remain hostage to the gun lobby?
Your assumption that you'd be opposed to this march, and your subsequent realization that maybe these kids have a point, are examples of the knee-jerk extremism you decry. You're part of the problem.
7
The idea of realizing ones privilege means that we use privilege in service to those who do not enjoy that particular privilege. For example a poor heterosexual woman of color may find her life burdened by many unfair disadvantages, but she has heterosexual privilege in a heterosexual dominant world. To understand this means she has a responsibility to stand in solidarity with those who do not enjoy heterosexual privilege.
At the same time, the rich white LGBTQIA person has an obligation to stand in solidarity with the poor heterosexual woman of color. The good news about the March for our Lives is that the privileged young people of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School stood in solidarity with young people of color from around the country.
See: https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2018/03/24/enough-is-enough-itstime-f...
1
Writes Brooks: "Sometimes I think the decimation of American history in the schools has left a generation ignorant of the creed and ungrateful toward our ancestors’ heroic sacrifices that brought it down to us."
What a slap at teachers! Has Brooks visited high school and college classrooms to see what we are actually teaching? What does he think we do? I think he'd be surprised to find that most history teaching is a discussion of citizenship and the meaning of social contracts. Where does he think students like Emma Gonzalez get their ideas, their soul and courage? Hasn't he been listening to the Parkland students. They haven't turned against their teachers. Instead they have stood strong with them to show us how education can make us stronger.
8
What a condescending load of bunk.
So these students passed your “privilege” test? They showed proper deference to their great good fortune to be born in a country where, as they attended mandatory education, they were fired upon with a military assault weapon and forced to flee for their lives over the bodies of their murdered classmates.
Moreover thousands of their fellow classmates have over the last two decades enjoyed the same privledge to be gunned down while Congress stood by and offered their sympathy, beholden to a radical gun rights group and gun manufacturers.
And when these students, despite having suffered unthinkable trauma just weeks ago, have the courage and fortitude to stand up you offer criticisms as if they were professional pundits, journalists or lobbyists.
Did you see the girl who, recently shot, vomited on herself as she spoke? She acknowledged it and continued with her presentation.
Mr. Brooks I expect you have never experienced the uniquely American experience of being shot at with an assault rifle while attending class. This is not something to be celebrated, to be discussed with reasonable opposing views, to use as an opportunity to critique child survivors with style points.
The reason this country faces the mess it is in, is because not enough people have exercised the courage and commonsense these children have in refusing to accept the unacceptable.
8
Return to writing Book Reports, Sir. Better for MY blood pressure.
3
grandiosity? your use of 'American Creed' (should that have a 'tm'?) seems a bit grandiose. There are other countries in the world with ideals, you know. It seems too obvious that the US needs to get rid of guns, perhaps the 2nd Amendment. That's it, no need to invoke notions of patriotism.
4
The people who are not living up to the American privilege are people like Brooks and other conservatives and Republicans. They look for any reason to blame anyone other than themselves. They fail to stand up to Trump, the NRA and a spineless Congress.
4
Spoken like a privileged white male. Like someone who enjoys not only the privilege of being born in this country, but a lot of other privileges that plenty of those born in this country do NOT enjoy. For example, the privilege of knowing that if you encounter a cop and you haven't done anything illegal, nothing will happen to you. The cop won't suspect you of being a criminal just because of the way you look. For another example, the privilege of going to work in an office without having to worry that you'll be subjected to sexual harassment. How many middle-aged white males get sexually harassed in the the workplace? Not too many.
Let's get real. Brooks is on the outs with the GOP because he can't bring himself to support Trump. But just as he did before Trump ran, Brooks is constantly trying to find ways to denigrate liberals, to find reasons why they should NOT be complaining about historic injustice and oppression. The GOP has changed in recent years. Brooks hasn't. He is still an apologist for white male privilege.
4
I made it all the way to "there's no such thing as a French Creed" before I had to seek medical attention for overexposure to Brooksite.
5
Yeah, it's such a privilege to dodge bullets on your way to class. To be an American of any age is such a privilege to know that you aren't really safe anywhere anymore.
Not in class. Not in theaters, shopping malls, night clubs, Home Depot stores, churches, concerts, at your own dining table, driving on the freeway, standing on the street.
What a glorious thing it is to be an American. Long forgotten in this land of the "free", is freedom from fear, a fundamental human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and immortalized in FDR's speech on the four freedoms.
See, David? In America, it's supposed to be a right, not a privilege, to be free of those who own and use assault weapons of war to kill us, thus depriving us of our most fundamental right. You know that one, right? It's called Life.
80
"Sensible measures" that still will not stop anyone who wants to become a mass murder celebrity from getting a gun to kill or using a car they can drive at 16 to mow down a dozen or so in a crosswalk in front of a school. But then again the intention of the "pretentious and grandiose" privileged is never to actually accomplish anything but stoking their own egos and getting unearned celebrity just like their ego maniac peers who now kill for fun and fame. What would get shooting deaths significantly down would be a mass appeal and shaming of teens by other teens of those who act like 3 year olds throwing mass murder tantrums to get attention. Its time for our society to declare as societies have for millennium that the age of reason is 12 years old and those between 12 and 21 are fully morally accountable and are expected to act like young adults and will be either executed or jailed for life just like adults for serious crimes.
1
Yeah, I get it, for the umteenth time. Rah rah Southern North American exceptionalism. Poor France and Italy, and for that matter Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Norway, Finland, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Spain and others, no creed. But then again no Trump, no wacko Republican agenda to turn the US into the Confederacy, extremely rare random mass shootings. And a lot better health care (look up the numbers).
6
Cue the National Anthem – David Brooks speaks.
Listen to him patronize the cute little student protesters, whom he deems “grandiose and pretentious” when they invoke the word “’revolution.’” As long as they remain “good-hearted, gracious, diverse and welcoming,” and don’t threaten the power structure (of which Brooks is a “privileged” participant) he is with them.
I’ll bet that Brooks has never participated in a protest march of any kind, preferring to remain ensconced in his safe ivory-tower bubble marinating in fairy tales and myths that have little to do with reality. Brooks apparently lived in an “alternative reality” long before the concept was force fed steroids by the current Republican Party.
I’m just a few years older than Brooks. Our generation was force fed the Kool Aid of the “American Creed.” But Brooks got drunk on it and remained locked – like an insect in amber – in its thrall. I got sober on reality.
Brooks: “I think the decimation of American history in the schools has left a generation ignorant of the creed and ungrateful toward our ancestors’ heroic sacrifices that brought it down to us.” Reality: there is a generation who has been taught a more realistic version of history, one that wasn’t written by the privileged, one that eschewed the nationalistic propaganda of his “American Creed.”
Only blind myth maintains that “freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy” were offered to anyone but the oligarchs who owned and controlled those freedoms.
3
Did any Republican politicians endorse the stated goals of the gun-control march? Did Trump, Paul Ryan, or Mitch McConnell take up a discussion of the Marchers demands?
"It's not enough to vent and march" for gun-control according to David Brooks. "It is necessary to let people from Red America lead the way" Should we be following the Marchers, or should we be waiting for the "Red America" to lead them?
Should we be listening to Majory Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez (or is she too lesbian, too proud of her cuban heritage) or should we be waiting for a white man from Red America like David Brooks to tell us what it all means...
Before Mr Brooks decides to derail and co-opt a march such as this. It might be better for him to truly take a moment and listen to their demands, not trying to create something out of it which was not their intention nor their plea. That is what mansplaining disrespect looks like to me.
54
"One of the great privileges of life is to be born an American citizen."
There are millions and millions of Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, French, Germans, Canadian, Italians, Swedes, Spaniards, Norwegians, Portuguese, Fins, Danes, Swiss, Japanese and countless other citizens of divers countries of the world who would disagree David. Disagree very strongly.
Why? The citizens of those countries, by and large, live free of gun violence. The citizens of those countries, with a few notable exceptions, do not participate in wars of choice (read: Iraq, Vietnam...). The citizens of those countries have healthcare provided as a fundamental right. The citizens of those countries are not taxed by their governments if they do not live in their "homelands".
And finally, the citizens of those countries do not have Donald Trump, Dotard-in-Chief as their leader.
You are such a chauvinist.
9
Mr Brooks as usual, tries to put a bright picture on America's history. America has an ugly, cruel past. Thomas Jefferson was a cruel man and George Washington was too. They fought a revolution for rich white people only. for the sake of getting to the point, white fear of too many coloreds is why we have Trump. Diversity is good but not too much diversity. Don't hand me that STUFF about expanding on their ideas. The price has been and will be too high
2
Thanks again, David, for reminding us that if we ask white American men to recognize the inequality and oppression that they have created and perpetuated and demand that others have a chance to speak and prosper, then we are being un-American. I give you one thing, you are at least consistent in your insidious assertions that others should simply accept inequality and oppression in silence.
3
"Do some of benefits they haven't earned" Yes. Like 95% of our country. Won't vote, don't serve in the military, evade taxes, etc. etc. I felt this had an air of condescension, even though you state otherwise. These young people would't be on the streets of their parents and grand parents would have fixed this gun issue. I think we go along with government for too long even though we are supposed to be self governing. We didn't get the stupidity of Vietnam and now we don't get the stupidity of a lack of gun laws. Protest movement stopped Vietnam and hopefully it will guns as well.
5
I'm spending a week with old friends in France. My hostess is currently being examined by the nurse who is making her regular house calls. Now that sounds like privilege to me coming from America. This might be part of what French people would call "Liberte, Egalite, Fratenite". But I guess that doesn't qualify as a creed.
The constant "WE'RE NUMBER ONE", "WE'RE SPECIAL", "WE'RE THE ONLY TRULY GOOD PEOPLE" chest pounding of American conservatives like Brooks is frankly laughable. There is no privilege. There is no lack of privilege. America is what we make of it, and politically we're doing a pretty shabby job. Hurray for the young people who are trying to do something about it. As for David ... blah, blah, blah.
8
" Sometimes I think the decimation of American history in the schools...."
Right Brooks - blame it on the teachers - not on the politicians who determine - are " persuaded ($$$) " to select a particular text published by a particular right/left leaning publisher.
"....and ungrateful toward our ancestors’ heroic sacrifices that brought it down to us. "
By " us " - you mean our politicians.
Right ?
1
Brooks is a dinosaur staring into the bright light of an asteroid.
Perhaps he was exposed to too much propaganda, or maybe in good faith he actually believes that American is some God-given beacon to the world.
Regardless, his perspective assumes bad faith over large amount of Americans, and ironically, probably those same very children he is pretending to praise.
"There are, of course, some parts of society where the word “privilege” has a very negative connotation."
Some parts? Really? Some? I bet you avoid those neighborhoods like the plague.
3
"18 is a dangerous age' so said Sukanta Bhattacharya,a Bengali poet.
1
To be young is to have Hope. To be old without Hope is slow death.
" Hope is the thing with feathers ". Soar, Kids, SOAR.
2
Nice commentary Mr. Brooks. I agree! Let's hope it translates into action come November. "VOTE THEM OUT!!!!!"
2
Turn the tide
of blood
Turn the tide
you brave young warriors
Warriors who only want to learn
or at the very basic least, not to die
you might not get everything
you might not get anyhing
but you give hope
hope, Hope, HOpe, HOPe, HOPE!!
It has to start somewhere
It has to start with someone
It is starting..
We read a lot of statistics in the press documenting "white privilege," but almost never any concerning the analogous concept of "Jewish privilege," such as recent estimates that one-third of the Forbes 400 billionaires are of Jewish ancestry, despite Jews making up only about 2% of the population.
Writers who complain about "white privilege" ought to explain why they don't dare use the same logic to complain about "Jewish privilege."
3
You are abetting a current and harmful mis-use of a word. Having one’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness respected is not a “privilege.” A privilege—a “private law”—is an exemption from the law that binds others. An old-regime nobleman’s exclusive right to hunt in a certain forest or be exempt from paying a certain tax were privileges. It was among the aims of the American and French revolutions to abolish that sort of thing. Any doctrine of equality is per se a condemnation of privilege. The Founding Fathers detested the very word (well maybe not Hamilton).
1
Youth has greater sensitivity to injustice, hypocrisy, and flat out stupidity than the typical Fox viewer. Who objects to universal background checks and the banning of assault weapons? The youth of America are dumbfounded that obvious policy responses to gun violence have been ignored by the adults -- shame on us.
Who would have thought? The best of America are not found on Capital Hill or Wall Street, but at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Thank you MSD students!
2
Great essay, Mr. Brooks, one of your finest.
2
David calls some of the young speakers "grandiose". Really? How dare "kids" show up us adults." The intellectual snobbery that oozes from every pore of David Brooks makes the young speakers look positively humble. Stop lying for the GOP, David. It's a dead letter. Truth has a liberal bias, because it embraces the reality that the right of human beings to live is more important than someone's "right" to own guns made for the hunting and rapid killing of large numbers of human beings.
4
The fact that record-breaking crowds are in the street demanding common sense gun control shows that our system of government is not working for the people it is supposed to serve. From stealing a Supreme Court seat to nominating an unqualified imbecile to the Presidency, to gerrymandering and now trying to rig the census, only one political party is to blame.
4
Yes, David, it's great that the demonstrators had the luxury of speaking their minds. Now how about gifting them with the right to not get shot in school, in church, at a concert, in a nightclub...?
5
"As Richard Hofstadter famously put it, “It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies, but to be one.”"
It is amazing to me that in the America of 2018 there are people who actually believe this claptrap. And that they have influential perches on leading newspaper opinion pages.
2
David,
The idea of the MARCH FOR OUR LIVES disturbed you. You are too relieved and grateful that it was "nice, nice."
But, did you know a GOP candidate for local office in Maine referred to the young woman who stood silent for over 6 minutes as a "skin-head lesbo?" I think you need to look harder at the Trumpish right wing that you just can't bear to let go. There are no reasonable Conservatives speaking; they don't exist. Maybe Kasich. He is mild, too....to suit you.
How can anyone be mild at this point? 17 more kids are dead.
Dead. Ever get really angry, David? Please don't praise these
kids for being well-mannered. That does not understand them
and their discipline at all.
5
"There's no such thing as a French creed"???? Has David Brooks ever heard of "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite"?? Perhaps the French haven't always followed this creed since it was coined in 1789, but neither have Americans always followed theirs since 1776.
4
If only the student protests envelope ALL violence and not just gun violence. Because it is an epidemic in America. It is a public health hazard and we are exporting it to the rest of the world.
Here in MA, we have the lowest possible gun related deaths, because of excellent gun laws. Yet, my daughter's high school friend too her life with a gun her parents owned. Suicides are part of the violence epidemic.
Recently a young 20 something medical student was randomly attacked and killed in a public library with a knife, the perpetrator being another 20 something guy. And just yesterday an elderly man was randomly attacked in a grocery store, by a knife wielding youth. These violent attacks are holding up a mirror to all of us, for us to see, the pain caused by violent deaths. Imagine how many deaths has America caused all over the world, with its violent attacks in the name of spreading democracy!
2
Mr. Brooks says "some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious," but this smug essay on privilege lazily posits "that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other.” Overwhelming corporate influence, the NRA and the flurry of racist rhetoric (and threats) from the right have no counterpart on the left.
Mr. Brooks approach of a 'pox on both your houses’ is also morally relativistic. The center of American politics now is to the right of old establishment Republicans, allowing moderate liberal solutions to appear fringe. The Right is morally bankrupt and the Left is moderate and meek.
To illustrate that point, who didn’t catch their breath this morning at the radical suggestion that the Second Amendment be abolished, from that well known radical, and former Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens? Good suggestion for sure, but I haven’t heard it proposed by any many others.
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
Excerpt from E.B. Yeats, The Second Coming
1
"Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious."
None as pretentious as you, David, as you judge and pretend to be above them in intellect and spirit, and nothing could be further than the truth. And the students have more experience than you in one respect: they have suffered the tragic loss and the trauma of a mass shooting at their school.
How can these students feel privileged when their fellow students were massacred down by an crazed young man wielding an AR-15 he never should have been allowed to purchase in the first place?
How can they feel privileged when the know -- as John Paul Stevens argued today on these pages -- that the NRA has perpetuated the biggest fraud on the American people in our lifetime?
How can you sleep at night knowing you have squandered your privilege with your unyielding support of the NRA's side -kick aka the GOP -- knowing you have been complicit in this massive fraud?
5
There is Apollo Creed.
1
America, founded on a set of principles mostly embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is qualitatively different from France, Russia, China, and most other countries. No matter how far we are from attaining a society that broadly functions on those principles (and their evolving expression), our legitimacy and success as a nation is measured by our current relationship to those principles. We are all hyphenated Americans, of necessity from day one fated to travel a collective path with other hyphenated Americans.
Most other countries are defined by historical ethnic homogeneity. For them, the modern push toward citizenship not predicated on majoritarian membership is a major challenge. For most of their people, a Jewish Pole, a Muslim Indian, a Hindu Sri Lankan, a Christian Saudi Arabian are all simply oxymorons.
The problem now is that we do not have a sense of who we are as a society. We all in one way or another are hyphenated Americans, Black-Americans, 2nd Amendment-Americans, gay-Americans, anti-Abortion-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, female-Americans, whatever-Americans. Yet, we are in a crisis, where most people's primary identity is on the adjective before the hyphen, not on the collective noun, American.
For a generation, America has wallowed in self-defeating identity politics, while failing to provide a positive, collective vision like the Apollo Program, instead letting people define their commonalities through not-this or not-that.
3
"There’s no such thing as the French Creed . . . ." What?!?!?!? Ok, maybe not "creed." They would never use such a word. But then I never heard of "American Creed" either until you wrote it. The French formed the first European Nation State. They were first European nation to abandon monarchy. Yes, inspired by us.
Have you never been to France??? The French are a distinctive and distinctively proud people with a remarkably well-defined yet expansive culture. It's sufficiently expansive that many immigrants to that country have ended up as thoroughly French as any descendant of the original Gauls. Consider Nicolas Sarkozy of Hungarian stock, or the late great Algerian Alsatian chanteur Alain Bashung. The French "creed" is so strong and pervasive it occasionally irritates the non-French. (But, mostly. we love them for it.)
Why does being American include the need to denigrate everyone else?
The marchers were polite and welcoming? Come on. The main speaker contended that Marco Rubio - the Senator who has been nothing but professional and accommodating on the subject of gun control - had coldly calculated the worth of a child's life. And braying on and on about the NRA and "assault rifles" (which the marchers can't even define) while refusing to talk about law enforcement's failure to prevent the shooting is the epitome of culture-war nastiness. It was a march of Democratic talking points.
1
Obviously you did not hear the speakers. Yes we all want to vote out politicians who serve the NRA rather than constituents who want sensible gun control. Ban military style assault weapons. And I assure you, these young people know more about this issue than you do. How many friends have you witnessed being slaughtered by an AR15?
Check your privilege (in the negative fashion), Mr. Brooks.
By the way, I am so happy that the orderly, non-violent March for Our Lives caused you little cause for personal alarm. Yet, the nation IS gyrating as entitled people like yourself seem to have no leverage over our GOP members of congress. Or you are unwilling to use it, or to strive to convince others of the conservative ilk of the danger of their ways. To the country and to the future.
Of course the privileged-entitled behave defensively when their entitlement is called out. Their task, and yours, is to learn empathy. To learn power-sharing. To not see a quest for equality as win-lose but a betterment of everyone, including the presently entitled-privileged.
2
Well then I guess some privileged people's privileges are greater than others.
I think that's called being over-privileged. Or having privilege upon privilege.
So reassuring to those children who experienced a brutal military assault upon them while attending public school that they're privileged.
2
You are right Mr. Brooks, thank god for your levelheadedness and positive thinking. We are the most privileged nation. And you are right there is a very specific "part of society" in which the word "Privilege" is ONLY a dirty word. It is something the left, rich liberals and progressives alike, are pretending to try to shed. Shedding for what benefit? It is almost certain that taking advantage of any and all of one's privileges is more beneficial than rejecting or renouncing them. I mean, what dumber thing to renounce? Better to renounce bad attitudes like the desire to renounce privilege, than to renounce privilege itself. He rightfully places the source of much of our privilege with our founding fathers, again a group the left would rather denounce than appreciate. The left wants more control by the state in the name of "safety" of it's citizens. Most of us on the right would prefer freedom over safety. The second amendment is the second and last alternative to tyranny once the 1st amendment of free speech has been stripped. I'm glad to see people taking advantage of their privilege of first amendment rights, but what a silly thing to exercise that right about, taking away 2nd amendment rights. What could make the left happier than a large mindless group of citizens exercising their right to speak about taking everyone's rights away? The actions of the left are often the epitome of irony.
1
Of late, Mr. Brooks has lost touch with reality. For example:
"Recently, it has seemed like the country is gyrating out of control, that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other."
