World On Fire: The Root Causes of Populism, Authoritarianism and The Whole Global Mess

[@danieldanchambliss8616]

Nice talk, but he passes right over the mass destruction of employment security that's occurred since the 1980s -- exportation of manufacturing, destruction of unions, mass layoffs in the early 90s, the rise of at-will employment, huge increase in income and wealth inequality, etc. The psychological, moral, and spiritual sickness that Brooks rightly sees didn't just come from nowhere. And lack of trust in others? It's totally reasonable given the life circumstances most people face today. And while it's good to be pleasant to folks on the subway, it won't change the basic problem.

[@UKAlanR]

Very true. In the past year or so I've moved the short distance from being just-about-OK financially to being kept awake at night wondering how to keep things together this week. Many of the props like some social life, which I'd typically rely on for a bit of spiritual happiness, disappeared quite quickly, and I knew the reality that those coping with unemployment cope with, often for years. I can see how a combination of lack of education, and of resources to understand their situation and remediate it, would resut in grabbing anything that looked like a political solution. Only when you have a little money to spare do you have material choices

[@mongoharry7765]

Yeah, when I saw the title of this talk I was half expecting that kind of analysis, but I didn't really think Brooks would deliver it. Throughout the history of the US, our government has been influenced by industrialists to support harsh governments throughout the world. The US received cheap raw materials which were turned into finished goods in our factories and sold in markets everywhere. American workers benefitted. Then the industrialists moved their businesses to Asia. Incidentally, a lot of the countries that suffered under this neocolonialism are now BRICS nations. Now, American is neither an industrial engine nor a source of abundant natural resources. Western Europe is in the same boat. We can't spend money we don't have. This is why Trump wants to "drill baby drill". And rights are expensive: whenever the government has to provide citizens with due process or drinking water, it's gotta foot the bill. So people are poorer and more discontented, and the situation is ripe for flag waving authoritarians. I learned this view forty years ago in college Sociology, reading Daniel Chirot's book "Social Change in the Twentieth Century".

[@Mr22thou]

Some Reagan Republicans haven't learned a thing. I heard a rumor the other day and a little research turned this up: David Brooks: "Yes, first, I should say I have been friends with Harlan Crow for about 20 years."

[@susan174]

I think he nailed it: we’ve got to fix this meritocracy. It’s not a detailed plan for each & every I have to grant that, bit it takes in all the systemic disadvantages cemented into place by the “haves”.

[@Anabee3]

1)There's not always time to address everything that needs repaired in our country, even if he wanted to. 2) There are different ppl who unpack different issues. I'm sure There's someone else with a platform who focuses on what YOU want to hear about. 3) You have the option to be that person.

[@tomknoll796]

He had me right up until the 'remedy' of people in the center and on the left needing some form of 'faith, family and flag'. He just got through telling us all about the lack of a sense of security among poorer people based upon horrible educational outcomes [graduation rates; obesity; shorter life-spans; higher divorce rates; etc.], but then never mentioned the fact that the 1950s and 60s spurred the growth of the greatest capitalist economy ever in the history of the world - but how? Through extremely high tax rates on the rich that funded, among other things, a public education system that was the envy of the world! Faith, family and flag are all good and well, but to make a substantive, material difference in the lives and prospects the poorest Americans, TAX THE F*CKING RICH!!!

[@akumasdeception]

That's why establishment types like him or Fareed Zakaria shouldn't be taken seriously. They're still living in the 1990s and are neoliberal idealouges.

[@AdamBechtol]

mmmm

[@venkatesanmurali4553]

100%!!! David is of the more dangerous variety of “conservatives” - they speak in uplifting prose which cloaks their fundamentalist agenda. The false equivalence he trots out about the Left & the Right has a direct path to the Right’s dismantling of our Constitution (which he professes to love).

[@robgronsky4466]

Both need to be done at the same time, the most powerful people in our society are narcacists or have narcacistic traits, they naturally steer the public to be like them. How do we tax them without choking off the fuel they run on given the power they wield? Its our ideal vs theirs, this is a war of ideology and ultimately like all wars belief. Call this a cold civil war if you will and its been occuring since the pandemic at least. This is only the beginning, governance doesnt shift in ideology quickly, it requires a lot of heart.

[@willardchi2571]

And not by raising their taxes by 2 percent. Make the highest income bracket 90% like it used to be when America was great.

