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You have to read to build the mental tools you need to tell the truth from the lies.  Read lots of stuff from lots of sources.  Think about what you read... maybe even write a review.

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The Road to Character Analyzes Our Moral Ecology

1/2/2021

1 Comment

 
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The Road to Character (Random House, NY, 2015) by David Brooks is a powerful analysis of the prevailing ethos of American society. Brooks contends that Americans have shifted from a primary moral ecology founded on a vision of human fallibility, self discipline and eulogy virtues to one based on human potential, self actualization and 'Big Me' virtues. He explores this shift through profiles of Frances Perkins, Ida Stover Eisenhower and Dwight Eisenhower, Dorothy Day, George Marshall, A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, George Eliot, Augustine, Samuel Johnson and Michel de Montaigne.

According to Brooks, most people attribute this shift to the baby boomer generation durning the period of the 1960's. However, Brooks asserts it was actually the greatest generation who made the shift as a reaction to 16 years of suffering from the Great Depression and World War II. Brooks also correctly asserts that the shift has some merit, even as he asserts the importance of restoring some balance to our social vision of human nature and a life well-lived.

I like this book a lot. It is my favorite read of 2020. The contrast between the traditional moral ecology rooted in a vision of human frailty and one rooted in human potential seems to mirror the dichotomy between constrained and unconstrained visions in Thomas Sowell's classic work A Conflict of Visions (see my review of Conflict).

1 Comment
Terry Burden link
1/3/2021 11:28:39 am

Thanks for this, Steve! I am excited to read Brooks’ thoughts on this revealing path of analysis. The more we understand ourselves, even in the global sense, the greater chance we have of architecting a future and a society of which we can be proud.

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    Author of "Accountability Citizenship", Stephen P. Tryon is a former executive at e-tailer Overstock.com, a retired Soldier, and former Senate Fellow.

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