Does Brooks really think that the manifestly unfit Mr. Trump is the same as those who are pointing out, with bountiful evidence, his dangerous shortcomings? To Brooks, calling a lie a lie is extreme.
"There was no culture war nastiness, no hint of resentment."
The "culture war" is Republican Trump Fox propaganda, as is the politics of white racial resentment. Does Brooks really expect that "nastiness" to show up at an anti-Trump anti-NRA student march?
"In those parts of society, history is ... seen as a zero-sum power struggle between oppressor and oppressed ... "
Is Brooks really attributing the zero-sum nature of the present administration and its supporters to black activists and the Democrats?
3
"Recently, it has seemed like the country is gyrating out of control, that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other. "
This brings to mind a thought that occurred to me:
Suppose the Dems took control of the Senate in the next election, and that subsequently another Supreme Court appointment became available to Trump.
Would Dems be justified in blocking Trump's nominee the same way the Rebubs did to Obama? If so, would there be a break-point (with regard to Trump's remaining time in office)? I could easily see the precedent set by McConnell being stretched to the point where a new Supreme Court Justice could only be appointed when both the President and Senate are from the same party.
There goes our Mr Brooks again, using big words and sounding like a left-leaning Democrat while genteelly tip-toeing around the fact that it is his chosen party, the party of social extremism, which has placed this country in its current situation. A situation where blood-spattered children have to beg their lawmakers for some sanity in an over-armed and dangerous country drowning in NRA blood money.
I particularly liked the shout-out to Frances Perkins. Her Labor Department's signature achievement was The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which provides for minimum wage and overtime pay; I worked for 27 year enforcing it. Yet Mr Brook's GOP dismantles this bedrock of American labor every chance it gets. Witness the latest attempts to cheat tipped employees of their MW and salaried workers of their OT. Only Democratic congresses EVER raise the MW; Republicans want to eliminate it. GOP policies inevitably favor bosses and harm workers.
Mr Brooks is the consummate "intellectual" conservative. He has the smarts to know that conservative policies work against the majority of Americans, but he uses his brains and his soapbox to contort logic and reality so he can defend a party and principles which continually harm ordinary Americans for the benefit of the very wealthy.
5
Dear David, The term "privilege" you are referring to has recently come to mean lack of empathy and awareness of others stemming from a sheltered life. It is about white liberal obliviousness at how people of color have been excluded from the American Creed by those self same liberals. Bernie Sanders demonstrated it perfectly in his campaign. The economy does not float all boats. The New Deal was for white men only and it worked very well, for them. You too suffer from that privileged life with blinders on. You know what blinders are: those shields they put beside horses eyes so they can't see scary things and get spooked.
1
"We are the lucky inheritors of the American Creed, built around freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy. There’s no such thing as the French Creed or the Italian Creed but there is an American creed."
Are you really arguing that America has more freedom, more opportunity and more democracy than France or Italy? Really? is there any evidence for that idea?
3
I too was impressed with the inherent "American-ness" of the march, as if these amazing kids had bothered to learn their lessons about who we aspire to be as a nation, before embarking on their crusade. They emphasized that guns are an American and a moral issue -- not a partisan one. They recognized their own economic and social privilege and sought to be inclusive. They endeavored to unite rather than divide. Sure, they are angry and impatient -- and perhaps a teensy bit arrogant at times -- as they have a right to be, but they are also realistic and insightful, and they haven't lost sight of what's important and unifying in our society. I see lots of hope here, and as an older American, I'm willing to hand them the keys to the future while saying "We have your back."
2
I have come to think that we are one people who can help the whole world just by getting our own house in order. We are not perfect, our government and politics are not always angelic. But whether we want it or not, we are the leader and symbol of individual liberty and democratic rule of law.
This is not because of our economic power or military might, but because we as a people have an idealism for such things as freedom, justice, individual happiness. Our power and our leadership is in our being the beacon for the free world as symbolized by the statue of liberty.
I also think that to be a free people necessarily means a people with love, compassion, wisdom - for each other. The meaning and purpose of our constitution and all its amendments should be understood within this context. 1st, 2nd and all the amendments are tools toward this end.
Guns and free speech are supposed to protect us and help us in our pursuit of happiness, If they no longer do that, then we need to reexamine how they have come to function in our lives.
NRA and the right wing America hold so tight to guns they forget that guns are merely a mean to an end. They enter into a perverse sphere of loving their guns more than their children. To this, I have to admit the successful persuasion of Fox News and the like. Reluctantly, I have to recognize this is America too, just not one that will help the whole world.
1
One of the things missing in all of this talk and praise is the question: where were the young people who know this boy who was moving towards violence long before it happened. Who of them reported it? Where is the personal responsibility to care about the safety of others before it turns deadly? Must it always be about what someone else should do and not what each of us must do as well?
1
Blame the victims. Plenty of adults understood that the killer was a problem. But blame the young.
Kids are growing up fast, for better or for worse.
David, when you and I were growing up, we didn't feel we are going to die tomorrow. We might drive or try things a bit more recklessness. Now, these kids know they may go home again. Now we know how the Nigerian girls feel when they are at risk of being kidnapped by Boko Haram. Except that America has a NRA instrumental in providing tools for the malcontents and sociopaths to commit gun violence and mayhems out of whims
I hope you are right about "we [Americans] behave better than we talk." Alas, some like Trump, Pence, Ryan, Mulvaney et al talk better than they behave. Which is utterly disheartening!
The American Creed. The Republicans have forgotten it, and Trump doesn't know it. He does not even know what knowing means. To them, being American is sharing some combination of ethnicity, religion, culture, language, and privilege. To them, some of us are obviously more American than others.
The American Creed is stated simply and eloquently in our founding documents: That ALL men and women have an equal claim to justice, that government exists to meet that claim, and that is the sole source of its legitimacy and authority.
1
Dear Mr. Brooks-had you been watching and listening to the revolution that was taking place after Trump's election debacle, you would have seen peaceful and thoughtful demonstrations. I marched in LA with my family at the Woman's March on inauguration day. There were over 700,000 people of all ethnic backgrounds and gender. It was peaceful with good will and comradery apparent everywhere. The proud swell in my heart from the coming together of our country that day is still palpable. It was reaffirmed when we watched the news coverage of the Marches for Gun Control last weekend in cities all over the globe. We are resilient!
1
Saturday renewed this baby-boomer's faith in this great country. While it may take time, the excesses, abuses, corruption and injustices our our imperfect union will eventually be exposed for what they are. This time, they were called out by an 18 year old with a buzz cut.
In Washington, our elected 'leaders' act like children. Our children - all across the country - are stepping up. We have three choices. We can go forward with them; we can follow and support them; or we can simply get out of their way.
2
Is your behavioral training lesson for today telling us that the key ingredient of the American Creed tells us not to trust a central government? Charles and David and Rupert will love your column today. I enjoyed your description of the march but you lost me with your reference to American history and creed that associates decentralizing power with expanding participation. Effective central authority relies on participation by everyone. Effective control relies on reducing participation which is currently the approach of the most effective Republican political approach in history.
1
What those amazing students were doing is not enjoying a privilege but exercising their rights. They are, in fact, taking back the notion of rights as it has been co-opted by the NRA. They are speaking for their right to speak up and their right to live - another expression that has been misused by the far right. It is ironic that Mr. Brooks takes a stab at what he defines the decimation of American history but his own view of history is myopic. For how many decades were the rights of African Americans and women not on the table? And why is this an American privilege - even looking beyond Europe, we can look to anti-colonial and anti-totalitarian movements where people engage in the same way. I think, this would be an easier needle to thread if we just accepted American Exceptionalism for what it is, a myth and fantasy.
3
As a leading-edge boomer, I'm delighted to see these kids out there. In the fifties and sixties, we chastised our elders for allowing horrible discrimination against our black citizens go unabated and unaddressed for so long. We were horrified that our leaders sent all our brothers off to fight a hopeless war in a far off land. We demanded changes.
But, as years went by, the passion seemed to diminish. No one took our places out there in the streets. My generation had kids who had kids--all they seemed to do, when they weren't playing video games, was blame us for the lack of social justice, the never ending military conflicts, the failed promise of equal opportunity. I've always countered: so, what are you doing to fix things? Are you going to keep blaming us boomers long after we are all dead? We made changes. You need to keep the changes and make your own. You need to think. You need to wake up. This is your country now.
They've finally decided to see themselves as citizens instead of victims. Good for them.
3
Thank you for your column Mr. Brooks. While I may not necessarily agree with everything you said or have said in previous columns, I enjoy reading your opinions because they serve as a catalyst for me to define, evaluate and crystalize my own opinions. It is in this context that I am surprised by the negativity of some of the commentators. Can we no longer have an open discourse without negativity, criticism and insults?
I am a veteren and a hunter. I support the Second Amendment. I also support common sense gun control, including an assault weapons ban. It is potentially risky and dangerous for civilians to own military grade weapons. The rights of the individual to own a guns and the rights of the public to be safe and secure need to be balanced. But the notion of balance frequently gets lost when we debate gun control. For example, the leadership of the NRA is opposed to universal background checks. The overwhelming majority of Americans support them, including many, if not most, NRA members. If this is the case, why can't we get together as responsible and reasonable people and do what is necessary to protect the public, while at the same time protecting the rights of the individual to own guns?
I support our students and their desires for common sense gun control. We adults have certainly failed to provide them with the safety and security they need and deserve. Shame on us for not protecting our children.
4
"...the key fact of the American Creed is distrust of centralized authority." Whether it comes from Sam Huntington or Ron Reagan, buried in that grand anti-Hobbesian sentiment is another message: We don't trust ourselves to govern wisely, judiciously, and make decisions that aptly respond to the tenor and the needs of our own times.
The tenor and the need of our own times is, indeed, butting up against a Locke-ian dilemma: Having built our house on the principle, and the sands, of unrestrained individuality (on rights that have no limit) we are at the mercy of our "atomic" selves (the individual grains of sand that create our foundation). Those are the selves who attain to astonishing wealth, to property the use of which subverts community and disrupts or erases life itself, who rise to positions of near-tyrannic power, and who both defend their rights and use their power to achieve more, without cease.
We need to come to some accommodation with our reasonable distrust of unreasonable power, but we also need to develop, bring to power, and trust our own communal (i.e. democratic) ability to make good decisions for the common weal and place reasonable limits on the unfettered rights of the individual. That does require "central authority," but an authority granted by general will, within a system of balance and law, and one that can be easily recalled when it strays from the guiding principle.
3
I agree wholeheartedly that the "decimation of American history" has led to deep ignorance about what actually has happened over these last two centuries. But, I'm curious. Did Brooks take history classes? If so, then he'd realize that the relationship of slaves to their masters represented a "zero sum game." One had total power; the other had none. Likewise, the true decimation of Native Americans, and the mistreatment of groups including Chinese, Japanese, Latino/as. Ask a Japanese American interned in World War II, whether s/he had power to resist. In fact, American history is messy-really, really messy--just like that of any other country.
1
This is an interesting question--and I'm right in the middle on it. There are moments in American history in which it does seem that America is on the cusp of expressing a great vision of freedom and justice--even in the midst of the injustice that is always roiling. Think of some of the expressions of this among the 17th C. Massachusetts Bay immigrants, the writings and debates of the founders in the 18th C., the visions of Emerson and Thoreau and Whitman. The speeches and writings of Lincoln. The period just after the Second World War and the development of American Studies. All flawed movements, all lacking in a truly inclusive vision, damaged by bad science, the curse of slavery, and so on--but there is a vision of freedom and justice there that is rare, if not unique.
Now think of the post-1960s version of American history that is basically a narrative of catastrophe and injustice--most of it true--that leaves this other vision out.
I would like to see a complete history, one that exposes injustice but also magnifies the hopes and visions the Country generated.
Hearty congratulations to the new student movement!
2
Oh brother. How do we "live up to this privilege of being American" if "America is not a distinct and special place but just another country where the powerful stomp the vulnerable." This opinion piece contradicts itself left and right.
The student speakers are 'grandiose and pretentious', yet this article is talking about how amazing it is and how lucky we are as Americans just to be in America? I understand there is a running theme in current op-eds about how privilege is great and let's not be guilty etc. This is all good and well, however, when describing a whole country of people as having privilege (and that we should be dare-we-think... grateful) I start to find this type of thinking as a bit grandiose and pretentious.
We have been brainwashed. This country may have been great at one point (which point?) and parts of it still are, but let's not drink the Kool Aid. Who else has read about #metoo? Who else saw the photographs from the Charlottesville race riots?
Do we live in a third world country? No.
Do we live in Finland? I wish.
8
I am a Canadian - and am wondrously privileged to be one. We are also a Nation built on immigrants and our Indigenous people are still here. We had our Wild West but the Mounted Police were here first so it was less wild. We have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights which is our Creed and which is an envy of many other Nations. We have a Parliamentary system of Government which works better than Congress. We weren't built on Slaves and didn't fight a war to abolish/keep them. We did fight a war against the Americans who wanted to take over our land.
And we have serious warts.
But what always gets me is the loud proclamations of American Exceptionalism. As I see it you have nothing to boast about except having the greatest and biggest military in the World. It permits America to bully the rest of the World, overturn other Governments but unable to correct your own. Your education system, your health system, your gerrymandering, your income inequalities, your happiness quotas are either above or below other Western democracies. Your homily to American Greatness is excessive: like America I guess.
14
The balance for privilege is responsibility. It is when privilege behaves irresponsibly that negative connotation attaches.
6
The Founding Fathers by declaring independence pursuant to the individual universal divine natural equal certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness sought to transcend gender, color aka race, ethnicity, national origin, faith, socioeconomics, politics, education and history.
There is no virtue nor shame in any persons genetic lottery birth selection. All of us have earned and deserve the humble humane empathetic privilege of being human beings aka persons.
None of the youthful gun control rally speakers were as 'grandiose and pretentious' as John F. Kennedy or Donald J. Trump.
3
Sorry, David, I don't feel "privileged" to live in the only country in the world where private citizens are allowed to amass weapons of war.
13
Really? What planet is Switzerland on, then?
You must not know anything about the stringent gun controls in Switzerland. Do your homework.
The founding privilige of the American nation was included in the first immigration law enacted in 1790. “Citizenship shall be granted to all free white men...” in the 228 years since, American history has been a continuous struggle to extend that “white privilege” ,described elequently by Coates, to all immigrants and to the native born regardless of race,ethnicity, gender or social station. In every American era since the founding, those citizens who benefit from their their persistent white privelege have fought to preserve it. That struggle between those privileged by birth and race and those who seek to share is what has really defined American political history. That struggle between those who seek to conserve the past and those desiring to remedy its mistakes will be endless.
2
American political history is so much more complicated than this! Ever read a history of the abolitionist movement? If we had to choose between conserving the best of past achievements and remedying our mistakes, there would be nothing to choose but catastrophe. Would you really want to live in pre-Revolutionary North America?
1
There is as much zero-dum thinking about ptivelege among the elite as among the strivers. Look at the tax law passed last year. It was all about taking from poor and working class families to further enrich the ultrawealthy.
Anti-immigration rhetoric follows the same zero-sum pattern. Those fallacious arguments have poisoned our public dialogue as far back as the John Adams presidency.
Doo not condemn the strivers and oppressed people for mimicking the American elite the seek to join.
4
Brooks has a long history of opposing gun control, both in his columns and on PBS. He commonly says "it doesn't work". But "it" has never been tried in the U.S., and has worked superbly in Japan, Australia, and other places. Now his thoughts on gun control are shopworn and irrelevant.
8
Also with his "dual citizenship" with Israel and its defense, we doubt his loyalty towards America born citizens is authentic.
3
Another paean to the myth of "America, the Golden City on the Hill". We will only begin to produce real change when we finally admit that this country was built on extermination of native people, slavery, and exploitation of the environment on a grand scale (think beavers, buffalo, and mining). Believe me, there was no "american privilege" in the minds of the first exploiters, only greed, and gotta get mine before someone else does.
6
The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have the great privilege of honoring their namesake by marching in her footsteps. It is clear they have been taught a version of the American Creed that she would be proud of...it involves standing up for the rights of all and persevering against a formidable foe who is being protected by the state itself. They have peered across their own sea of grass and are standing up to the developers attempting to destroy it.
3
I seriously doubt that David sounded anything like these kids when he was 18. And I seriously hope they will not sound anything like he does now when they grow older.
8
I don't feel privileged to be American at all. I feel embarrassed. Embarrassed by the celebration of ignorance, the incessant violence, the evangelism, the over-consumption, the greed. My god, the greed.
Many other countries are free and rich without suffering any of these embarrassments. And before someone tells me to move to Canada (I would never, much too cold) let me paraphrase the ever-insightful Gail Collins: When your contractor tells you you have a gas leak in your basement, you don't leave to go visit your sister in Cincinnati. You stay and fix the problem.
So that is what I intend to do. And if it gets fixed, then I will be proud to be American.
4
Just a tiny objection. Your weather in NYC was much worse than ours up here in Toronto. And, you had much more snow.
Contrary to some of your detractors I thought this column was one of your better commentaries. We are born to a great privilege and we need to remember that fact. Those young people were proposing changes that over 90% of the country, Including gun owners like me, favor but the mere fact they opposed the gun makers lobby, the NRA, makes them anathema to many who call themselves conservative. While I will defend to the death their right to speak I do wish some of these so called conservatives would quit calling themselves conservative and find some other label. I suggest "No Nothings" or "Angry old White Men" Their days of power are nearing an end and one can only hope the coming generations will do better.
4
In Praise of Privilege:
The reason the Saturdays march even got off the ground was because the advocates were, by and large, privileged white people.
Our founding fathers were privileged white men.
Slavery ended when privileged white people finally did something about it.
The opioid problem is being addressed because privileged white people are suffering.
It seems most of our social progress, such as it is, only can come when privileged white people finally get around to saying something.
3
One is not 'privileged' to be born into a gun culture; it's neither a 'privilege' to attend school at the risk of one's life. Only a water-cooler filosofer would say otherwise.
Although politeness on a march is indeed worthy, let's see what happens next time--when the marchers come to realize that they were simply ignored and made into a sockpuppet for free expression.
3
The March for your life movement, or perhaps just the students movement for gun control differs from that of Me Too, insofar that it addresses a universal social wrong, gun violence, whereas Me Too highlights a social transgression that is gender specific. Needless to add, however much sexual harassment is a repugnant social wrong, it doesn't quite have parity with that of gun violence in terms of moral gravitas, either.
Even so, it's unfortunate that conservatives like Mr.Brooks choose to wax somewhat shallow platitudes about American democracy, rather than examine how gun violence, and particularly the NRA's refusal to acknowledge it as a social ill, is reflective of how traditional American notions of liberty have been distorted and perverted the past 40 years. maybe it will be the teens, not the adults, who herald this important reckoning.
2
You rode along a bit then fell off the wagon David. Checking privilege that promotes racism and inequality is not a bad thing as you suggest; it is a good and necessary thing. And that fact was central to founders older than the ones you cite: the pilgrims and puritans who knew that undue privilege is a sin, and like all sins must be confronted and rooted out. That is the foundation of the American creed as expressed in America the beautiful: America, god mend they every flaw.... it is also central in the battle hymn of the republic which exhorts: we are trampling out the vengeance where the grapes of wrath are stored, as Christ died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.... it was also central in FDR’s demand that we drive the economic royalists from the temple of our democracy. So please stop distorting American Exceptionalism, which is singular exactly in identifying the privileges of sin and excoriating them.
2
Trampling out the vintage, not the vengeance
As a useful mental exercise, compare the incredible civility and unifying compassion of the millions of marchers on Saturday with the crowd at ANY Trump rally.
THEN explain to us the equivalence of extremism "on both sides".
4
Or we can compare it to the anti-Milo rally in Berkley, can't we? I, for one, am very proud of the marchers all over the country even though I disagree with many of their proposals. They took the time to get away from their keyboards and actually go out an support what they believe in.
There is more hope for our country in a group of activists I disagree with than in an apathetic group who agree with me.
America also benefits from the "privilege" of the Parkland high school that started it all. Americans express amazement at how poised and articulate the Parkland survivors are. What a shock! They come from a wealthy district which has a virtual prep school for a public school. They are articulate and poised because they come from upper-middle-class, "privileged" families and have had top-flight American educations all their lives. Just like Martin Luther King's granddaughter, who, like King's kids, is the product of Atlanta prep schooling. The fascist right in America has done a great job of demonizing "privilege" as "elitism" in order to smear liberalism by associating it with the upper-middle-class from which it has, indeed, so often come in America. And there was, indeed, something suspect when Boston elite liberals pushed school busing in working-class Irish neighborhoods, when their own kids were insulated from the turmoil in prep schools. Nonetheless, we will always need the poise and articulateness, as well as the idealism, that upper-middle-class education sometimes contributes to progressivism in America, though most of the products of such schools so often turn out to be complacent "socially liberal but fiscally conservative" servants of the oligarchy that employs them.