[@ichifish]

I love David Brooks, although I don't often agree with him. The hole in his spirituality argument is that in non-religious countries, like Japan, where I live, society is more intact, extremism is low, and people have a more positive view of the future. Fewer than 15% of people regularly attend religious services here, and it's been this way since WWII. One key difference between the Japan and Nordic countries and the US is a strong social net (although it's eroding here). One factor that has affected everyone worldwide is the corporate takeover. You can't have a sense of moral order when the corporations that run our lives don't. Society no longer allows everyone to succeed; you have to embrace corporatism to succeed. When educators, farmers, and caregivers cannot live prosperous middle-class lives, society can't succeed.

[@buzoff4642]

I'm listening to the Japanese news, and they sound like they've a pack of trouble too. Their youth are leaving to Australia for living wage, their elderly abandoned. They're importing policies reflecting US' failures, you can officially abandoned the baby you can't afford, at fire stations. I agree, if the definition of acceptable rate of return is more than it was last quarter, then nothing is left on the table ... for those who actually do the work to produce that value. Worse, at the same time, set tax rates to best reward unearned income.

[@wildcat1419]

The US doesn’t have a decent minimum wage let alone sufficient social safety net. This is shame given the financial resources of the country.

[@aleejones7508]

Japan denies and hides their different population as well as Sweden does...That is such a myth. Often those different are treated with second class rights Look into Ainoko

[@rmal8683]

bunch of rich people purchasing politicians to bend rules that result in wealth inequality. then they complain that these lower resources people are losing sense of family; community etc. Low Resource Communities develop low trust for the sake of self preservation. High Resource Communities develop high trust for the sake of mutual preservation. At the end of the day, Its not about how parents need to teach their children differently. Its about giving parents the time to invest in their children. As long as billionaires, whip the lash of capitalism at the middle class and lower middle class workers, then survival and profitability becomes more important than values, familial bonds, community, etc. If you're working 2 jobs to make ends meet, what time do you have for "Community"?

[@jamesrichie3188]

I don't 100% agree with you. I think we have politicians THEMSELVES who are making rules that enable them to be "rich people". If we get scared over the middle class disappearing, then there are of course going to be people who want to jump ship into living with the high class. They would naturally want to move up by any means possible to avoid getting swallowed up by a shrinking middle. You wouldn't give a second thought to the long term effects of ANY of your "Make me a rich and powerful person right now" politics. You would just look around at the people who have already had it forever and say "I did it!". Odds are good most incredibly rich people are just as confused as the rest of us. If you've had money for 5-10 generations and have seen 3 or 4 governments rise and fail you would probably stop caring so much about politics. But if you were a greedy dirty rat that wants to play pretend that you are rich and powerful, you'll lie and cheat your way into a place where you write the rules.* *Some exclusions of course may apply. There's a real issue of extortion with the lower upper, upper middle. I think most billion, trillionaires are already too far from the core of the issue to know really whats going on. There is no incentive there.

[@nbultman_art]

Well said

[@robgronsky4466]

or one career at 80+ hrs a week. Even if you make hundreds of thousands a year you can be a victim of this.

[@leanordials8008]

What time do you have to raise your children?

[@themaskedman221]

What rules are they bending and what's the relationship to wealth inequality?

[@treefrog3349]

Why is it happening? Easy. Wealth = power. And power ensures further wealth. Noble, all-inclusive, "democratic" ideals continually fall by the wayside due to the specious rationalizations of oligarchs. Greed, is the underlying "Achilles heel" of the human species. As it has often been pointed out throughout global literature,"greed is blind". We, the human species, are dying from our own myopia.

[@janecalby1387]

Something like that-but not all humans are greedy or mean.

[@AlanCoffey]

Competitive free markets are the BEST antidote to our natural greed.

[@kreek22]

Your diagnosis is too easy, too reductive to be true. Ideology cannot be discounted. It's the substitute for religion in the modern world.

[@patrickvernon4766]

We have monopoly capitalism we don not have free markets

[@ribbrascal]

ok c0mm13

[@Brian-nt1hh]

Makes me sad hearing this. My wife and I traveled 7000 miles and 28 stops in this country, it made me happy, mostly because of considerate well meaning people. I say look for and accept stable decent folks. Then you’ll find fulfillment. Peace

[@slide6strings]

Follow the money. The bottom 90-99% have lost purchasing power and wealth for forty years. I believe that drives all the other symptoms.