"the American Creed, built around freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy."
You've got to be kidding. Racism, sexism and equal opportunity have never existed for a majority of visible minorities and now, extensive gerrymandering and voting machines are threatening democracy. This is the American "dream."
Time to face reality.
3
“Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious.”
Why marginalize the students David? They seem to be the only ones trying to change the crazy gun laws. The NRA’s reactions to the students is truly despicable while Trump’s silence on the gun issue is deafening.
7
Sorry Brooks, America is a civically backward nation whose main commodity was its culture. Now that our culture has become a cesspool, we have very little to offer in comparison to other developed nations who actually provide some safety net for their citizens. Our allure is waning and there is a tarnish on our reputation because of a privilege that remains unchecked. Is ‘privilege’ the right to speak out, which is certainly not exclusive to America, or a status of exclusive access that our system to structured to protect? Those grandiose students know the answer and I suspect you do too.
3
"Grandiose and pretentious." Describing way of speaking as a function of youth is in itself, grandiose and pretentious. You are forgetting the over-their-sell-date politicians and "leaders" who daily fill the airways with their purple prose--may I call your attention to Hannity, Tucker, and even my minor hero, Joe Biden.
Please, David, although I don't always agree, I've come to appreciate your attempts at social commentary to explain away bad behavior, but this description of the children's heartfelt rhetoric is over the top.
Kudos to the Kids!
2
We need a strong centralized government to ensure safety for its citizens (a strong EPA, and strong regulation of guns) and a strong judiciary to ensure rule of law. A good fraction of any population is not able to regulate their own behavior or not willing. There must be protection for the rest who can. In a country that has a good portion of its citizenry proud of its ignorance and its guns, there has to be some regulation so the others can thrive. Someone's "free-dumb" to play with his/her gun does not trump my freedom to feel and be safe.
1
"It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies, but to be one.” The GOPs supply side ideology is certainly a long lasting one, and as UN-American as could ever be. It is an ideology facilitated by willingly ignorant GOP voters. Perhaps it is true that these young Americans will save us, but will the GOP let them since they control the levers of power? As a 68 year old Democrat, I hope so for the future of the country and the world.
1
I am one of those Americans who put pride before privilege. It's a flaw I know. But, I am flawed. I a, a Viet Nam veteran who was brought to tears of joys by these students protest. It is my privilege to be very browed of our nation's youth.
3
In the March for Our Lives 2018 event I attended in Harrisburg, PA, on Saturday, I was overwhelmed by the passion and focus that the student organizers projected in their words and demeanor. They were careful to say that they were not, in any way, trying to take everyone's guns, just that they wanted to provide a framework in which responsible gun owners could hunt, target-shoot, and defend themselves while the students, and their younger siblings could go to school, movies, concerts, and generally live their lives without wondering where the next burst of (semi-)automatic gunfire was coming from. This country is largely in agreement with banning assault weapons for civilian purchase, ensuring that a background investigation is done on all purchasers, 'cooling off' periods prior to getting possession of a purchased weapon, and that high-capacity magazines are not needed for sporting or defensive purposes. So why do our legislators - at both state and federal levels - feel that they can't support these demands? Follow the money!
2
Agreed. In many ways we continue to be lucky, even with mass murders. Since the gunman in Florida didn't take his own life, it'll be interesting to see what happens with his psyche over time. I think that professionals should work with him. He should never been able to buy an assault weapon. There were things very wrong with him and his life. It is not hard to feel empathy for this young man. What happened will continue to effect him over time. Let's treat him with humanity and social curiosity. and to the best of our ability prevent this from happening again.
If the key fact of the American Creed is distrust of centralized authority,
then we might trace it back to Britain. But I think the key fact is the freedom of self-determination. Afterall, we seem to have 'decided' as a people, to become more centralized over the years, to better deal with problems whose scope is national, like the Great Depression. Indeed, the March for Our Lives perceives Gun Control as a national issue. Some states have already implemented the laws that the March for Our Lives is advocating, but not all of the states. And the states that do not have sufficient Gun Control are undermining the states that do. That is why is it a national issue.
2
"Recently, it has seemed like the country is gyrating out of control,..."
When I saw that line I initially misread that as "graying out of control" which I think is actually the truth: Trump is in power primarily because of the votes of those 55 years old and older.
1
"Recently, it has seemed like the country is gyrating out of control, that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other."
It's gyrating out of control because of The President and the current GOP in Congress.
I also like the word privilege. i also believe it has been wrongly used as a epithet. i believe its usage really means a lack of gratitude and awareness of the privilege that some american's get and some do not, not on the basis of worth or productivity, but by age old measures of who is valued. It is used to point out that those american's who have privilege have a responsibility to try to transform a system so that those without it are given their fair shake. It means that those who have it need to become more aware of the disparities of fairness in our system, that that privilege needs to be used to make the america we live in even closer to the creed that you have described.
"The key fact of the American Creed is distrust of centralized authority. So moments of creedal passion are almost always about opening up the system, expanding participation, decentralizing power."
Isn't that precisely the opposite of what marchers are advocating? They are demanding increased centralization of power in regulating and restricting civilian access to military weaponry.
Also, yes, social media is a terrible platform for resolving differences between persons.
1
Privileged to be an American? In America, if you are not rich enough you cannot afford decent medical care. You often wind up homeless or spending the majority of your take home pay on shelter. You are consigned to the margins of the economy and taken advantage of. Companies can cheat you out of money, sell products that can maim or kill you and you can't sue or join a class action suit because the companies have more rights than human beings. In America if you are over 50 and lose your job you can, unless you are extremely lucky or well-connected, forget about finding another job let alone a decent job. Ageism is alive and well in America. It's not a privilege to be discriminated against because of your age.
American privilege is being lied to and about by politicians. It's hearing GOP politicians refuse to do anything positive about gun safety, the environment, health care, consumer protection, etc. It's about seeing an incompetent man in the White House, one who supports "roughing up" criminal suspects, who refuses to condemn racism, who is tarnishing our reputation while saying he's making us great again.
I hope these teens do not make the mistake that the early baby boomers made. I hope that they do not decide not to vote in the 2020 elections. I hope that they are more pragmatic and understand that no politician is pure. I hope that future schoolchildren don't have to worry about being massacred in school.
6
The constitution speaks of inalienable rights, natural rights that "are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are universal". These natural rights were first articulated in ancient Greece and undoubtedly the concept reaches much further back, to prehistory, to early man. The United States was formed at a time when these rights were evoked in relation to the tyranny of monarchies, but this doesn't make them uniquely American. Frankly, I've never heard of an "American Creed". Natural rights, by definition, do not belong to a specific nation or people. The ideas of freedom, equality and opportunity reside in the soul of every individual.
5
The most remarkable aspect of "The March For Life" was that the students of Parkland recognized the "privilege" afforded them in media attention following the massacre and then, shared that access with those less fortunate - the students at the mercy of inadequate educational opportunities and those who found their daily walks to school frighteningly unsafe.
They saw their "privilege" as something they could use to include all those whose personal safety from gun violence was at risk. The belief that "we're all in this together" has been lost in America and these wonderful people renewed it for us. They welcomed all groups to share their "privilege" and that inclusiveness was what made the march so remarkable.
'
11
The first sentence gives it away: David Brooks "observed" while the students marched. David Brooks is glad there was no culture war nastiness, which means he must be ignoring gun culture, and the nastiness that is involved, and the very real war it creates. David Brooks complains that "some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious" and then goes on to heap the real praise on Hamilton, who himself was grandiose and pretentious and hardly older in 1776 than the Parkland students are today. Indeed, when David Brooks is glad the students are not serious about "revolution," he praises this ability to protest as an achievement which was itself born out of revolutions and by revolutionaries, from Jefferson to King. Struggle, for Brooks, is always historical, never now.
What is this privilege of being American? Its main quality for Brooks is that we all share it. He overlooks how just three days ago the Parkland students explicitly invoked their privilege as white well off students in favor of African American students who get less attention. And he overlooks that a privilege that we all share is not a privilege at all, it is empty, and it yields no obligations at all: "All we have to do is live up to this privilege of being American". That can apparently be fulfilled by observing while others march.
I am so glad that others march. I am so glad we marched.
6
Too nationalistic for me.
"There’s no such thing as the French Creed or the Italian Creed but there is an American creed" -- "built around freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy."
And implicit in the word "creed" is a Christian "us-versus-them," as well.
I just don't think we need this "Our country is best" palaver. Yes, we're brought up thinking this country is all about freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy, but we also grow up bering witness to our own repeatedly violating those principles -- and we're are fiercely doing so right now.
Please don't talk to me about democracy when gerrymandering's the name of the game for most of our elected political leaders. And please don't suggest that that the Supreme Court will be our savior.
2
Rich or poor, black or white, heterosexual or gay, it is not a privilege to be shot at or bullied or looked down uopn. That is what the rally was about. Our government acts like privileged snotty rich kids who seek only power and money. This rally says, we have had enough.
6
"There are, of course, some parts of society where the word “privilege” has a very negative connotation. In those parts of society, history is not seen as a shared debate over how to pursue a common ideal. Instead it is seen as a zero-sum power struggle between oppressor and oppressed, and America is not a distinct and special place but just another country where the powerful stomp the vulnerable."
Pretty good description of the Republican party David.
1
Brilliant. well said. bravo.
1
The children in this country have come to the realization, the shocking truth, that their adults, despite their obligatory 'thoughts and prayers' do not care that schools are the ready target for mass shooters. Thus a children's crusade for sensible gun regulation may be the only chance this country has to get A+ NRA types out of positions of authority nationally and in the states. Those AR-15 owners out there need to register those weapons of war or sell them. What you feel when you fire one of those weapons can be felt by reading a good book.
1
Mr. Brooks, let me be critical of this generic "American Creed". In reality there is a Trump Creed destroying all that resembles decency amongst the Republican Party while democracy has been hijacked shamelessly. Hijacked not only by the ones too ill equipped to understand what democracy is but by Republicans such as you and other conservatives who should have spoken forcefully against the brutal usurpation of the office by this president and his goons and the calamitous Republican policies that will leave deep social scars and great loss of good will in a globalized world.
1
Mr. Brooks: After
"It was a responsible moral answer to right a very specific wrong, gun violence. It struck me as a very characteristic burst of American moral passion."
the reader expected something like a persuasiv answer, an intellectual link between this march and the gun issue or a specific impact on policy.
Instead of this the focus was suddenly put on "The privilege of being American" and after a lot of praises and narratives.
The final conclusion:
"But none of us has earned the great privilege we share together and which is the furnace of most reform." is conceded. But what happened to the really crucial issue - the "reform" - in this op-ed?
This is nothing but a classic "circular reasoning". It is returning to the starting point without any profit and opened the door to a not expedient "American exceptionalism" discussion leading AWAY from the core problem. Look at the comment section. This kind of discussion has been "less productive" as a commentator had written. It did not take any step further.
BTW: Did you ever hear about "Wackersdorf/Gorleben", "Hofgarten" and "Montagsdemos Leipzig"? Tremendous political impacts were achieved by SUSTAINABLE pursuit of aims that had been deliberately "de-ideologised" to involve as many social groups and political camps as possible so it could not be redirected into complacency or divisive ideological dead ends. Today "Energiewende" is also a conservative issue and "Wende 1989" had been supported by many true leftists.
1
A penetrating question for these kids to ask is who is next and why? Which of their classmates will come to school with violent intent. What has changed in society and in individuals that has led to this? It is not access to guns which as not changed. The next interviewer should ask "have you ever contemplated assaulting your classmates and teachers?" Do you know anyone who has? If the answer is no. What do you think motivated those who have and those who have followed through? Would anyone answer yes?
"The negative-privilege mind-set usually begins with a privilege call-out. Somebody accuses someone of not checking their privilege. This leads ..."
In the context of white privilege this sentence with the paragraph that follows does not ring true, for me. From slavery to Jim Crow to obscene incarceration rates to unfair loan practices to ghetto segregation to cheap education funding to police brutality, Black Americans have been deprived and abused since our inception - and this abuse continues to this day. Although not overt, I read between the lines when Brooks uses the phrase "negative-privilege mind-set" and imagine him not so impressed with a perceived unruly or maybe even violent Black Lives Matter protest. Perhaps the pent up rage in a BLM march is different from the rage felt by suburban teens after a random mass shooting? I think Brooks should use caution when using the term "negative-privilege mind-set", maybe offer a clear example, so readers don't have to guess. What groups have unapproved, ungraceful, un-American marches? What groups are not "sensible", are not "good-hearted", are not "gracious"? Be clear. What movements practice "cultural war nastiness" and reek of "resentment"? I hope he is referring to the alt-right trolls who march to turn history on its head and call for offensive statues to remain. I hope he is alluding to the warped, hypocritical evangelicals who cherry pick Bible quotes skipping Jesus' real message and protest against transgenders.
3
Everyone has privilege. What is privilege but unearned benefit? The key is how you respond to it. It is shameful to remain oblivious to your privilege and disgraceful to deny it. It is likewise despicable not to acknowledge that all privileges are not equal and minor privileges do not compensate for great ones. (For instance, the fact that African-Americans can use the n-word doesn’t somehow balance out the awesome privileges that come from being or white in American society.)
“Check your privilege,” properly understood, is a call for you to be aware of it and consider it in your actions (check the, out); too commonly it is understood as a call to set those privileges aside, like checking a coat—as if that were even possible.
40
No, it’s commonly understood to mean that a white male has no right to an opinion.
2
I agree with most of this article, but I have to question Brooks conclusion that this is a "furnace of reform". What I witnessed was a generatoin that was exposed to the rich and famous that threw them a party. And as these kids boarded their buses and headed home, I bet their fire was extinguished. They realized that the furnace is powered by money. And the likes of George Clooney and the millionaire Congress/Senate are not going to consistenly finance these people. It will be a temporary high that these kids will remember, but this march was essentially pouring the water on a smoldering fire after a weekend of camping.
The comments on Brooks's columns increasingly seem to come from people who have hardly bothered to read or understand them. Most seem to assume that Brooks supports today's Republican Party, but anyone paying attention could see that for several years he has been a strong critic of that party, and that his version of a conservative party would be something like Gerald Ford's GOP. Yes, Brooks sometimes indulges in false equivalence, but he is still one of the few conservative columnists worth reading. His critics on the left would do well to dial down the shrill tone and concentrate on the useful insights he expresses.
3
I admit, I read this article twice, almost a third time, to figure out what the point of it was. Maybe this is a stretch, but it seems all of the NYT conservative op-ed columnists are suffering from the Trump effect. The obvious lost of the ideological foundations of the party they once supported and the inability to predict or even explain Trump's latest political or policy move, have left them with op-ed pieces that read like philosophical jigsaw puzzles.
The Mach is all about the abuse of privilege also . The abuse of power and money that allows the NRA and venal and corrupt lawmakers afraid of losing their perch in the power hierarchy. selling those of their constituents who lack money and influence down the river
1
Ah yes, David Brooks, defender of American Exceptionalism to the bitter end. Even when this once great country that, at one time, might have actually been exceptional, falls to pieces and proves, over and over again, that it is not.
2
"Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious." Spoken like a true master of the idiom. Case in point: who else but David Brooks could write an entire column criticizing the style of such a momentous protest, rather than applauding (let alone acknowledging) the veracity of its potent message.
Plantation, Florida is an upper middle class suburb. Most of the young people killed were well brought up from intact families. They behaved nicely this past weekend. Brooks likes that.
“There are, of course, some parts of society where the word “privilege” has a very negative connotation... Instead it is seen as a zero-sum power struggle between oppressor and oppressed”
Pretty much sums up the GOP Congress, although they see the “oppressor” as the enlightened few (their donors) and the “oppressed” as the lazy parasites (the 99%).
That is why the inspirational and human march of tens of thousands has no effect upon them other than a bit of stomach-turning PR.
1
"Sometimes I think the decimation of American history in the schools has left a generation ignorant of the creed and ungrateful toward our ancestors’ heroic sacrifices that brought it down to us. "
Mr. Brooks, your party decimated it.
I have been hugely impressed by the energy, intelligence, maturity, focus, discipline, and speaking ability of the Parkland students. Americans should be bursting with pride over these marvellous young citizens.
2
Mr. Brooks, have you EVER heard "Liberté, égalité, fraternité "?
"There’s no such thing as the French Creed."
5
Good for you , David Brooks. I know you are a good man at heart. I hope you will enventually just abandon your Republican breathren. If the ideals of conservatism ever did exist in the party itself, they are long gone. Please read Krugman's article today for what the Republican party has been, at least, since Reagan.
2
David-- You were not watching some sort of block party that was gracious and welcoming-- this was millions of kids all over America telling us that they are terrified to be in school. They are trying to shake you by your lapels and wake you up. They have seen kids die and they are afraid they will be next. You paint the focus of the march as something oh-so-refined and reasonable. How many more reasoned temperate conversations about assault weapons do we need to make the adults do their jobs and look out for children? Wake up-- this is plutonium in the school yard-- just as deadly--just as uncontrollable-- makes American kids feel like throwing up. Australian kids and Scottish kids don't feel terrified- they know their governments look out for them. What country rings its hands while the children are suffering and some are dead?
Only in America.
If you can see Martin Luther King's granddaughter on Saturday and not feel ashamed for her simple wish to live and be happy and to be sure of her future, well, you need to examine your conscience. If you can hear kids say we don't want more police, armed teachers, and metal detectors to make school feel like a prison-- and not feel ashamed, you need to re-examine your conscience.
Frankly in about 10 years when they are all old enough to run for congress, I bet they will all run, get elected and I hope they enact the strongest gun laws imaginable. Vote for Emma Gonzalez in 2025! That is 7 short years from now.
3
No, David, the marchers did not call for assault weapons to be "restricted," they demanded that they be banned.
More Republican deception.
2
The author states that, one extremism on one side generates extremism on the other side, is so wrong. There's only one extremism from the GOP, there's nothing from th democrats to equal it.
1
David: I want to thank you got this uplifting column.
Pitch perfect. I would have preferred you used the word more than once, but in the last paragraph you suggest "idealism." Yes, yes, yes. That is the one true and lasting American creed. Why on earth must special interests clearly motivated by making a buck be the driving force in modern America? Capitalism will not melt away as a result. These kids were not "commie pinkos" or lazy bums. We have gone from a true "best and the brightest" mentality to one of being connected and manipulation of power, as the aspiration for our youth. It does not matter where you start but how far you have come. As MLK reminded us all:
"And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying -- We are saying that we are God's children. And that we are God's children, we don't have to live like we are forced to live."
1
I believe repealing the 2nd Amendment would be an example of extremism on the "left". See Ret. SCOTUS Judge John Paul Stevens's OpEd in the NYT today. What you see as extremism, others see as common sense, and vice versa. Please talk to people, face to face, outside of your bubble. I do. Have a great day.
Aspiration is wonderful. Along with hope humans can sometimes overlook, integrate or overcome their fellow humans lust for power, wealth and recognition. The enlightenment ideals head out the window if not. We are left to the mercy of conservative ‘negative’-priveledge.
I would like to point out to Mr. Brooks that the Parkland students used their privilege as denizens of an affluent community to widen their scope beyond mass shootings to the everyday gun violence that plagues communities of color, many times at the hands of police officers. We tend to collectively respond to gun violence in these communities with a shrug instead of the outrage afforded to those gunned down in schools. I applaud the MSD organizers for doing so--for being inclusive and creating a bigger block of activists who can come together for a common purpose. We should all take a look in the mirror to figure out why it took the deaths of 14 mostly white students to really recognize the pain low income communities have been experiencing for decades.
4
Having recently read Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin, some of Mr Brooks' statement rings thin. America's founding was messy, rough, political, complex, full of intrigue, deals, and a lot of eventual violence, as we well know. Conservatives' take on our founding and its fathers can lean toward a romantic idealism that well outshines any liberal's modern hope for a better world, a nostalgia for a past that never was to justify a future that can never be.
So when I see "privilege" here I instead think freedom being fought for in a rough-and-tumble way by our youth, who seek to be our founding kids, to be coy about it. To chafe about their wording, in the face of our amoral, long-term inaction over gun violence and the combined "conspiracy" of the NRA and our "leaders" -- well, come on!
I just marched Saturday, one of many, and saw teens, parents, and oldsters like me tired of inaction, exhausted by officials' lip service, angered by the recurrence of school shootings and daily south-Chicago-like gunshots, ready to put the issue to a vote: gun-toting "freedom" vs. life, children's innocence, and a country that gains moral responsibility and social integrity. That's not privilege -- that's deep-down soul-searching.
1
"..extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other."
Again, Mr. Brooks, after a previous essay rightfully blaming Trump for the
lowering of national decency and political fairness, you are back to your regular game--trying to get us to believe that in this particular presidency, both sides are equally guilty. I understand your instinct because I am a psychologist and assume that you are trying to be fair to both sides. In an historical sense I agree with you that both sides have reeked havoc on equality and justice.
BUT HERE AND NOW please show me where Democrats or the children who have to fight for their lives, are in any way equally attempting to destroy our democracy as conservatives (perhaps notlike yourself) certainly are.
Yes, there are people who defend themselves against ideas with accusations of "privilege." There are just as many, perhaps more, people who defend themselves against ideas with accusations of "political correctness." That would include you, Mr. Brooks.
Identity politics is simply speech and debate that is reduced by the partisans, marketers & talking heads to shouting matches. The purpose is to create enemies & draw lines between people. It sells, politically & commercially. Your attack on "identity politics" is just another expression of identity politics. If you want to combat it, debate people on the substance of what they, as individuals, specifically say or demand, instead of labelling, categorizing & dismissing them.
2
"The student speakers were grandiose and pretentious", Give me a break! Have you seen our President? These young people spoke with respect and passion in very well constructed statements delivered with a maturity that has been missing from our President and his spokes people. It was very inspiring.
8
Absolutely. Thank you.
The thing I like best about a Brooks column is I can save time by not actually reading the column, but just going straight for the comments. Brooks is nothing but consistent in his silver-spoon white privilege and defense of it. Viewing every issue through that unyielding prism.
The people who write in comment however, see through him perfectly. Every single time. Thanks to all of you for making my day!
4
I thought I was the only one who read the first and last paragraph of Brooks and then go straight to the comments. I learn so much from the commenters.
This particular piece was unusually priggish. Very condescending of the students who are refusing to become victims and non citizens. Their energy and voices and, let’s just say it, active citizenship, are a rebuke of the Republicans and the NRA and their cynical lies for profit that up until now have been met with our resignation and apathy.
1
If only they were protesting the ones that actually could have saved them in Parkland - law enforcement.
Mr. Brooks, your article could only have been written by a white man because the glories of being born in the U.S. and the privilege that goes with it have been bestowed upon you. For black people (3/5 of a human being), Native Americans (not considered human at all), and Women (no inalienable right to vote), it feels as if your attitude is "Oh well, that."
We live in a country where affirmative action is fought against while legacy admissions are considered a right. We live in a country where oil subsidies for corporations controlled by rich, white men are necessary but food stamps are handouts. We live in a country that has, with the exception of 4 women and 2 black men in all of our history, had our laws adjudicated only by white men. Your article is understandable from your point of view because the country does contain all the hope, promise, and possibilities that you describe, as long as you are a white man in America.
But for the rest of us, the American Dream is a myth. If you are born rich in this country, and you are white, you most often stay rich. Born poor, you stay poor. The obstacles of institutionalized racism are alive and well in America and, under our current leaders, getting stronger every day. In 2018, black men get gunned down sitting in their yard on their cell phone and no one will be held to account.
It is a wonderful country that you live in Mr. Brooks. Perhaps, one day, the rest of us will have the privilege to live there as well.
6
Thank you for this column, David. At the march in New York, I saw what you saw in DC.
3
Dems take notice. There is no white privilege, but there is definitely a wealth privilege. Which demographic has a decreasing life expectancy?
I an very cautious in my optimism.
Because I don't know what happens after all this is over, i.e., after the cleaning crews have removed the debris, selfies Instagrammed and Facebooked.
Here is what is coming down the pike.
First, the leaders of this movement will be personally attacked and demonized by the right, it is already happening (fake photos of a ripped constitution). The far right does not relent.
Second, I suspect few centrists and left politicians, clinically narcissistic themselves, will let students hog the limelight. The interactions are unlikely to go well. The latter wants foot soldiers, the former want the spotlight - eventually they will compete severely.
Third, will these young men and women come out to vote? This generation is highly devoted to defining their actions rooted on how they feel (i.e., more network central, more narcissistic); they may not make the great foot soldiers that political candidates seek. And finally, if they don't get exactly what they want (guns gone, changed laws, unmitigated adulation from others for life, endless selfie moments), they may well throw a hissy fit and vote for third party candidates. Anyone who parented Millennials knows that they will find buttons to push if they don't get what they want.
I.e., what is the sustaining power? I discount the ability of political candidates to strike an interdependent relationship with this group.
Fingers crossed.
Kalidan
Mr. Brooks-- I suggest you take off your rose colored glasses:
White, rich, Christian, male Privilege is alive in the USA and strangling the rights of all others.
The young people were marching for their RIGHT to live, their RIGHT not to be killed while at school ( or at a movie, place of worship, mall, or concert-- or anywhere). Their peaceful march and intelligent speechmaking, not to mention the young people themselves were being (and still are) denigrated by the NRA and members of the GOP.
White, rich, Christian, male Privilege is alive in the USA and strangling the rights of all others.
2
Sometimes I think the decimation of American history in the schools has left a generation ignorant of the creed and ungrateful toward our ancestors’ heroic sacrifices that brought it down to us.
FINALLY! I finally agree with Brooks on something!
1
And why has history been decimated in public schools? Because of conservatives warping our tax code and refusing to allow the govt to provide basic services that they grew up with.
11
I’ve lived abroad twice, a year in Bruxelles, Belgium and a year in Beijing, PRC.
I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to many countries. Every time I return home and clear customs, the last thing the US Customs agent says to me is “Welcome Home”.
I know how privileged I am to be a citizen of the United States.
4
Whenever I come back to the Netherlands from outside the European Union, the custom agent always says "Welkom thuis", that, is, Welcome home". Is that the proof of my being privileged to be a Dutch citizen? I am so tired of your so-called American exceptionalism. You've been left behind by most of Europe. We don't have mass incarceration, we don't have guns, everyone has healthcare and we also have the right to say anything we want to say.
3
THE IDEALS OF The Philosophy of then Enlightenment ring forth in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence: That all persons are created equal, endowed with inherent (unalienable) rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All of this within the context of striving for a more perfect union. We are as strong as our commitment to share these inherent privileges as widely as possible. The effort to strive for a more prefect union is diminished when the effort to form a more perfect union is disrupted. Forming a more perfect union implies that things have to be reworked to better approximate fulfilling privileges and meeting needs. Privilege allows the realization of the life force. The Humanism of the Enlightenment is that people working together with good will are actuating the privilege of striving toward a more perfect union. With the wealth of privileges that formed this nation, we must be ever vigilant to use them peaceably, fairly and with good will toward all. Ideals are never achieved, but are the object of our strivings.
6
Those calling out privilege, or what Brooks terms "negative-privilege, are not labeling privilege either a negative or positive factor. What they are stating is that power differentials exist in ways that do privilege particular people in certain ways. As we push for change recognizing how power works and how privilege plays out is important and not recognizing those differences does stand in the way of change. The very labeling of privilege as "negative-privilege" shows a mind set that is looking for a reason to reject the notion of power differentials that do privilege particular people. Part of "busting" into the system to take possession of the great privilege of being American for those who have been kept out of places of power does involve calling out those holding power and privilege to open up a more equal platform. That isn't negative, but a is rather a necessary part of change.
8
Sometimes I think that immigrants /naturalized citizens are the only Americans who truly appreciate America in a clear-eyed way. They have seen and lived in other parts of the world and have a better idea of the strengths and weaknesses of different cultures and systems of government. They have come to the US voluntarily and with considerable effort and sacrifice, as did the original immigrants from Europe. They have bought into the American Dream of equality and opportunity and mobility and optimism that things can always be made better. Because they understand why it is a privilege to be American, they may have a better sense of the responsibilities that go along with the privilege.
Whereas for native-born Americans who have not lived anywhere else, the temptation seems greater to equate patriotism with jingoism, flag-waving, "love it or leave it" sentiments, assume that we are "Number One" because we say so and not because we expend any personal effort to make it so.
The children who marched on Saturday are those who have not yet lost their inherent hopes for and beliefs about the country. May they prevail.
20
Listening to these activist kids demonstrates that they are, in fact, "privileged." They are privileged to have attended good schools that promoted critical thinking and public debate. Sadly, that's not true for kids in vast swaths of America today, so students from places like Parkland are "privileged," and we are the better for it.
115
Would that Brooks could spread those seeds that inspire (and beg for) new interpretations of the highly charged word, "privilege" on college campuses throughout the country. The states quo now is that academics teach students to think of it as "bad," -- the negative version of the word. The word is stuck in a sort of quasi dialectical materialism that stereotypes people. Each generation that emerges from this postmodern, uber political academic system is more oppressive, more "anti-Western." Imagine how a new generation might venture forth in tis complicated world if they were given the freedom to think about "privilege" in their own ways. Consider what they could accomplish in reinventing and renewing Americas essential promise to all her citizens. Thank, Brooks, for reminding us that we are all born rich, even if we come from very modest means, because we were endowed with minds and hearts, and on soil where those gifts matter. Privilege really is the ability (and legal protection) to be the change you want to see in the world.
2
I wonder when Mr. Brooks last visited a History class in elementary or high school. Once in a while in one of his columns he adds a note about how history is not being taught in our schools or hints that the way it's being taught is the "wrong" way. I wish he would expound on that and tell us EXACTLY what he means. My children certainly had history taught to them beginning in elementary school and continuing through US history and US government-both required courses in high school. And it certainly seems the student speakers on Saturday understood the part of US history that taught them that collective action and voting can change things, I.e., the union movement, civil rights, etc. So what do you mean?
13
Excellent question, Pragmatic. While I agree with the overall theme of this piece I do share your concern with Brooks's unexamined assumptions about what's happening in high school history classrooms. While certainly some teachers are better than others, and some states or school districts restrict content and/or pedagogic methods, it seems to me that the far greater culprits are the oversimplification and distortion of history and civics for partisan aims (case in point: the decades-long campaign by the NRA to essentially delete the militia clause from the 2nd Amendment) and the generally shallow he said/she said-type coverage of events on offer from most media outlets.
1
I am surprised by the negativity in response to this article. I think it beautifully articulated some feelings and points. This was a call and appreciation of greater unity and greater inclusiveness. Perhaps some viewed it as being too narrow or dismissive in its discussion of privilege?? But if we cannot even appreciate beautiful sentiment and expression of the positive by someone apparently perceived to be from 'the other side' then we are well and truly lost.
'So moments of creedal passion are almost always about opening up the system, expanding participation, decentralizing power. They are about new groups previously outside the system busting their way in and taking possession of the great privilege to be American.'
2
I'm with you, Mr. Brooks. I was impressed by the march and its participants, even though I oppose most of its goals, and I am pleased to see Americans demonstrating their faith in their hard-won democratic institutions.
Now all we need is a similar demonstration by those of us who value our Constitutionally protected rights, which I hope will be forthcoming, and all of us will have had our say.
1
I see lots of people taking issue with Mr. Brooks column today, and I am often one of them, but today he made me cry. I just want to say that the spirit he saw at the march, the understanding that we have a good system that just needs people of good will to make it work, has been very evident at Indivisible meetings, Women's March huddles, and other activities that have been happening all across the country this year. There are some miles left on this car, we can still make the American experiment work. We can still work together towards a more perfect union.
94
You made this reading experience worthwhile! Totally agree!
2
If it's a privilege to be American, as David Brooks claims, how is then the same privileged American school children are being deprived of their basic entitlement of safe and secure life by the gun wielding mass killers let loose by the gun lobby? In fact, the protesting school children are simply exposing the basic faultlines of American democracy, and are simply seeking a correction of its malfunctioning.
16
Brooks can't bear to appreciate the gun-control march last weekend with out taking a poke at the young men and women leading the charge. At least he calls them students and not kids when he writes:
"Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious. Most of us were like that when we were 18."
He tries to soften his tone with that 2d sentence. Still, it serves nothing to support what he is trying to say. What IS he trying to say?
Brooks, well beyond 18, remains "grandiose and pretentious."
24
That 'swipe' jarred me, too. These kids are taking enough hits (figuratively...thistime) without the addition of unnecessary Brooks-snark. Everything he wanted to say in this column could have been just as well communcated without those perjorative words.
My suspicion that Mr. Brooks has secretly become a catholic, intellectual priest, seems to get confirmed by each op-ed he puts before me. Whether he is describing a rodeo match or a march, Mr. Brooks' head gets so easily in heaven's clouds when confronted by a display of sensible, responsible, traditional, and moderate crowds that keep the nation together in a unique Creed. No Italian or French creedless hotheads here. Praise the Founding Fathers and Nation's Creed, Oh Lord! Of course Mr. Brooks knows all too well that the marches won't make any difference because the blessed country is rotten to its core.
Good Mr. Brooks, your divine and privileged country hasn't even a decent electoral system, like France and Italy.
9
Italy has a decent electoral system?
Calling some of the students "grandiose and pretentious" is especially condescending. Those kids were passionate and honest and unafraid. They put their hearts on their sleeves. I'll take their naivety over the corrupt liars controlling Congress any day of the week. Look around you and in a mirror for pretention and grandiosity.
We don't have privileges, we have rights-basic, God-given rights. That's like saying Social Security is an entitlement. The American Creed is a promise that we'll all the same protection and benefits of any free man or woman.
Unfortunately, Mr. Brooks is the exception among conservatives. He cares, he knows evil when he sees it and calls it out. he's smart, he listens. It's a very lonely for a conservative.
13
A great march, one just like those in "1984", in which the pubic protests for centralization of authority and the restriction of freedoms previously granted by an ancient culture that had long dead white men writing a still governing document that is inappropriately worshiped, the Constitution. A protest to start the process of repealing this Constitution and granting power directly to the people, and via the people, power to the state. A great protest, indeed.
1
NRA and it’s opeatives will discredit these young people and frightened their money hungry people in congress to stop the reforms needed. All of us who care about the safety of the children and ourselves must stand up to the hypocrites that offer only more of the same thing as a solution. Teachers and students don’t need guns, they need real reforms to limit the availability of military assault weapons designed to kill and honest background checks that keep firearms out of the hands of mentally disturbed people.
12
...Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious...
Substitute "my columns" for "the student speakers" and look in the mirror Mr Brooks.
I didn't watch wall to wall coverage but what I saw were earnest, sad, angry, smart, clear young people who are our nation's best hope in these dark confused times.
20
Why is the exercise of 1st Amendment rights painted by conservatives as an act of "privilege," when 2nd Amendment rights are thrown in our face as "god-given?"
This essay is delivered with the usual bouquet of condescension only David Brooks could muster with a straight face.
"Here kiddies, take these blood-red roses as a token of my appreciation that you behaved the way we conservatives want you to. Thank god no-one flipped the NRA the bird on national TV."
18
Clearly Brooks enthusiasm for the student marchers is a cover for his underlying
intent to chastise those woke folks who condemn our history of dominant white mail privileges.But we are aware of Davids flawed subtleties
8
What exactly is a "white mail privilege"?
Let's hope that our privilege will not be spoiled by the current occupant of the white house. On a minor note; France does have a credo which is Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité which hoards of people fought and died for.
8
Or in other words: some people see the glass half-full, and others half-empty; but aren't we just lucky to even have glass and not plastic cups!
Some of the speakers were grandiose and pretentious? My God, Brooks is incapable of recognizing sincerity and conviction.
11
Wait, teenagers do, in fact, tend to be grandiose and pretentious. I certainly was, as were most of my peers.
And, since when is youthful grandiosity in contradition to sincerity and conviction?
If you could distill the essence of privilege.
2
Another Brooksism -- the importance of decentralization. Phooey!
Neither centralized nor decentralized activity is good in and of itself. When states enforced segregation, it was centralized authorities who had to come in and save our children. When centralized control led us into counterproductive wars, it was decentralized citizens in the streets and in the polls who acted to end the horror. Centralization vs decentralization is not the issue.
What was seen on Saturday was something new.
Our children took to the streets to say "Enough." Not "enough" centralized or decentralized power, not "enough" identity politics or "enough" America-first or globalism.
What we saw were our children saying was "the emperor has no clothes."
They were saying "we are all humans trying to live our lives. Stop the lies, stop the greed, stop the harassment, stop the bigotry, stop the manipulation of our history -- ENOUGH! -- just look at us, your children. What are you doing?"
What are you doing?
16
David Brooks,
Have you ever seen a gathering of peaceful Americans come together to talk about any of the ideals that your beloved Republican Party stands for?
Do they march together to get more guns in the hands of teachers? Do they march together to make sure abortion is illegal even if the woman's life is endangered? Do they march together to demand every child kneel and pray at school? Do the march tougher to call immigrants the nasty things that your party's President and moral leader called them?
5
Dear RJ in Brooklyn,
"your beloved Republican Party" ... I don't think that Mr. Books "loves" the Republican Party. He might vote Republican, but I doubt he would ever use the word "love" to describe which party he votes for.
Why do so many of David's readers beat him up for his use of the word "privilege?"
Anyone who is a son or daughter of immigrant parents...as am I...surely considers being an American a privilege.
Of course, the USA is imperfect...but I would not trade it for any other country in the world...so there!
1
Wrestling with the word "privilege" is not the same as wrestling with your own privilege David. You blindly assign use of the "negative" connotation of the word only to "certain sectors of society." Are you pretending the multiple meanings are mutually exclusive? More to the point: are you pretending there is a person of age in this country who hasn't witnessed powerful Americans "stomping" on vulnerable ones? This is precisely what the marchers were responding to.
7
Dear Karloff in Boston,
"your own privilege David" ... what exactly do you mean? What is Mr. Brooks' privilege?
"Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious. "
And there it is folks - the out that allows Brooks to dismiss anything he disagrees with. Who ever put forth an idea he doesn't like is G & P.
"...that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other. " Then there is this nifty piece of false equivalency. Which side is putting forth practical and moderate reforms and which party is advocating learning CPR to handle the apparently inevitable shootings?
Apparently, Brooks just cannot see anything wrong with his GOP, other than rude, crude, and socially unacceptable Trump of course.
8
Correct. “False equivalency” doesn’t fly here. Neither does “grandiose and pretentious,” unless he is speaking of the GOP, particularly the president and VP.
1
Holy Moses, how many of these comments do I need to read - the ones criticizing Mr. Brooks so vehemently? You Brooks-bashers clearly are not familiar with his writings or his talks.
"Apparently, Brooks just cannot see anything wrong with his GOP." ... clearly a person making that statement is not familiar with how David Brooks thinks.
"his GOP"?
"There’s no such thing as the French Creed or the Italian Creed but there is an American creed." Are the French of the Italians really so backwards? Look at the last presidential elections in France and the US: the French president was elected by a majority of the voters (one person one vote), the American president - despite receiving 3 million votes fewer than his opponent - was "elected" by a quaint requisite from the 18th century that was created to make sure that women and blacks didn't get the right to vote.
And how many school shootings took place in France and Italy in the last 25 years?
And how do the life expectancies, maternal mortality rates, etc. compare? Just to give you a clue about life expectancy, Italy (that creed-less land for Brooks) ranks 6th worldwide, with a life expectancy of 82.7 years, and France, equally creed-less, ranks 9th, with 82.4 years. The US? 31st, 79.3 years, between Costa Rica and Cuba. Maternal mortality rates show a similar picture: Italy with 4 deaths per 100'000 births is near the best worldwide, France with 8 a bit worse, and the good ole USA squeezes in between Puerto Rico and Qatar with 14. Love that creed!
10
Does David Brooks really believe that there is no such thing as the French Creed or Italian Creed? Its this type of American Exceptionalism talk that infuriates us Europeans.
10
Did you listen to the speeches? This demonstration worked BECAUSE the affluent white kids checked their privilege. They invited King's granddaughter to the stage. They explicitly included, and named, particular minorities while saying that bullets don't discriminate. You want to pretend that their white privilege doesn't matter because of some gauzy "American privilege." They know it does, and they're making a deliberate effort to leverage it for everyone. You could take a lesson.
18
Strange that what Mr Brooks refers to as privileges, the framers of the constitution called rights and considered them self evident.
8
Dear Bob Chisholm,
I think that is precisely the point Mr. Brooks was making.
"Recently, it has seemed like the country is gyrating out of control, that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other. But the march I saw was not extreme."
Yes, David! In this quote you expose both your inherent prejudice that if the right wing does something awful, the left must do it too, and your admission that in this case the former isn't true. I would humbly suggest that this is the case far more often than your writing indicates.
8
Our great privilege is to BE an American citizen even more so if we earn it rather than be born to it. My father was an immigrant who earned his crossing the Ruhr and the Rhine
2
France doesn't have a creed. I guess Liberty, Equality,Fraternity is just marketing, their version of Make America Great Again
7
In terms of privilege, here is a series of statistics concerning our standing in the world.
U.S. Ranking Among Nations
42nd in life expectancy
10th in rating of infrastructure
Most expensive health care of any nation
14 in reading skills of students
14th in cognitive skills and educational attainment”
Press Freedom Index 42 out of 180 countries
Citizen freedom rating 16th
Rule of Law Index 18th
Economy 3rd
percentage of population on antidepressents 1st
Primary Education system 27th
In the same test, American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading.
Child poverty 34th
Technology 1, military spending 1 (More than China, United Kingdom, France, India, Japan, Russia and Saudi Arabia combined).
Just 404 Norwegians became legal U.S. residents in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security. By comparison, Norway had about 10,000 immigrants from North America the same year, according to its statistics.
As a government, America gives less as a percentage of its gross national income than other countries — only 0.17 percent, well below the 0.3 percent average for developed countries.1 percent of federal budget and 40% of that is military,
11
It’s laughable David broooks and his ilk of educated journalists thought Bernie was demanding very something outrageous!
1
"We are the lucky inheritors of the American Creed, built around freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy."
The scary thing is that I think David really believes this utter nonsense. I sorely miss Gore Vidal in these forlorn times.
4
May we add to Mr. Brooks' "privilege" what Hannah Arendt called the singular enterprise of totalitarianism, which is to make the entire planet serve America's economic interests, and do what America tells it to—be taught what we mean by "privilege"?
2
Dear Happy Selznick,
My goodness, that is quite a statement. Did Hannah Arendt write that: America wants the world to serve its economic interests, and to do what American tells it to do?
Did Hannah Arendt write that that is America's singular enterprise of totalitarianism?
I read NYT daily, especially the opinion pieces and editorials, including the many very thoughtful comments by other readers.
When I read Happy's comment above, and many others about Mr. Brooks' article, I sincerely taken aback. Such anger. Such poorly-formulated statements. And statements which seem difficult to back up.
There are so many things Brooks misses. The "privilege" we have allows the NRA to claim these wonderful kids are being manipulated for political purposes. Brooks never seems to really call out the villains in our society-he takes the high minded road to avoid that. No calling out Congress, the NRA, the rich that are turning the arc of this country to their personal benefit and the rest of us can go to...... Platitudes alone from those who cannot write about all aspects of what is going on in our society carry little weight and meaning.
129
Hi Alf in Philadelphia,
I am in Bonn, but am native to the Philadelphia area, as is David Brooks.
You write: "Brooks never seems to really call out the villains in our society-he takes the high minded road to avoid that. No calling out Congress ...."
My goodness, are you familiar with Mr. Brooks' writings or his statements on NPR or on PBS Newshour? David Brooks has been calling out the Republican Party, especially in the House, for months now. He is beside himself that the Republican Party has allowed Donald Trump to become president, and equally beside himself that they are kowtowing to him.
May I recommend that you get your facts right before you make such claims?
3
Hopefully the March for Our Lives is only one of many. Th only ones trying to manipulate those students are Fox's critics and the NRA's put-down's, and Santorum's remark that they need to go and learn CPR rather than worry about banning guns. Most of them most likely know CPR. It's often taught in PE classes, such as Freshman year with Health. They won't need to use CPR if no one has access to semi automatic rifles--any kind of gun that allows more than 12 bullets. Home security gets no where if the user of a gun with 12 bullets can't stop his intruder, because by then he too will be hit or dead. That's the law of CA and though it hasn't stopped all deaths and the bump stocks still need to be banned, the first year in action there was a drop of 30% in deaths in CA. Try that in Florida and Georgia etc. for awhile. It might work. No one is looking for perfection as Rubio seems to imply. Even the students have more sense than that.
Brooks speaks in a tone of humility, gratitude, and prudence. It is the same language and approach that led to another’s crucifixion many years ago, and not without similar scorn and ridicule by readers, I mean onlookers.
Human nature is little changed.
2
Dear Stuart in Boston,
I could not agree with you more. I am stunned by the attacks on Mr. Brooks' article.
Oh David. Methinks you should stick to writing about thing you understand. Once we figure out what those things are we'll let you know. What makes us so special? What makes you think that there is no French Creed, or Italian Creed? Spoken like a true "exceptional" American. We live in a country in which great wealth and great poverty are allowed to coexist. Why? In a country where institutional racism remains so baked into our daily lives that many have come to take it for granted. Why? In a country where 10's of millions have no health care, and run the risk of becoming bankrupt, lose homes and become homeless should they get sick. I'm sick and tired of reading about how great we are. Oh, and I'm one of the fortunate ones.
12
Those young "pretentious" and "grandiose" kids calling for revolution include many who just survived a mass shooting, a major trauma. Mr. Brooks, perhaps you'll forgive these kids for being amped up. They are akin to military battlefield survivors. Can you relate to their experience? If not, I suggest you lay off the negative commentary about their so-called impolite behavior.
5
Being born in the US is not a privilege anymore. Republicans have turned the country into a place where everything is about money: quality of healthcare, education, safety (neigbourhoods), justice, you name it.
As this paper points out, social mobility in the US has steadily fallen since 1980 and is now one of the lowest of all developed countries:
See, e.g. https://www.minneapolisfed.org/institute/working-papers/17-21.pdf
8
These marches are meaningless pomp. It takes very little courage to march with a mob of thousands, contrary to what they would have you think.
It takes courage to be gentle, kind and get on with the business of life and NOT get caught up on the day to day craziness in the world.
Some truth:
Evil has, and always will, exist in the world. No matter how emboldened you are, you will not change that fact.
2
Brooks plays with words like "privilege" and "extremism" in this article. Does Brooks ever wonder how our current system came to be? It was through a calculated risk to promote upheaval in an older system. People didn't want a new king, but a new system. A rotten system invites opposition to its essence. The rottenness is always extreme inequality combined with a lack of access to class privilege. Eventually the elites need to respond, or we will have a revolution, and Mister Manners' Book of Protest Etiquette will get tossed.
60
The Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has made privilege a focus of his research. The problem with a factual conveyance of what privilege means is pointless in a society that doesn't understand science is that facts are the enemy of both left and right. Privilege is, it is neither good nor bad it some times Darwinian and sometimes design.
America is engaged in a war of beliefs and neither side understands how to sit there and listen to the facts. Saturday's march told me we have a lot of very privileged children they are very good listeners and hopefully they may endure.
What you call extreme is not extreme at all it is the natural demise in a state of true believers in two non complimentary ideologies America has no middle.
The Second Amendment:
A well regulated militia composed of a body of the people, being the best security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, no one religiously scrupulous shall be compelled to render military service in person.
The 2nd amendment is about respecting beliefs of others yet one side says it is about guns. The march was a joy for me because it was so unAmerican it was about respect.
I cried throughout the speeches but understood it was far more basic than moral passion it was about survival.
L'Chaim
3
America, founded on a set of principles mostly embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is qualitatively different from France, Russia, China, and most other countries. No matter how far we are from attaining a society that broadly functions on those principles (and their evolving expression), our legitimacy and success as a nation is measured by our current relationship to those principles. We are all hyphenated Americans, of necessity from day one fated to travel a collective path with other hyphenated Americans.
Most other countries are defined by historical ethnic homogeneity. For them, the modern push toward citizenship not predicated on majoritarian membership is a major challenge. For most of their people, a Jewish Pole, a Muslim Indian, a Hindu Sri Lankan, a Christian Saudi Arabian are all simply oxymorons.
The problem now is that we do not have a sense of who we are as a society. We all in one way or another are hyphenated Americans, Black-Americans, 2nd Amendment-Americans, gay-Americans, anti-Abortion-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, female-Americans, whatever-Americans. Yet, we are in a crisis, where most people's primary identity is on the adjective before the hyphen, not on the collective noun, American.
For a generation, America has wallowed in self-defeating identity politics, while failing to provide a positive, collective vision like the Apollo Program, instead letting people define their commonalities through not-this or not-that.
2
Being an American is indeed a privilege. But the reason the word has become somewhat pejorative is not because “some people who have it haven’t earned it,” but because scores of people who have earned it do not have it.
1
Before the Revolution; before American residents came together to fight against their Engish King George and his taxes, befor the Tea Party, there was a rising distrust of the oppressive regime of English rulers who over saw the new America. I think these kids get that oppression, and the inadequate leadership that refuses to change direction to protect and serve the many. I hope they are in for the long haul. Republicans, the NRA, and those money guys are betting the kids will fade. I hope they are wrong this time. It sure looks like it.
1
I taught US History and US Government for 15 years in a low-income, high minority high school in Arkansas. So, I disagree about 'decimation' of our history in schools. I'm not sure what you mean.
I love the colonial period because of the diversity. The colonies disagreed on much and many times with anger and pettiness. We beat the British partly because they'd allowed colonies to basically govern themselves. We learned we could do it. It's also hard to fight a war from thousands of miles away (one of the problems in Vietnam).
We need to also give credit to the strange but effective Baron Von Steuben. That's a story in itself.
Today, our inequality can easily been seen as a crime against humanity. There is no 'We the People' when a handful of billionaires own more than a hundred million citizens. More perfect union? Oh, no, not here.
We're slave to billionaires, their fake right-wing media, lobbyists, lawyers, politicians, super-PAC's, Russian trolls, etc. So, excuse me if I don't see much of a 'privilege' here. Promise, yes; privilege, no.
Democrats have been muted by the rich & the poor that vote for the rich. The issue of 'abortion' has become the flag of Republicans, but their real issue is money: cutting taxes for the richest Americans. Not surprisingly, taxes have been cut by Trump & the Republicans. This was their mission. Mission Accomplished. Trump can retire; he's made himself tens of millions.
Me; not We. Selfish; not Compassionate. Capitalist; not Christian.
5
The reason privilege is bad is because it keeps down the people who *don’t* have the same privilege. People with privilege are often blinded to people without.
This article is a case in point. Its thesis is that one of the world’s greatest privileges is to be American (which I agree with), but that privilege is negative for the people in the world who don’t have it, who are disadvantaged from birth by our restrictive immigration laws and powerless to resist our military and economic warfare.
The fact that people with American privilege are trying to make America even better is no defense of that privilege, any more than it would be a defense of white privilege (to the extent it exists) to point to white people who are doing great things but only to help other white people. A privilege is only positive if the person with it is using it to lift up people without that privilege. If people with privilege are doing things just to help each other, that only widens the gap between them and people without privilege.
" We are the lucky inheritors of the American Creed, built around freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy.
What a bunch of baloney. Apparently Brooks is unaware of the efforts to block eligible voters from voting ( See Kris Kobach) or the gerrymandered districts designed for a minority to control legislatures.
The column is sophistry using the myths and talking points used over many years giving us a sanitized version of US history.
5
Today we learn from David Brooks that the demonstrators were well behaved. His readers can only assume that they were opposed to something or other.
Privilege? Etymology: privi-lege, private law. A successful attempt by a section of society to have government enact discriminatory regulations in its favour and to the detriment of others. This explains the "negative" connotations...
1
Dear David,
I am so glad that you called it by a reality name: Privilege. Many of us born in the US were stigmatized as soon as we got here without Privilege. We, who are not white, have the privilege of supporting entities that only give us the short end of the stick. Like targeted automobile infractions tickets given only to minorities to support cities many of us do not live in, we are just passing through.
Yes, I also was chest thumping as I heard/saw the NYTimes live coverage of those magnificent young people as they spoke with an eloquence not seen since the demise of Dr. King. Yes, I was blown away and yes, I will return to the US to help those young people build a better, stronger America with equality and justice for all.
81
Thank you for your generous promise to return to the U.S. to assist with a restoration of notions of equality that have slipped away under assault (yes assault) by the conservative movement. David Brooks, though I admire his attitude toward a temperate approach to social change, is utterly wrong, an apologist for the right that exercises privilege in its worst possible connotation and embodies a sinister appeasement, as evidenced by the Koch brothers and their ilk. An extremist reign of terror, if it were to return in a modern form would most likely come from the right, not the left.
It is my fear that Brooks' attitude is much too weak and ineffectual to stem the tide of an inexorable drift of our moral "plates." I find myself an opponent of his incrementalism after watching it lead nowhere time and again. It's a shame and a blight on our country that has too long endured without resistance, and more ineffectuality is no answer.
In the first paragraph, on the first page, of the First Federalist, Hamilton launched the Founders' argument for ratification of the Constitution by saying that "It is commonly remarked" that Americans were at a new place in history; that theretofore governments were a product of violence and accident, but that now the people were creating their own government. "This" he said, "adds the inducements of philanthropy to those of patriotism." He was using the word in its correct and Classical meaning—not rich helping poor, or what foundations do, but "loving [i.e., nourishing, developing] what it is to be human." The United States was intended to be a philanthropic nation, a gift to humankind, raising the human condition by freedom and democracy.
99
Mr. Brooks - certainly you don't deny that the US was built onsite male privilege and that privilege continues to exist today. Study after study continues to show the black men are incarcerated more often than white men; the women earn only a fraction of what men earn for the same work. The history we celebrate as Americans is almost exclusively a white history. Even following the Civil War, when black people supposedly were freed to be part of the US, Black Codes (aka "Slavery Light") turned up everywhere, particularly in the former slave-holding states, to continue to keep blacks working for no wages, and darn it, you know as well as I do that racial segregation continued well into the 1960s not only to keep white and non-whites segregated, but to make sure that whites had privilege over non-whites in jobs, housing, and everything that makes life livable.
5
How exceptional! There's only an American Creed, well, because we're historically exceptional. The American founding fathers were land owning gentry who revolted against unfair taxes in the name of freedom. This continues with American capitalism as the freedom for business and the rich to pay as little taxes as possible and exploit markets without restraint. Citizens should stop whining, get a job, and, apparently, get a gun. We protect the gun industry from taxes & lawsuits but not the Americans we shoot and kill on a regular basis. We fight the people with guns in other countries who kill their own citizens instead; and tell them to be more like us. And before you dismiss other Creeds remember that French citizens fought a corrupt monarchy, aristocracy, and church. After a bloody start the new Republics focus on citizens and the social contract. Commerce thrives in France and you can still become a billionaire, but business must support the social contact. Maybe the American creed has yet to catch up to this ideal. America is still building an elite class of 1 percenters who will end up owning everything and bow down to big business who already does own everything. We haven't learned to respect all Americans in our diversity but retreat to our tribes as the only true Americans. How exceptional.
222
There are reasons to be optimistic about the demonstrations seen on March 24th.
There are also reasons to be skeptical of some righteous, overriding "American Creed": https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/1996-03-01/american-... ("The American Creed: Does It Matter? Should It Change?" AND https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/are-americans-champ... ("Are Americans Really Champions of Racial Equality?")
From the latter essay: "Myrdal’s theory of Americans as a moral people who champion racial equality may seem harmless....But however comforting and flattering that image might be, and however politically useful it may prove on the domestic and global stages, it obscures harder truths....many Americans felt that segregation was either irrelevant to, or consonant with, these basic principles. "
As much as I admire the students marching--in Washington DC and across the country--to protest our nation's gun violence, there are reasons to be careful about embracing any historical notion of a benevolent "American Creed." We have a lot of work to do on so many levels.
1
Brooks must always find a way to employ false equivalence and exonerate Establishment Republicans for, well, everything. The gun-control march, which Brooks never mentions was called "March for Our Lives 2018," was inspiring. However, Brooks uses it to feed his contention, at this point beyond ridiculous, that all of America's problems exist because people aren't more polite. Further, Brooks is overjoyed because "there was no ill will toward anybody but the N.R.A." Whew, what a relief! Brooks entirely ignores the full frontal assault by the GOP against the Parkland school shooting victims. Former GOP Representative Jack Kingston called the Parkland students liars and left-wing stooges. A day after the protests, former Pennsylvania GOP Senator Rick Santorum said, "how about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes." Fox News gave little coverage to the protests, and when it did, it managed to dig up a spokesperson for the "Young America’s Foundation," who argued: "What we see in DC and across the country at this March for Our Lives is just the latest chapter in just the sad history of liberals trying to scapegoat responsible gun owners...It's not a failure on the part of the Second Amendment." A notable dissenting Republican was Ohio Gov. John Kasich who stated, "People are basically saying they can't stand what's happening," and "I really do believe" Republicans should be worried. Brooks should take note.
340
Thank you Robert... a much more robust and expansive response when compared to mine...
5
Excellent comment, thank you. I always wonder how all the "reasonable" Republicans in the Times--Brooks, Douthat, Stephens, etc--get by with acting as if the unhinged fascist demagoguery of the GOP leadership and the GOP media did not exist. Are they here in the evil "liberal media" in order (quixotically) to show the GOP a different way? Or are they here to whitewash the extremism that drives the party? Are they trying to convince others, or themselves?
8
Excellent questions Martin... I suspect if one had to make a living attempting to add something positive to say about the radical wing nut right, there would have to be many intellectual blind spots in order to sound convincing.
3
My wife and I attended the rally on Boston Common with many, many others. Unlike the Woman’s March the mood was somber, yet quietly celebratory, and impressive.
The NRA was vilified as in Washington, but many signs rightly called out the GOP, the Congress, and SCOTUS.
Because Massachusetts has some of the strongest gun laws, the student organizers elected to start the March in Roxbury, to highlight that for less privileged students gun violence is ubiquitous and not just from mass shootings.
Our 16 year old daughter and her friends marched with fellow students from all over the state. They know the federal government, their federal government, is refusing to protect them, and they do not feel privileged.
8
There is a reason why power has been steadily flowing to Washington ever since the early 1900's. The administrative and national security state didn't come into existence in the 1930' and 1940's by accident. They came into existence because in most areas of national life (security, the economy, public goods, civil rights, education, public health etc.) you cannot adopt a siloed approach. This applies as much gun control as it does to automotive safety or the currency. In many ways the US system of government is ill adapted to handle this reality and it's from this that much dysfunctionality flows.
5
Liberty, equality, fraternity--that is is not a creed?
Many millions of French citizens would disagree.
Other nations have histories filled with "ancestors' heroic sacrifices" that bequeath to each generation a sustaining sense of cultural identity. Mr. Brooks, you might look north to Canada just for one informing instance of same.
Perhaps one of the less productive aspects of the American "creed" is believing that other nations lack enduring and sustaining notions of what constitutes a civil polity.
Time for the self-serving ideological blindness of American exceptionalism to be confined to history's dustbin. The Founding Fathers embraced an Enlightenment universalism whose anational spirit was unforgettably endorsed by Eleanor Roosevelt in her drafting of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Now there's a creed we would ALL do well to live up to.
13
The Founding Fathers did not talk about privileges, they talked about rights. What these marchers did, really, was pass the Rights Test. They used their right to peaceably assemble and speak freely in a very responsible way. And they are going to use their right to self-governance to vote and, let us hope, bring about necessary change.
Privilege still is something that not everyone has. Some people are privileged by the power of their money. Some people are privileged by the color of their skin. Some people are privileged because they worship with the majority. The rights acknowledged and codified in our Constitution were supposed to do away with these privileges -- that's the ideal: rights not privileges.
20
“All we have to do is live up to this privilege of being American, to take our turn narrowing the gap between the American Creed, which binds us, and the American reality, which always disappoints us. “
Well said. This could be my daily note on the mirror for helping me keep perspective and direction. Thanks.
7
On the whole I think I'd rather have been born a Brit, or a Swede, or a Spaniard, or a Finn, Swiss maybe, or Thai. Italian for sure. Many others. I'd speak more languages, have spent less on my education, and not have to live down American exceptionalism.
7
kgeographer: Such is the lottery of life, eh?
We cannot choose where we are born, but we can choose with few exceptions where we want to live. If we choose another nation and it accepts emigration, we can move.
As a resident of Colorado, I'm curious why you haven't made that choice.
Education is not "free" anywhere. I take exception to your statement about spending less on education. Except for Western Europe and the former nations of the British Empire, I suspect the availability and the quality of the universal education we benefit from in the USA wouldn't come up to the standards we have in North America and Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and a few other countries. Need I remind ourselves, universal education is not practiced in many nations. Plus, the cost of the education you refer to that may be borne by the local, regional, or central govts would be via taxes. So, the taxes as is the case for much of the "civilized" world are likely to be considerably more than those we pay in the USA. The Scandinavian nations with their excellent public education system have considerably higher taxes than we in the USA have; they do spend more at all levels of public education than many school districts in the USA spend. We might benefit from their example.
Cost of life's essentials are universal, too. The method of money collection and transfer may be via taxes or private pay, so please exercise care when suggesting "spent less" on education.
Writes Mr. Brooks: "...the key fact of the American Creed is distrust of centralized authority." Well, in conservative ideology, maybe. But modern thought about social organization has recognized the importance of central authority to solving modern problems, such as the fact that we live in a war zone, not a peaceful country. It does Chicago little good to have strict gun laws if Gov. Pence next door is loosening gun laws and guns are consequently flowing across the state line into Chicago streets. We need national solutions to gun violence, immigration, dying industries, income inequality, sexual harassment, etc.
11
David Brooks, I too am glad that the crowd of young men and women were good-hearted, gracious and welcoming.
They are not the first generation to take to the streets to petition for redress and march for their lives. Fifty years ago young men and women also took to the streets to petition government. They were the Hippies. You too may remember them. They too were gracious, good-hearted and welcoming. Their summer of love made a mark before it faded into autumn and then sank into a long cold winter of discontent.
They were your generation Mr. Brooks. Where were you in 1967? Was your mind in San Francisco? Where were you in 1968? Was your mind in Chicago? That was a year when your generation spoke of revolution but believed in democracy and changing America by voting. Where were you in 1970? Was your heart on the campus of Kent State University? That was the year when privileged students burst with American moral passion.
Then, as now, young men and women struggled to narrow that "gap between the American Creed, which binds us, and the American reality, which always disappoints us".
Where were you then Mr. Brooks and where are you today?
12
“The decimation of history in schools”
You mean the creeping reversal of revisionist history education that refused to acknowledge the crimes the US and it’s past leaders have committed? Such as finally teaching about what we did to the Native Americans, but still without taking a moral stance on it the way history curriculums are comfortable doing with other genocides?
Mr. Brooks,the only part of history being “decimated” in schools is the kind that indoctrinated students into blind patriotism. I’d rather provide our students with as much information as possible, and as complete as possible, instead of providing only information and misinformation that supports our nation’s sense of moral superiority. As a recent graduate of our public school system, I, for one, consider the decimation of this type of history education a positive change.
10
I wanted to agree with Brooks because it all sounds so wonderful, but quite soon into this piece, the little wise guy who sits on my shoulder made his displeasure known, "Hey wait a minute. How is this a very characteristic burst of American passion? How to usurp the true and righteous passions of the young and bend it to conform to some idea of yet another form of American exceptionalism."
These students. like students all over the world, not just in America, are the voice of the future and are giving notice they won't be corralled by old notions anymore, whatever they may be. Brooks believes his are 'a way to show students the reality of injustice and inequality." I think it's exactly the other way round. They are showing us. It is we who have squandered our privilege, who have brought us to the brink. Not them. We need to listen and learn a few things we have forgotten from those on the front line now. It's their turn, not ours.
12
Americans should feel humbled and grateful for the privilege of existing in America, humbled and grateful for the American Creed and all who gave their lives for it?
Great suspicion should be exercised when faced with people who use the words Humility, Gratitude, and the like. Usually the more a person uses such words, expects such, the less he or she deserves it. Humility and gratitude should exist of course before the best Americans who ever lived, but precisely because they were so often intelligent and self-sacrificing they would probably decline such worship. Lincoln, Grant, demanding humility, gratitude for their accomplishments?
As for power, establishment in society in general asking humility, gratitude from the citizenry? That amounts to psychological warfare against citizens, breaking them down before often undeserving power. Again, the more a person or power demands humility, gratitude from you probably the less deserving they are of it.
One of the best things about being a philosopher, which I am, is it would be utterly ridiculous for me to demand humility and gratitude from my readers concerning what I write. I can be accused of many things, but never of demanding your slavish humility and gratitude; rather of course I make you angry, make you gnash your teeth, provoke you.
Humility and gratitude is reserved for the best of people, and they one and all would probably just wave it away and tell you to walk on, do your best, think anew about existence.
2
Mr. Brooks, you are repeating an old propaganda doctrine called "American Exceptionalism" This doctrine says that we are exceptional - better than other nations.
Our history of brutal foreign interventionism belies this doctrine.
If the American Creed includes democracy, as you say it does, why does it take a 2/3 majority of both the house and senate or a 2/3 majority of the states to amend the constitution? A high bar indeed to take sensible action to protect our children.
Samuel Huntington also said for power to be effective it must be invisible.
No, Mr. Brooks, America has both virtues and vices, just like any other democracy. We are neither better nor worse than the European democracies.
8
"...why does it take a 2/3 majority of both the house and senate or a 2/3 majority of the states to amend the constitution?"
The Constitution is our founding document. Amendment by a simple majority would enable a constant amending process twisting the Constitution far out of the original intent. Look at how use of the internet has made for misleading the minds of the people in today's world. I don't want either party or any ideology to change founding document of my country by one or two votes. That is an even quicker rode to tyranny than the one we are already on.
I understand and your point, but the 2/3 majority causes problems for ambiguously written amendments like the second amendment.
In addition, it freezes in time all amendments. A right given to a single fire, slow loading musket cannot anticipate that it will later be used for rapid fire automatic weapons.
Finally, this is an amendment, not the original constitution.
Thank you so much for this! I agree with you 100% and think how you have expressed it is right on! Please keep on keeping on with the 'holding a mirror up' to 'we the people'! I am a huge fan and very grateful!
1
It is an American privilege to not have a privileged class. Unfortunately the Republican Party is doing it's best to establish one. Their elimination of the inheritance tax, the reversal of our tax structure to transfer the burden from rich to middle class, it gave political power to corporations with no control over their ability to contribute to election candidates, and passing voter restriction laws.
Mr. Brooks is a great writer and apologist of this party trying tp create the privilege class . Resist!
23
I get so tired of those like David Brooks who seem to think our schools are not teaching American history! North Carolina expanded high school American history requirements from one to two years because we didn’t think American history could be covered in one year. North Carolina high schoolers also are required to take one year of economics/civics which focuses on how government works and and how the economy works, including how the stock market works. They are tested at the end of each course. Students have had history at every grade level, from kindergarten on, some of it world history and some, state and local history. Not all students learn the history, civics, and economics but if they don’t, it isn’t because they haven’t been taught. The teaching methods include a lot of hands on work with documents, picking a stock and following it, having mock elections and debates. They have quizzes on current news and events. It isn’t the dry history I was taught in school. Many students take an interest and learn and some don’t but they shouldn’t be ignorant of our history and government or of the history of the world. Brooks should visit some schools before making such generalizations.
12
It was a privilege to read your essay. During the Easter season especially, a great reminder of how service to others can be an awesome privilege.
2
I did not participate in the March for Our Lives although I support the people, young and not so young, who did. It's heartening to hear that the demonstration was full of good will and positive messages. I felt the same power in the Women's March a day after Trump's inauguration.
I doubt if that has anything to do with privilege or gratitude for what it means to be a citizen of the USA, but if people like Mr. Brooks want to believe that, it's OK with me. I think that getting large numbers of people together and reinforcing good will is a response to what our politics have come to.
The Russians saw the utility of promoting divisions in the country. So did the oligarchs, who wield power through wealth. So did politicians and the press that follows them like sheep.
It encourages me that we could have a second demonstration where people got together and, generally, celebrated unity. It has little or nothing to do with our ancestors' heroic sacrifices. It has a lot to do with recognizing that we have been manipulated by people who want to destroy the essence of democracy.
17
I am pleased to read we have a lock on freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy. My Canadian cousin (I could have said French or British, but let’s go with Canadian) was dismayed. He admitted there isn’t “Canadian creed” but felt they had actually made as much or more progress on those fronts. They can’t carry, but they can get really sick and not worry about losing their house. Their police don’t shoot unarmed black men all the time. They don’t have separate white suburbs that protect their schools from minorities and keep their taxes locally rather than have them spent on poor people elsewhere. Or charter schools designed to do the same thing. Apparently, they don’t talk about this stuff all the time, they just get on with doing it.
Mr. Brooks finely articulates the notion of an America-that-should-be, our awareness of the gap between vision and reality and constant (and apparently exceptional) struggle to narrow it. What is exceptional perhaps is that we make this into a national mythology and then lord it over the rest of the world. From afar, however, it looks and feels like a soothing tale we tell ourselves whenever the true and ugly gap between vision and reality becomes just too exposed and threatens the social order. “Bothered by racism, social division, poverty, corrupt government, etc.? Yes, we fall short. But our vision is true and our struggle is noble, is it not? ” Maybe we should talk less about it and just get on with actually doing it.
21
Wish I could like SGoodwin’s post over and over! This is a very well articulated comment that expresses all that I believe.
1
"Their police don’t shoot unarmed black men all the time."
The police don't shoot unarmed black men "all the time" in the US. In fact, this is a pretty rare occurrence. Far more rare, for example, than black men shooting one another.
Was hoping to find an essay by Brooks this early morning and it is a pleasure to find this wish granted. It was a pleasure and privilege to read his latest thoughts on our current State of Affairs, and while finding the beginning of his introduction slightly unfortunate 'Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious', it is a matter of course, that even the most honest of authors and journalists sound awkward on occasion.
Mention the word 'Pretentious' in America, and we fold like a deck of cards. Passion, with young fervor, rings truer to this reader's ear where one of Our Young Voices made reference to Mozart, among others, where often inspiration at the dawn of one's age is at its highest.
Africa, Austria, Jamaica and Ireland have achieved U.S. citizenship at a mature age and after years of working hard for the Common Good, 'Our Children', with an ongoing strong belief in America, while this New Yorker born to privilege and uncertainty continues to lag behind on all fronts.
A privileged child is a loved one. Should you be the descendant of a Baron Robber family, feeling the want for maternal love, I have it on the best of authorities that empty manors leave one feeling haunted.
Perhaps David Brooks might address his readership on the Concept of Respect for Country; a concept carried out in motion in the light of the day by Our young Generation, Our Future, seen at its best, giving some of us a Spring in our step.
2
One aspect of this movement that distinguishes it from other protest movements of the past: Unlike the protests against the Vietnam War or the March for Civil Rights, this protest is widely popular across America. And for those in power, who have ignored the cries from America in the past, betting the voices would subside, the price for your inaction is going to be paid. Make no mistake.
10
Brooks' observations do lead to another point. Broad-based social movements do falter, and falter badly, especially when time comes for concerted action, even when guided by the American Creed.
This “morally superior” “divisive bickering” is the bane of the Democratic Party. When subdued, as it was during the Roosevelt years, it paves the way for prosperity on many levels. When this “narcissism of small differences” is left to simmer, we witness the ’68 Democratic Convention, and usher in the likes of Richard Nixon.
Here’s hoping that this exercise of Privilege extends to the November elections and the change we so sorely need.
4
I don't disagree with what Mr. Brooks says here -- for the most part. But by using the March for Our Lives as a pretext for commenting on the fractious debate about privilege, Mr. Brooks appears tone-deaf to both the marchers' intended message, and those who see income and race inequality as serious issues affecting our country. Why be so condescending? Mr. Brooks has the "privilege" of believing that a change in attitude (presumably by being influenced by his writing) will somehow solve these problems. But what is needed -- on both the gun violence issue, and issues of inequality -- is legislation. Why is Mr. Brooks afraid to advocate for real change?
16
The #Never Again was a march organized by young people and featured the voices of youth.Their plea was simple-we need to be safe in school! Their solution was also easy to understand.If you take money from the NRA we will organize to vote you out of office.The young people stood in front of the Capital building and proclaimed their belief in the democratic process by emphasizing the vote as a means of change.They had a lot to teach conflicted and concerned adults.Let us maximize the voices of youth and not minimize it in any way.
12
"Saturday’s march reminded me that often we behave better than we talk."
This is, of course, in contrast to the Trump White House, where very occasionally some-what sensible actions are done despite the twitter rhetoric.
3
Spoken like a white male of privilege, Mr. Brooks.
I went to a local March where everyone used their American privilege of speaking out.
But the racial divides were stunningly clear. A mostly white crowd. When a black youth group spoke about fearing violence every day of their lives, palpable discomfort for some of the white attendees.
Yet I did see young people both at this march, in DC, and elsewhere starting to grapple with this issue. I don't think your column today amounts to more than sophisticated wordplay - you're usually better than that.
I applaud these young people - not because they held a march that extolled voting or optimism, but because they looked around, saw what they saw in the world and took the first steps in calling it what it is - white privilege that had been harmful, even deadly to many.
28
I think it's valid to stay positive about America's positive legacy. But we also can too easily dismiss the awful realities of 100 plus years of slavery, and another 100 years of very, very destructive segregation. American history is a mix of the wonderful, and the awful. It's good not to dismiss the sad side of privilege as well as the hope side of privilege.
21
Thank you, Bob, and reminds this American of a friend from Africa who refers to 'Our Lot in Life'.
Mr Brooks is condescending in the way that would probably infuriate the majority of the young people marching. A there, there kids, the old folks know better kind of condescension. Has Mr Brooks watched his friends gunned down right beside him? Seen respected teachers shot trying to protect them? I think not. Those amazing kids don't want politically sensible legislation that won't exacerbate the culture wars. They want to make it so that no one has to experience the horror they witnessed. They want massive change now and I don't fault them for that in the least.
58
What I find very heartening about the current movement is how it is not based on anything other than getting people to put their vote behind their conviction. Look at the major issues in America today: gun control, universal health insurance, global warming, and so forth. Our representatives, time and again, ignore the will of the people. And people sit in their living rooms and yell at the TV. The Congress and the President have abysmal ratings. And then a group of young Americans are faced with an issue that has a profound impact on their lives. They don't sit in front of the TV and scream and yell. They go out and point out to America that the answer to America's problems is sitting right in front of you, where it has been all along: the power of the ballot. Now it is up to us to heed their call!
34
Not too long ago, just a few months ago, youth in their late teens and early 20s were turning up in hundreds of thousands, energized activated and committed to helping create an America that gives everyone dignity. You didn’t hear of this? Don’t be surprised because the media didn’t think of it as worthy of news. David brooks scoffed at these kids along with media pundits. Millennials became a swear word. Thank you David Brooks.
6
"Do some people have benefits they haven’t earned? Yes, and some a lot more than others. But none of us has earned the great privilege we share together and which is the furnace of most reform."
Mr. Brooks, do you seriously believe that Republicans, especially the 85% that approve of Donald Trump's presidency, believe what you wrote that I quote above? When, in recent memory, have Republicans (Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, ad infinitum) ever expressed "gratitude and humility" for the great "privilege" of being part of the American creed? To them, being an "American" is being white, male, empowered, and negative.
Your kind of people. In spite of your words.
20
As usual, Mr. Brooks's enthusiasm for his subject leads him to make exaggerated claims which expose him to the brickbats of his critics. Surely, by this stage of our history, Americans can celebrate their own country without casting aspersions on other nations. Other countries also embrace democratic ideals, which may differ in detail from ours, but that equally support the existence of an inclusive, open society. We are not engaged in a contest that rewards a blue ribbon to the most democratic system.
The real thrust of this column, however, relates to the capacity of Americans to struggle towards the realization of the ideals first stated in the Declaration of Independence. In the 18th century, the principle of human equality seemed an improbable ideal for a country that practiced slavery and whose citizens routinely seized lands from the native inhabitants of their territory. The legacy of those evils remains with us, but we did abolish slavery and very tardily began to guarantee legal equality for the victims of that abominable system. The courts, moreover, have begun to correct some of the injustices inflicted on Native Americans, although our treatment of them remains disgraceful.
Women and members of the lgbt community have also asserted demands for equality, and our system remains open enough to change to enable them to achieve some success. None of these facts warrant a round of applause for us, but they do offer hope that the US can improve.
16
My belief in the American Creed, America itself?
I no longer believe in it. I hold a Pure Survival of Best of Civilization Creed. One look at history reveals that in all societies you have a vulgar, ruthless struggle for power in society, that rather middling, crude, establishment is created and rules over the people. The greatest minds in these societies, if the societies care about them at all, are put in service of primarily the established power and secondarily the people.
And this same pattern exists today, just writ larger and more dangerously. Today establishment, power, is as crude and as vulgar as ever, and no matter the roster of geniuses over history, here we are today with the best primarily serving crude, established power and enabling it to rule, control the people. Today science, technology, devises weapons, communications systems to largely enable established power and to control the people.
In this sad state of affairs I hold the pure survival creed of somehow locating by all science, psychology/intelligence testing--psychometrics--the truly best, most honorable humans among us and somehow devise a city in space or undersea to assure humanity not only survives but thrives against the usual crude power in society and whims of the people. But of course, ironically, such a survival creed depends on exactly the established power in society, depends on such power not viewing itself as epitome but only stepping stone.
"What? Me, a stepping stone? Nahh!".
2
I find it funny how Mr. Brook had no too many nice words for the Women’s March. And he has all the nice ones for the March of our lives (he should). But I went to both in DC. Of course, both were different. But both had a majority of well reasoned people in the middle that represents, truly, how “democracy looks like”. So i am curious to know why the dislike for one and the love for the other one. Demographics?
I was there on Saturday. I think Mr. Brooks missed to read the signs. Those signs represented an angry society of the current affairs and the silence and complicity of the Republican party to address the problems of social values. And for the reference, both Marches were about our right to vote and vote them out.
30
David Brooks makes a light comment by conflating two meanings of the same word. OK. That's clever.
But the point he overlooks is that privilege is regularly used to protect a status-quo that favors the privileged. In other words, it has a strong bias toward selfish uses. If one is not reflective about this situation, it is difficult for those of us born and raised in privilege to use it for the commonweal, and to assure it spreads to all our neighbors.
I encourage people to continue calling out selfish use of privilege in order to promote the greater use.
10
I remember when a lot of African-American kids were getting killed in NY, years ago. At the time, I made a lot of noise about it, but not enough people cared. I remember saying "a lot of white kids are going to get killed before anyone does anything about this." I can't praise the kind of privilege that only stands up when the privileged kids of Parkland get killed like the underprivileged kids of Brownsville. But I'm glad that people are finally taking a stand against gun violence, and I'm happy to join them.
1
Attucks-Hale-Ballou-Sledge-Perkins-Rustin. What a pantheon of inspirational examples. We need such reminders. Thank you.
3
David, privilege is a neutral word. How we use it defines how we view it.
The kids who are marching, who are calling for reforms that will ave lives, who have finally stood up and said that they are NOT willing to be the price paid for unlimited access to unlimited types of guns, are using the privilege they were born with, democracy, to change the nation. For the better.
People who use their privilege - if it is wealth, or brains, or talent , or just their hard work and faith- to improve the world, or the nation, or their community, are using their privilege in a positive way. So we can look at the wealthy man who funds a whole class for college, or the doctor who works with Doctors Without Borders as people of privilege who use it wisely.
But the negative connotation of the word? Well that arises when we have untold privilege and squander it. Not sure of examples? Well most of Donald Trump's Administration, and most of Congress and the Senate (i.e passing a bill that benefits a few rich and sinks the nations revenue ) would be a very good examples. What a waste of protoplasm.
Privilege is without judgment. Actions are not. Don't get twisted when people call out the failure to use it wisely and with conscience.
33
Brooks seems to prey on the concept of gratitude to gloss over the inequities in our society, building his case with talk about negative reactions re oppression, and of course calling into play the sacrifices of our forebears. If there were a more callous, yet intelligent sounding homage to the status quo, while advocating an event which has little to no chance of making an impact on the nation's gun laws, this would be it. Those among us who have spent 30-40 years doing the day-to-day work to improve the conditions of those less fortunate in our country see through this rhetoric. And by "those among us", I mean the legions of people who sincerely want something better for others, not themselves.
As many on these pages have pointed out, our founding fathers had something else in mind when they put together the Republic. Equality and fairness as a common goal to appeal to and incentivize the citizenry comprised a good portion of their mental efforts. If Brooks was so impressed with the American flavor of this past Saturday's event, he would have spent more time writing about how to activate the opposition to the NRA, as opposed to the empty rhetoric and slick take-down of the values that our founders actually espoused.
7
Extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other. I suppose you believe that you have to throw in this line to be "balanced". Please, please tell me where is the extremism other than on the right? Is it extremist to demand healthcare for all? Voting rights? A ban on AR-15s? Somehow demanding something that every other developed nation in the world has or does, seems quite middle-of-the-road. I am looking for one example, Mr. Brooks of the extremism of the other side, i.e. the Democrats. Please do devote your next column to outlining the extremism on the "left". I keep hearing about it, but am unable to find it.
159
It is extremist to shout down, prevent or intimidate speakers from exercising their freedom of speech because you disagree with them. It is extremist to create chaos, obstruct the freedom of others to go about their busines, destroy property and provoke law enforcement when due process does not result in a decision you don’t like or just because you feel it is the right thing to do (as one poster said yesterday in reference to activists). It is extremist to view compromise and deviation from rigid political orthodoxy as criminal. It is extremist to believe that accusation alone justifies conviction (college rape or police shootings) and punishment before a fair investigation begins. And it is extremist to ignore the bigotry and hate of your own leaders because , well nobody is perfect.
2
Well said. I think your observation is precisely why Mr. Brooks so frequently writes about "critical theory" and "perspectivalism," his terms for quite obscure academic theories that he has somehow been convinced are both radical and powerful. Like many on the right, Brooks has to rely on what is largely a straw man in order to claim there is a comparable "extremism" on the left.
As an academic in the humanities, I can tell you that the rights bogeyman of "critical theory" bears almost no relation to the real thing. What's more, arcane theories in philosophy and literature studies are very far from wielding power in American society.
Here's a few examples exposing the extreme distortions of the left's intersectional victimology narrative:
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/opinion/exploiting-the-gender-gap.html
https://www.cesariolab.com/race-bias-in-shooting
http://time.com/4404987/police-violence/
The country is gyrating out of control, but not because extremism begats extremism. Instead, extremism begats opposition to extremism, and then falsely paints this opposition as extreme on the other side whether it is or not. This false picture benefits extremism in several ways. It gives the extremists cover and encourages moderates to split the difference so that moderation becomes extremism lite. The extremists talk moderates out of joining the opposition to them and instead offer a lukewarm opposition to both sides.
Many people on the right seem to think of Venezuela, Cuba, or the former Soviet Union as the socialist opposite to the unfettered free market, while the real socialist opposite desired by progressives is found in Scandinavia or Germany. By refusing to recognize the basic differences between these groups of countries, people on the right make reasoned discussion about the size of government impossible. This is extremism, while wanting to explore a robust safety net is not.
35
“Recently, it has seemed like the country is gyrating out of control, that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other.”
Brooks always seems to get that equivalence into the commentary. No, Mr. Brooks, there is absolutely no equivalence, moral or political, between the purveyors of Trumpism and what we saw on Saturday or at any point during this Trump presidency.
As a columnist with influence at a great American newspaper, you need to be able to spot the difference and report on it.
It would also help to check your American exceptionalism at the door. Saying there is “no French creed” doesn’t help your otherwise good point about the strength of these young people to assert their rights as citizens just like we can thank the French for their contributions to our society.
44
"Sometimes I think the decimation of American history in the schools has left a generation ignorant of the creed and ungrateful toward our ancestors’ heroic sacrifices that brought it down to us. " -- Brooks
Is what happens when study of the "humanities" is relegated to the back burner in favor of the sciences, as if knowledge is not dependent on an interplay of disciplines. THe study of history demands an understanding of those facors which give our lives menaing; not only the study of politics and intersocial relationships but, also, an understanding of the physical universe. We shortchange our young people by stressing only the sciences and leaving out the study of that which binds us together.
12
The future of the American Creed, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness, freedom, equality, opportunity, democracy?
I believe little in it, have little faith in it. Like I have little faith in religion or socialism or really any ideal. I've read too much history, have instead faith in what people really value, place more stock in the view that occurs when ideals fade and the dust settles.
And what view is that? Well, we have the historical record of great human being after human being and all the societies that produced them eventually falling flat, as if all societies are a human body reaching up and the geniuses of these societies are the hands and fingers that remain, if something remains, after the societies have sunk.
The U.S. today appears little more than a higher form of Italian Renaissance: Earthly rather than religious power as patron, but not so much patron of arts as scientific/technological advancement, and this advancement serves primarily its ends rather than people and celebration of human genius, just as in the Italian Renaissance the powers that existed never had as their point that Leonardo and the like would be remembered, but merely used them to serve its ends, and as for the population in general, well THEM, they are put to what use they can be put to use and are primarily watched and controlled.
It seems in all this ugliness neither people in general nor genius is really served, just power in its ugliness.
2
Bottomline these students remind (most) adults that we can come together even when we have differences for the sake of the common good. Our discourse can be civil. We can listen to one another and at the same time we can call out untruths. Their dialogue has been the most mature, least sensationalized and most truthful that I have heard since the race to the bottom started by the Tea Party, the great republican obstruction scheme and of course our birther theory President. Many adults are weary of this exhausting state of affairs.
Out of the mouth of babes they have refreshed us, energized us and are guiding us.
It is heartening to know that in these youth hope abounds.
28
This article helped me to think about how I think about the March teens, US history, struggles and challenges starting in 1774 to now, balancing one group's needs against the other, income advantages & dis-advantages, moderate reforms and approaches in European Countries I'm touring. The privileges of marching, demonstrating, speaking, writing and voting are key to keeping democracy for my grandkids and others. I appreciate David's article as a demonstration of freedom of the press and democracy.
7
Saturday's marches were in many countries, not just America, so would they too pass DB's "Privilege Test" or does his America have a monopoly on bright and beautiful?
And these days, there may be a few billion citizens of other countries who may find the stuff about " There’s no such thing as the French Creed or the Italian Creed but there is an American creed." equally offensive as inappropriate.
The world now awaits Mueller in judging how lucky "the lucky inheritors of the system..." really are.
26
Even the most hopeful of us must admit the dominance of “tribalism” and the impossibility of rational discussion and/or debates across the lines. Tempering the cleavage has to begin within each tribe first.
, As a member in good standing with Republicans and conservatives, people like David Brooks have to turn inward—to your own tribe—to begin the tasks of building the ground-work for rapprochement.
The biggest and most critical division concerns mass-shootings gun-control and the Second Amendment,
There is no language in the Second Amendment that describes they type of gun owners can or should have.
Everyone knows that the only solution to mass shootings is the banning of future sales of assault rifles and the re-registering of the ones presently in circulation; making it a crime to have an unregistered assault weapon.
A national data-base of all assault-weapon owners will allow a record of all sales and transfers of existing weapons (conservative Justice Thomas claims that that number is five million).
Without such controls, there will always be the potential of mass-shootings.
19
This type of weapon causes approximately 1-2% of all gun deaths in the country and handguns are a much larger issue in the 35,000+ people killed each year in the USA by guns......gee,almost as many as opioids!
not the only solution
A little more logic and a little less starry-eyed sentimentality would go a long way, Mr Brooks.
If being an American citizen is the wonderful beginning in life you claim it is, then in 2018 every poor Native American and every impoverished African American ought to be off to a better start than a very rich Chinese or very rich Russian businessman who has to apply for American citizenship. Of course, they're not. Why not? Because being very rich in the USA is far more advantageous than being born an American.
If we're very rich, then we can buy the best lawyers that money can buy. We can lobby American politicians from both parties at local, state and federal level. We can wine and dine them, buy them presents, take them on holiday with us in our private super yacht or jet to our private island. We can run newspaper, TV and radio campaigns, and put up billboards. Heck, we can even buy our own TV network just as Murdoch, one of my Australian compatriots, bought Fox to fix American things the way he wanted.
We can set up and fund thinktanks. We can litigate and intimidate our foes into fearful acquiescence. We can change the law so that it suits us. We can start and fund our own political movement like the Koch Brothers did the Tea Party.
Money gets us much more than merely being American does.
370
The American Creed (unique to the United States according to Brooks):
"Built around freedom,, equality, opportunity and democracy."
Brooks have you ever lived in the inner city? There is little freedom from violence or poverty .
Brooks have you ever lived in the inner city? the rural areas? There is no equality. Schools are substandard; health care, if it exists, is inadequate; there are often no grocery stores that provide healthy food; and housing standards are below par.
Brooks have you ever lived in the inner city? Appalachia? There is no opportunity, no unemployment is high, and in fact little hope (which is one of the reasons we have a serious drug problem in this country.
And Brooks, have you looked at "democracy" in this country? Have you looked at the last Presidential election? Hillary won by 3 million votes and yet in this "democratic" country she lost the election. How does that happen in a democratic country? Have you heard of gerrymandering? Voter restriction laws, the electoral college?
You are correct, though, privilege is what works in the United States. And I don't mean the privilege of the American Creed. I mean the privilege of being born white, and into wealth and influence. A better place to look toward freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy would be toward the Scandinavian Creed.
67
I cannot help but like David Brooks, but once again he moves sideways from reality. These kids, on the other hand, are going through a crucible of reality. They are exhausted but game. They are going in with eyes and minds wide open, and they are gathering up other groups like Black Lives Matter and native Americans, environmental justice, and other concerns.
They are being careful but they are leaders, and they are learning on the job.
Here's a nice short clip that gives you a picture of the openness and ambition and the support they are getting. Please listen all the way through - it's short.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-5zYjx5zFY
They are happy to use their privilege, but they are not interested in maintaining it at the expense of others.
15
Having your friends killed is not a civilized or privileged event.
13
As an Australian I feel more priveledged than my US friends. I enjoy universal health care, access to guns is well regulated, and I enjoy common law protections inherited from the British (and which can evolve with the times) rather than being enslaved to a set of important but somewhat ad hoc rights written for a different time and circumstance.
694
Fully agree.
When I immigrated to the US in 1963 I felt privileged to be allowed into “the promised land”, and even today I am still grateful for having been welcomed and for the opportunities I was given.
But in the interim I have also spend many years working and living in Germany with my family, and it brought home to me the fact that in many, if not most ways the social and political development in the US, compared to what I observed in Europe and Germany, has gone backwards. Universal health care and much safer streets are only the most visible differences. The whole structure of “social market economies” versus the lazzes-fair, dog-eat-dog, “greed is good” economic structure in the US colors everything in social and political life in the US.
Brooks is typical of conservative intellectuals in the US, who dogmatically believe the fairytale of “American Exceptionalism”, possibly true at some time in the past, but certainly turned on its head today, with two of the three pillars of American democracy completely dysfunctional, and the Judiciary just barely hanging on. The only bright spot is that despite Trump’s efforts at Hitler-like attacks on the Press (Fake News == Lügenpresse), our news media, by and large, are still doing their job.
Finally, it is sad, that even in praising the gun control protesters, Brooks manages to be condescending towards this amazing group of kids. Who would you prefer in Congress, Santorum (“learn CPR”) or any one of these kids?
5
One of the great problems in America is that so many people have no idea about how the rest of the world lives. No place is perfect, but there are fundamental aspects of life in the US that are simply far less civilized (for lack of a more specific term) than many other places.
I suspect a big part of the problem is simply scale - most countries are the size of one of our supposedly united States. The right size here in Vermont is not necessarily right for Iowa or Louisiana or ...
2
While completely ignoring what about half of your fellow British travellers said about the UK with their Brexit vote.
I can't believe Brooks' essay, the way he characterizes an event filled for me with anguish and searing stories about people lost to gun violence. My tears were in my throat as I listened to the speakers. Many times I was shaking and gulping for air at the March I attended in San Francisco; realizing that the sea of people around me represented in total--about the numbers of people loss to guns in one year! Watching the D.C. March footage laster I was moved beyond words to hear the speakers and performers' vulnerability describing the searing pain of losing loved ones, finding themselves on stage as survivors. I hope Mr. Brooks will go on a listening tour for this issue--and listen for as long as it takes. Bypass the thoughts, theories, philosophies; let others experiences in even if if means a heart that breaks over and over again.
19
Brooks is addressing the political side of the march. You're talking about the emotional side. Both are valid reactions and observations.
5
Politics can be very emotional when it involves mass killings.
1
I think BANNING assault weapons was the March's point. Not restricting them. Throughout this column, you are trying to denature the passion and stridency of the marchers, condescending to the idealism some of us left behind. Too bad some of us didn't leave pretentiousness and grandiosity behind, too.
These young men and women led the day, and they have parents, teachers, and neighbors who will be with them every step of the way. It would be most helpful if you could join your voice with ours (or just step aside), and just this once - ahem - check your privilege.
17
First the Women's March and now the March for Our Lives are great examples of positive action by American citizens.
Your attempt, Mr. Brooks, at equivocating "extremism on both sides" is insulting to these movements.
The extremism is on the Right.
The attacks by the NRA and Republicans on these citizens, the distortions of positions -Rubio saying they want to take away all guns, an outright lie - and then the absurdity of Santorum telling these citizens they should do something positive like learn cpr instead of expecting people to do something for them - somehow Santorum doesn't understand that people are elected to represent us and DO something - shows the utter collapse of the Right in the face of moral outrage.
We, The People, are voting out the extremists.
We, The Peopke, are waking up and remembering what makes America great.
We, The People, are rising up and taking our country back from the NRA, the Republicans, the Russians, the Donald.
It is not extreme to want sensible gun laws.
It is not extreme to amend amendments, Mr. Brooks.
129
It may be more powerful to view planet earth as privileged in the universe; and humanity as privileged to live on it. All other collective successes of human dignity stem from that, don't they?
13
David was “born” in Canada to American parents so he becomes American born. What about naturalized citizens who have lived and worked here for half a century? What about native Americans who were here before the Hamiltons! They were born here centuries before white man stepped on the shores of North America, yet today they are confined to “reservations”. Black slaves helped build this country brick by brick yet today their descendants are still treated as second class and shot for speaking on the cell phone in their own yard! Very strange privilege, David Brooks. Perhaps he did not see the sea of humanity of all colors walking with these kids in marches all across the country, and abroad. Foolish Americans everyone in the world is saying, they are clinging to their guns like pacifier to the baby. Sooner rather than later the baby has to let go of the pacifier.
2
I don't know if that is really such a great privilege to be an American citizen. My kids were born in the US but became Australian citizens when we moved there, as did I and my wife. They will never have to attend such a march, because Australian government did not need any marches to respond to the Port Arthur massacre of 1996 by adopting (in the same year) legislation which kept Australia mass-shooting-free ever since. That is a real privilege - to be a citizen of a country where government looks out for your interests, safety and life, not the ability to participate in countless useless marches which at the end of the day change absolutely nothing.
478
Hi kids, I speak for the boomers. You've got the torch now. Good luck.
We thought we'd change the world, and we did. You can thank us for gay rights, whatever racial progress has been made, and equality for women. Of course you can thank birth control for that too. But others started all these things before us, and others will push them forward even more. It's your turn now.
I have one disappointment with the boomers, and it's a big one. We made good progress on the social agenda, but utterly lost the economic agenda. The concentration of wealth and the diminishing of opportunity is our greatest failing. It shames me how we let the Kochs and Mercers and their ilk amass billions while degrading the economic lives of so many others. I'm not anti-wealth, if it is acquired by doing something useful. But the people who have it now are mostly manipulators who do more harm than good. To my great shame, we failed utterly on that front.
It is your great privilege to take up the fight now. Don't let fewer and fewer people control the wealth, or the rest won't matter. Equal opportunity and freedom to marry who you want won't matter as much if someone else controls your economic life.
My advice: forget communism and the like; nationalizing their assets won't save you. Figure out a way to create what people need and keep it out of the hands of speculators and manipulators. Protect your freedom by protecting your economy.
66
You can still vote, can't you? I am a Boomer, and I support these young people with my vote. Verbal support is not enough. Boomers still have it in us to make positive contributions. Just the leadership needs to change. Vote!
2
Of course I vote. But I can't vote on NYT, I can only write...
Mr. Brooks, the privilege this student-generation has, along with the Millennials, is the privilege we’ve given them. It’s the privilege of nearly instantaneous peer-to-peer communication with millions of their peers.
Politicians dismiss them because they’re not raising election money. These students understand that this, instant, free access, to millions of peers, enables them to take control by coordinating voting without tons of cash.
What will they do with this “control”? Just what we see them doing now: Support representatives who will create common-sense solutions to problems that separate individuals cannot achieve, which is why we form governments in the first place.
An unwritten part of this privilege is that they instinctively work together across “party” lines. That’s what they’ve done since they first started communicating via social media using their computers and using their mobile devices.
Last, when my son was in junior high, he and about six of his classmates were at our home working on a school project. As their project reached completion, their conversation turned to where each went to church. The last boy said, “I know where I go to church, but I don’t know what I am. Where ever I choose to go to church, it won’t be where they tell me who to hate.” All his friends agreed.
Our future is in good hands. They aren’t wasting their privilege on hating but define their privilege as communicating to work together to make their world better.
18
Rick Santorum thinks they should stop asking adults to "fix the problem."
There is nothing more appropriate for citizens of the republic of the United States of America than petitioning their Representatives, Senators and President to address their concerns. That is what representative democracy is all about.
33
I am so deeply moved by the young people rising up against the forces of hate and violence and saying "not one more." I am 68, a boomer that has to take responsibility for allowing the mess we have today. When I was their age, we, too, had a cause worth fighting for. The tragedy of the Viet Nam war was brought to a close in large part because we exposed the lies and corruption of our leaders. And then we stopped pursuing our ideals. We allowed the NRA, lobbyists, and the so-called moral majority to take control of our lives by electing their puppets. So here we are, again. I hope the flame that these young people have lit will burn brightly and for a long time. I also hope to live long enough to see the younger generation save our democracy and our country. They have my total support and encouragement.
37
Thank you, David. These kids tell the world that they are proud to be Americans, to be inclusive, and to do the work that we "adults" have not done. I am appalled by how they have been denigrated by the ultra right and commentators on Fox News. Here in rural Oregon, people are lining up to purchase assault rifles while our legislators attempt to bring into law what has worked in Massachusetts and what worked until 2005. People simply are unable to hear that no one is asking to take away their guns or violate the 2nd amendment. Unfortunately our representative to Congress hears the same way.
13
Thank you David Brooks for pointing out the positive tone of the rallies this weekend.
I have worked with HS and MS students for 30 years. For the most part, I am impressed. We are looking at a generation that 'waits' to inherits an environmental and political mess left by our generation. This is a generation that understands that simple survival will necessitate that we work together.
The students I recognize get along, and work constructively. The students I recognize are helpful and respectful. The students I recognize volunteer hundreds of hours in their community, while holding down work in order to support their families. These young adults are tired of what they see from our leadership every day, and thirst for responsibility. They are growing tired of watching old dinosaurs and waiting, waiting, waiting.
39
Yes, it is true we are lucky or "privileged" to be Americans. Students and indeed protesters are free to march and hold rallies, though I dare say we are not alone. Most western countries and Canada have these same privileges.
The point is more importantly will those at the march be heard. Rick Santorum thinks they should stop asking adults to "fix the problem." His recommendation is that they should just "learn CPR."
Protesting is half of the equation. It only works if legislators and other politicians listen and act. At this point I am not confident that the Republicans are even interested in hearing what the students have to say.
24
So, according to Santorum, if a student has been shot and is bleeding profusely he or she needs CPR? The ignorance of reality on the part of some of these conservatives is mind boggling?
I am a mother who accompanied her 16 year old daughter to the march and rally in Atlanta. As an African American woman who grew up during the civil rights movement, the successes that I have had in my life are the consequences of the belief of my parents and those of their generation in the promise of the American Dream. They truly believed that American privilege, as described by Mr. Brooks, was as accessible to me as to any of my peers. Lucky for me, I believed it. Marching with that diverse group in Atlanta, that transcended class, race, gender and age, I was reminded of the promise of the American ideal. Incumbents: watch out! Most of those teenagers will be voting in 2020. Mr. Brooks, thank you for your vision.
34
Extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other? Mr. Brooks, I understand you are attempting to be moderate, fair, and balanced in your perspective of the "Left vs the Right." But I feel it is safe to say that progressives of today are not "extreme" in ideology. Just because we protest, are we not defending our democratic rights - NOT privileges - for women to choose what is best for their bodies and not be exploited from the work place to the social? For our children to rise up against gun violence? For the struggling and even middle class to desire affordable health care?
Yes, we have been fortunate to have been born in America, thanks to immigrant parents and grandparents for millions of us. And it is to be commended that a true democracy means freedom of speech, the press, and assembly. But, sir, even though you perceive a glass half full, I see one half empty under our present political reality. And I will not rest until it is refilled to its rim again.
47
In my view, Brook's column was in parts "grandiose and pretentious".
Privilege is a special advantage or immunity or benefit not enjoyed by all.
Brooks is privileged to have the platform of America's great newspaper of record, The New York Times, to opine, suppose, conjecture, and judge.
Those kids whose lives were impacted by mass shootings indeed have an ideology: a set of ideas with a very strong social influence; they witnessed their school mates being killed in cold blood! And they targeted the National Assault Rifle Association and the GOP for their complicity in mass slaughter.
This was ideology in action by school kids. It wasn't about privilege; it was a political protest!
94
The decimation of American History in the schools began long before you were born, Mr. Brooks. At least if the textbooks widely used were any indication.
13
Two comments:
"Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious." Honestly, just praise them. Praise them for their willingness to forgo sleep, forgo mundane teenage pursuits to show their raw pain to a world of adults unwilling to get uncomfortable.
Recently, it has seemed like the country is gyrating out of control, that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other.
I found this sentence actually shocking. Is Mr. Brooks really equating that Democrats are contributing equally to our country feeling out of control and being out of control? Really? Dems have faults, for sure, but I find this sentence shocking and appallingly, willfully ignorant.
But the march I saw was not extreme. It was a responsible moral answer to right a very specific wrong, gun violence.
So glad you approve, Mr. Brooks.
442
Couldn't agree more!
Some think false equivalence is a compelling argument. Mr. Brooks is no different from many "conservative" pundits.
Kelly, have you ever watched Bill Maher? He is a perfect example of the left's extremism. His audience hoots and hollers like a band of neo-nazis at an alt right rally. And when the audience doesn't respond correctly to one of his comments, Maher chides them for "under-reacting." Recently, he has limited his panel of three to all liberals; I'm guessing because of the unfair treatment a conservative receives from the moderator. "Real Time" is as unbiased as Fox News, but nowhere near as funny.
Brooks approvingly quotes: As Richard Hofstadter famously put it, “It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies, but to be one.”
I would observe that the same was true of our late adversary the USSR, which disintegrated in, as history is measured, a heartbeat. Let’s not permit our sunny exceptionalism to run away with us, Dave.
6
The majority of people in my region view these marches as the opening fronts in the culture war. They are rurally isolated, barely educated (35% high school dropout rate in our county) and there are no jobs of much value because the people don't have sufficient money to spend to support the bare minimum workforce. Our area is essentially a 19th century isolated world caught up in a high-modern capitalist market economy.
It cannot be overstated that these folks do not control the government they elect. Most people everywhere in this nation do not control the government they elect, and you can see the excitement this past weekend in their exuberance that they are trying for the first time in a long time. But the people where I live see such hope as naive and worse, against their principles: not only are the city folk wrong on the issue, but they are totally misguided like sheep who think one day they're gonna break out of the fences.
Suffice it to say, this whole love fest has the rural folks hating on them with spite, loathing and vitriol like I have never seen before. I am a member of an extremely small minority where I live, and I gotta say that it is patently not safe for me to freely express myself because they're looking for a way to let out their rage.
127
Excellent reporting from the American Stone Age, Chris.
Time to move.
36
Chris from Cave Junction's post is the single most frightening and depressing thing I can recall reading in decades.
I am almost without words. To think that the cultural bitterness is so deep that they turn against a group of high school kids who were just subjected to a mass shooting, is incredibly depressing. What in God's name have we come to?
To a degree I can understand it. I come from working-class Pennsylvania (Trump country!), and some of my not-so-distant ancestors are German (like Trump's), so I understand that we have the capacity to hate in our DNA. Still, this is more troubling than I can express.
7
I can, unfortunately, say something all too similar.
4
Let's be proud of the best of American values. Let's rejoice that they are NOT unique to the United States. Why would we want it otherwise?
11
Agreed! To have pride in America's values cannot be conflated with saying America is the best country in the world. I love this country--I love it's ideals, even though they have not yet been fully realized and reached. Other countries have similar ideals! These are things to be celebrated and worked towards.
15
Yes, Lord Brooks...one of the great privileges of life is to be born an American citizen... where 'free-dumb' rings from the bell tower of national gun insanity and the 2nd Amendment supersedes the 1st Amendment 85 times a day each day of the year in this fine republic of ours that enjoys suicide-and-homicide-by-gun much more than any other society.
Here in this great enchanted land with just 4% of the world's population, roughly half of the world's 650 million civilian guns also reside......because American exceptionalism is actually more of a paranoid psychotic state of fear and imaginary hobgoblins that have consumed a minority of the population, to which a large corporate parasitic and terroristic NRA-host has attached itself for the joy of blood money and gun tyranny.
2nd Amendment Derangement privilege reigns supreme in cuckoo America.
We all need an AR-15 to go boar hunting, after all.
We all need to pack heat while grocery shopping.
And millions of little men need their gun jewelry to feel good about their manhood.
And nothing says 'well-regulated militia' better than a white male Christian terrorist with a casually acquired military arsenal wiping out a small village of peaceful American bystanders enjoying their day.
It's a privilege to be randomly slaughtered at an exceptionally high American rate; and if by chance anyone survives, they'll get the added privilege of recuperating with the greatest healthcare rip-off in the world.
What a great country !
543
Yes, it is dangerous in the USA but not really more than anywhere else. We share a very similar life expectancy with "open door" Canada (~80), unlike many less "privileged" countries which suffer from mass threats both violent and public health related shaving decades off their odds of survival. Get real, there is real privilege and safety in the US despite the news and senseless traumas of gun violence. We have to fight to control/reduce/eradicate guns but we are not, by far, the most likely citizens to be "randomly slaughtered".
2
I'm sure my comment will cue the ubiquitous comparisons of the US with Norway and other tiny homogenous, isolated countries. Just please dear god, keep in mind that comparing the US to countries with similar populations to Brooklyn can only get you so far.
1
More "homicide by gun" here than in any other country? Perhaps you've never heard of Brazil, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Nigeria, South Africa,
Syria, Iraq, Mexico....??
1
Robert Brooks has nostalgia for an older America which did have ideals, an America of Madison, Jefferson and Hamilton meant to move to a fuller measure of freedom.
But that America is dying.
It is foundering on simple scientific truths. The planet Earth is finite. Resources are finite. Americans are running out of room.
But nobody can talk about it. Because it conflicts with our images of freedoms rooted in a past in which resources were abundant.
What Robert Brooks doesn't see is the millions of Americans approaching old age with no funds for home nursing, with inadequate health care coverage.
Many of these Americans are dying early of insufficient medical care. But liberals don't seem to care. They voted down universal health care in the presidential primaries.
Hillary was more interested in Gloria Allred's brand of shaming. Wealthy actresses complained that Harvey Weinstein had made repugnant propositions.
Bill Cosby was convicted before the trial. The presumption of innocence was lost.
Liberals still haven't figured out why the poor, in particular the hated white patriarchs, those that were poor, voted for Trump.
Unable to discuss the reasons, they are doomed to a series of Trump's followed by the dissolution of democracy.
The same thing happened in India over the last 50 years.
Liberals cannot see the noxious impact that population growth has on quality of life. Even when it leads to global warming.
Enjoy the last decade or so of civilization.
3
Ah, yes, those pesky Liberals. And here I was thinking it was the conservatives who vehemently opposed access to adequate reproductive health services and education (read: abortion = decreased population growth). You learn something everyday, I guess.
3
Who is "Robert Brooks"? The author of this superb ode to our country and its of the strengths and weaknesses is named "David Brooks". Keep that in mind and read his weekly column. I'm a centrist Democrat and have found no other voice as compelling as David"s.
It's David, not Robert.
Thank you, Mr. Brooks, for this great insight. I've been saying that...one way I think we need to work to try and bridge the wide chasm when it comes to this topic, is to try and have Conversations with our fellow Americans, in particular those with whom we disagree. The rhetoric has become too heated...too 'us vs them'. So along the lines of what you wrote, I believe such conversations would best be begun by asking ...'are we not all American?....do we not all love our country?....do we not all wish to see a reduction in gun violence?' That right there is a starting point ...a shared privilege of our living in a great country, and one that we all we like to see less divided, and with less carnage.
8
We have had those conversations. You're in NYC - you know how Republicans blather on about how "real America" is far from us. They don't believe we're all Americans, they believe anything short of blinkered denial of any and all problems in our society means we hate our country, and they have spent decades opposing all efforts to reduce gun violence.
Brooks is selling you a bunch of feel-good nonsense to distract you from the group causing all of these problems: his party.
1
I think that if you don't think there's a French creed, you don't know much about French history, especially French intellectual history. What about the Declaration of the Rights of Man? That document has had a resounding and enduring influence in France and in the world at large. So many Americans know little about world culture!
237
I suppose it's not comparable, seeing as how the 'American creed' is (according to Mr. Brooks) the foundation of American exceptionalism, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man ushered in a new era of philosophical and political thought on a global scale.
7
And the Magna Carta and way back Hammurabi's Code. And in the Easter Week, we should be remembering the Sermon on the Mount. Fascinating how some think that the world was in total darkness until the writing of the US Constitution which somehow was the greatest enlightenment ever despite slavery and the massacres of native Americans!
3
Liberte, egalite, fraternite?
2
Mr. Brooks, I'm glad you included, "Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious. Most of us were like that when we were 18."
I think that this 72 year old geezer was beginning to get annoyed by the way some of the young speakers were presenting their thoughts and feelings.
But in thinking about what you said, yes I was that way when I was young--and maybe without as much passion and conviction.
I forget sometimes to listen with my heart. You reminded me.
24
This "old geezer" of 84 years agrees with you.
Although I've always respected Mr. Brooks for kind, thoughtful and polite approach to conveying his opinions, I however, find it madding how he constantly beats around the bush when it comes to explaining and justifying the hard right menacing powers over the past decades. His making a moral equivalency to the extremism on the right to anything wildly comparable on the left proves the intellectual denial that permeates his writings.
186
David totally misses the salient point of today. The current GOP, including Trump, manifest the insurgence of Ayn Rand's philosophy of the self above all else. The counterpoint to that is the notion of common good.
Within David's piece is the battle between the use of privilege as a tool for self-maximization and the use of common good as a brake on privilege. However, he promotes the power of privilege in our society and pits it against the necessary brakes in service of the common good.
The issue today is that of whether the Randian philosophy of self-maximization will win over the philosophy of the common good. The fog produced in this piece lands in favor of the Randians.
This must be stopped.
37
It's important to inform (or remind) all fans of Ayn Rand that she collected a total of $11,002 in Social Security payments between 1974 and her death in 1982, which was an obviously egregiously hypocritical thing for her to do.
1
After hearing and reading some of the opposing viewpoints to the march and speeches, which were pretty hateful, it may be time to have a discussion about what the FIRST amendment is all about. So many people seem to think that these people are not entitled to express their opinions and feelings, you wonder if they think the SECOND amendment is the only one worth defending. Sad.
25
A wise analysis – on things other than guns; but I need to take issue with David on two points. There IS a French creed: “We French have always been reluctant to surrender to the wishes of friends, and almost anticipatory in our urge to surrender to the wishes of enemies.” And there IS an Italian creed: “If government is so good, then why be satisfied with just one for more than five minutes?”
But … we should talk about guns.
Yet I can’t help but react to David’s wise analysis of the “American creed” as if it were offered more than a bit tongue-in-cheek. His contempt for the identity politics that seem to consume us so today at the expense of anything that seeks to bring us together as one people is rather more heavy-handed than usual with David.
And … then there are guns in America.
It’s good to know that the kids and adults who participated in the D.C. be-in were moderate, balanced and idealistic. I applaud them for their moderation, their balance, their idealism.
Oh … to hell with guns.
11
Every nation has a creed and to bend the pure and truly righteous cause of these students to the American one is more than rich. So is the conceit Brooks's prism is in any way a 'pedagogical tool.' We squandered our privilege. We made this mess, and need to get out of way now because we, demonstrably, aren't any good at either leading or following anymore.
3
Oh, Memi, that's too harsh. There still are some of who are good at both leading and following. Since we universalized the franchise for "adults", we may never again be in the majority, but we pook our heads up every now and again and can be useful.
1
Richard,
I know. It's just that I feel for these kids so deeply and know from my own impetuous youth what they're up against.
3
Mr. Brooks,
I always find your pieces thought provoking. I wonder, though, was it necessary to include these two lines: "Of course some of the student speakers were grandiose and pretentious. Most of us were like that when we were 18."? Can't we just celebrate what they did without having to qualify it?
95
Thank you for raising this! I thought the exact same thing. So unnecessary and rather petty, I thought, of David Brooks to include it.
2
Geoffrey, I agree with what you say and would like to add that some middle aged people are still "grandiose and pretentious," especially when they have the privilege of getting to paid to write opinion columns in the NY Times!
1
I have always boycotted "social media" facebook, twitter, all the rest and encourage all people everywhere to do so. These methods are all irresponsible with no respect for privacy or humanity, were created to be that way and will always remain so.
Most Newspapers online and physical, if responsible are ok. Most television is.
It was always apparent to me that the careless broadcast of our personal lives could only lead to disaster and it has.
How appropriate it is that the world's leading hater and disrupter is addicted to twitter.
7
“Hunters and farmers and vets were celebrated. There was no ill will toward anybody but the N.R.A.”
War is evil, hunting is barbaric, and agriculture is an environmental nightmare, and its development marks the decline of humanity. If there was no ill will toward these groups, it was a mistake.
3
It was prudent not to alienate those people who otherwise would even more prone to be manipulated by the NRA.
1
A little sanctimonious aren't we?
1
"Sometimes I think the decimation of American history in the schools has left a generation ignorant of the creed...."
Unfortunately history in general is not really taught as it should be, any kind of history and in most countries. And in school systems, when it is, it becomes boutique history in keeping with the negative privilege described by Mr. Brooks. Boutique history is possible only after, and not in place of, the nitty gritty, nuts and bolts type.
As for Mr. Borrk's message, he is ever the eternal optimist re the US looking at the half full and not the half empty cup.
6
I do not want to be nasty in response to what I guess is an essay with a positive message. But, come on. This is almost incoherent. It should not be that difficult to praise and take pride in the possibilities of our system, something that so many young speakers did on Saturday. But, it would be nice if us older people, and that means you, would get to the point.
33
So good of you to have decided that these amazing young people passed your test, David! That you should set yourself up as the judge of how well they have behaved is an astonishing claim of privilege on your part. I myself am in awe of them and very grateful for their courage and leadership. I feel privileged simply to follow.
188
You have translated your own approval of the students (which I share) into another form ("in awe", "I … follow"). Why is your approval ok and his isn't?
Let us all approve, if we like. But try ridding your mind of cant, so you won't resent Mr. Brooks' having the same opinion you do.
It might take years, but you'll be glad you did.
2
I find your sarcasm a pitiful response to a far ranging and balanced essay. Being a centrist Democrat has been a difficult position because both "sides" consider it cowardly. How sad that my country isn't large enough for more than two sides to every issue.
I find a discussion of privilege an odd place to go after the March For Our Lives.
Argue if you wish that this march was a demonstration of American privilege. But if that's so, it seems some Americans have more privilege than others. According to Marjory Stoneman Douglas student David Hogg, "My school is about 25 percent black, but the way we're covered doesn't reflect that." Which is why the laudable young adults from Parkland made a conscious effort to share the stage with a racially, ethnically and geographically diverse representation of their urban and suburban counterparts. They recognized and compensated for the reality that privilege is not equally distributed.
There are communities where gun violence is commonplace, but somehow the human toll generates less public outrage. (To draw a parallel, you need not be terribly perceptive to recognize that opioid addiction wasn't considered a public health crisis of its present enormity until it afflicted the suburbs.)
Further, I doubt that any of the participants on Saturday felt privileged to recount before the world how they lost friends, neighbors, teachers and loved ones to gun violence. If this march was intended to spark discussion, I highly doubt privilege was the intended topic.
257
Yes, not the "intended topic," but perhaps the artfully(?) subverted one -- not so unlike the false equivalence passing for public discourse these days.
I'm glad that our young people made a point of ensuring that this was an inclusive event. Black people are more likely to die young due to gun violence than any other demographic and it would have been easy to ignore this truth considering that school shootings are what prompted this march. But the organizers let everyone's voice be heard which is the exact opposite of the privilege we normally see in this country.
As our country changes and we're no longer a majority white nation perhaps we need to consider reexamining our definition of what it means to be an American. The romanticized version that Mr Brooks speaks about doesn't resonate with those who have been repressed by the majority. In order to become the best version of ourselves we must acknowledge our messy past.
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To have an American Creed "built around freedom, equality, opportunity and democracy", requires laws that protect that creed, and the enforcement of those laws.
Yet Mr. Brooks says that a key component of the creed and the American way is "resisting centralized power." No Mr. brooks, one doens't follow the other. Central power can make sure the people can live out the creed, free from oppression by the powerful, or the majority, or external forces.
That's why the main march was on Washington, to enact and enforce laws that protect the freedom of students to go to school without fear of slaughter.
Decentralization of power is a regular Republican meme, and for some issues it is the way to go. But please don't assume that it is always the right way.
These students are asking centralized power to act wisely and forcefully, as it should.
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"We didn't start the fire....."
I get why Brooks wants to call out the blame game and the psychodrama- it's a dig at what the right calls Social Justice Warriors, what used to be called crazy idealists.
Despite this backhanded put down of meaningful discussion about how institutions choose whom to serve and who to disdain- Brooks is on firmer ground admitting that when we focus on broad coalitions and voting out the too-comfortably paid off in our state and national capitals, winning is possible.
The creed he trumpets will not help us in recreating the ethical and moral infrastructure of government and civic life. That uplift can only be addressed if America once again is seen to value rules and restraint.
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The Privileged? Top One Percent,
Not difficult paying the Rent,
Can our Marchers sway
The bribing NRA
And the Congress all being bribed bent.
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How nice of you David to not tie 'privilege' to wealth. Its so reassuring to know that even poor people can be 'privileged', while still staying poor. Its soothing to think that there's no need to try to equalize or moderate extremes in wealth, that 'privilege' can be spread about generously while keeping all the wealth securely concentrated at the very very top. Thanks for the reassuring pat on my poor back.
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Excellent comment, Jim Brokaw.
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Great piece, David. I, too, find the constant assertions of "privilege" - "white privilege," "male privilege" - to be counterproductive.
I have always leaned liberal and voted as a Democrat. But over the last few years, I have been bombarded with messages that people like me - white males - must pay for the sins of our predecessors by checking our "privilege," giving up our seats at the table in favor of more "diverse" - i.e., anyone but us - voices, and foregoing opportunities based purely on our sex and race.
Frankly, I am sick of being blamed for things that I had no role in. And, no, I won't accept responsibility based on some guilt-by-association theory that would hold me accountable for the acts of others merely because we share certain immutable characteristics.
Democrats - I want to be your ally, but you don't appear to want me.
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If we could just hew to a true, equal rights for ALL philosophy, these tautologies would be moot. Apply the great leveling principal- equal rights. It’s worked in the past and would work now.
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I’m also a white male — the reality is, we’ve had a seat at the table since the creation of the country. No one is asking us to “give up” our seat, just that we make room. We’re only “guilty” if we don’t recognize the history and refuse to dismantle the oppression. There’s plenty to go around.
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Ah, yes, "identity politics". It may be extremely annoying to those that belong to an oppressed group, but it is necessary that they display greater nobility than their oppressors. This strategy has been very effective in the past - consider the examples of Mohandas K. Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jnr. and Nelson Mandela. Instead purveyors of identity politics want to institute sites of privilege for them, alongside the privilege members of dominant groups enjoy, to elevate numerous "chauvinisms" to respectability alongside the chauvinism some of dominant groups display and get away with - when instead they should seek to reduce if not destroy all injustice and all prejudice.
To wit: I agree with them that there is no such things as "reverse sexism" and "reverse racism", but I believe there is only "sexism" and "racism" period, whether demonstrated by those of a dominant group or a not dominant group. Two wrongs don't make a right. Two wrongs double the error. Ironically those that do not respect this logic, who belong to a disrespected "other", reveal their common base humanity with those that disrespect them. It may not seem fair, but it's necessary for them to rise up and to be better. Sanctimonious hypocrisy just courts and engenders reaction, and erodes sympathy.
I had the same observation at the March for Our Lives event in Kansas City. All ages, all races, people from all parts of the city. We do better when we work together for a common cause. Throwing the privilege label at someone is divisive. No one can truly know if another person is privileged until they have walked in another person’s shoes. Time and time again I’ve seen examples of people who only appear to have it all.
We need to be respectful of people as individuals. We can do this while also realizing that not every one is given the same opportunities and that we should strive to level the playing field.
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The "kids" event music that was presented was the tell tale giveaway in KC...it was a very narrow and adult approved demographic representation...not at all like wide tastes and styles that are typical of our high school populations. Yes, the voices were of the high school privileged.
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In response to Ned:
Your keen observations are narrowly interpreted based on your conservative shaped glasses. Or in other words it's ridiculous.
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It is incredible how more than half of our elected national legislature, most of whom come from the same party David Brooks supports, are opposed to these "sensible, practical, and moderate reforms." If one side can mobilize hundreds of thousands of people in support of common sense policy and the other half rejects their proposals out of hand, then only one side is extreme and gyrating out of control.
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Shared blame is a common theme with David.
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You are assuming that Republicans could not put together a march consisting of Americans who support and revere their Second Amendment rights -- with even MORE marchers and heck, more teenagers.
The left here is exploiting an awful tragedy, and giving police and FBI and the shooter's family all a "pass" for their appalling, incompetent, and enabling behaviors in letting that sociopathic murderer loose on the public.
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"Recently, it has seemed like the country is gyrating out of control, that extremism on one side is generating extremism on the other."
Herein is another rather typical "Brooks verbal slight of hand" -- another false equivalency dropped in, as it is, at the very start of today's piece to suggest that for all of the outrageous malfeasance by the President and his toady party, that equally at fault, and indeed guilty of similar behavior, there are Democrats and progressive who are just as guilty, just as worthy of disdain, just as deserving of our anger.
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So true. And in the words of my mother, just because the other kids are doing it doesn’t make it right. Republicans need to stop looking for justification of bad behavior by finding it in others. Doing the right thing should be how you guide your behavior, period.
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I disagree because I think you've misinterpreted what Brooks wrote. I don't believe Brooks was making an equal comparison between the quantity, vulgarity and immorality of both sides, a device that indeed some use to try to minimize the offensiveness of Trump and the Republicans.
I think that Brooks was noting what I feel and fight against every day, which is how to keep my resistance to Trump from spilling over into my own trap of self-righteous sanctimony.
The intensity with which we feel that everything Trump and the Republicans do is bad inexorably forces us into thinking and feeling that everything we do has to be good, if only to keep our emotional balance in the face of the Trumpian onslaught of destruction. This is the extremism that I believe Brooks was referring to, and while it may feel necessary and imperative at the moment, over the long-term it becomes no way to live, or govern.
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Thank you, James Landi. You are correct. It is a shame that Mr. Brooks can not see this.
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