[@EmbodyYourDivinity]

The

[@kreek22]

The bottom 90% also never get what they want politically. Who among them want open borders? Who wants fake free trade with China? Who wants anti-white racism everyplace? Who wanted to stay in Afghanistan for 20 years?

[@golfinguru11]

Piketty compiled a bunch of empires - each experienced similar stratification…each folded within a few generations. I hope he’s wrong but I’m not counting on it.

[@TimMountjoy-zy2fd]

Yep but that's the bottom 10% - so what. There have always been poor and always a bottom 10% but what he is talking about is the majority ie the 20-80% who sit in the middle between poor and wealthy. The middle class that have been the rock of democratic stability.

[@buzoff4642]

@@TimMountjoy-zy2fd No, it isn't the bottom 10%. You're not paying attention. The middle class is evaporating.

[@asbeautifulasasunset]

So far, not so good. Spiritual recession = loneliness People are using loneliness to get involved in politics. Wrong. 2008 - Wall Street screwed American people for years through fraudulent mortgages and then bailed themselves out by getting taxpayer-funded loans while throwing 3 million people out of their homes. That's not loneliness.

[@Stretesky]

This is a poorly assessed narrative, missing a ton, and misallocating.

[@rabinraj15]

Yet, it's the truth... Truth, oftentimes is bitter 😅 However, truth is vital for betterment 🙏🏽

[@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat]

The mortgages weren't "fraudulent", they were predatory. Americans took out loans they couldn't pay. Wall Street's crime was blocking the regulation of who was allowed to take out a mortgage so they could issue "NINJA" loans to "No Income, No Job Applicants." I graduated high school right before the 08 crisis. Seeing how recklessly my parents' generation and Gen X were playing with high interest debt at that time changed me. I didn't take out more than $500 in credit till I was about 30, and only then because I needed to build my credit score. I never carry a balance. Never took out student debt. And lived like a hermit for 10 years to save enough money to buy my home that's about 50% below what I could maximally afford just to be sure I could keep up with the payments.

[@scottfortune1014]

It's junk. Of course it's global. The US has been a global predator since WW2, using its global financial instruments to hollow out the Global South, threatening its peer competitors, poisoning its poor citizens' towns air, soil, water, practising debt slavery at home & abroad, and sending the planet to a 6th mass extinction. It's OK to be sad but be v. v. angry. The speaker's a deflector, a make-up artist.

[@DebraBashawPelsma-bg7rt]

Agree

[@ARIZJOE]

Liberals aren't the problem, David. It's the unbridled effects of the marketplace, which are much more encouraged by conservatives. Brooks talks of individualism and privatization of morality as a function of liberalism. People on the left trend towards collective action, regulation, and support for the state. Rugged individualism is a corollary of libertarianism, a right-wing philosophy. It's David's conservative friends who have failed - relying on the free market for everything - including morality. Also, no mention here of deindustrialization, and at same time the effects of climate change making things just very hard on all of western society. The means of production matter.

[@joyandrews3804]

I was told the market is more important than community. The market is about profit, not about people. It didn’t just affect the economy it’s affected how neighbours and friends and family treat each other. We were told by our government in the 1980s that individual responsibility was all important and too bad about anyone else. It was the beginning of a sense of hopelessness. We saw the wealthy get richer whilst the poor waited for the trickle down which never happened. In my opinion this is the reason why poor people in their desperation, have turned to politicians like Trump. They haven’t prospered under our prior political parties, so they turn to politicians who make empty promises. No wonder we are depressed! Now we are threatened with dictatorship.

[@valoriethechemist]

Thank you for tying the observations in politics, community and families, I believe correctly, to climate change. The philosophy which has lead us to this era is failing us... and we see it all over. I hope more people begin understanding that we've entered a new age where everything comes down to and is exacerbated and made more problematic by a dying biosphere in extreme flux.

[@ricardochavez8717]

It is multifactorial, he is presenting but one dimension... and a great one to have on the table... If education is the matter, then we also need to look at who and how public education was defunded... going back easily 30+ years... and how it is dependent of property taxes already putting people in poorer districts at a double disadvantage.

[@billturner2112]

when he was speaking of liberals, at least what i understood, was in the more historical context of free market liberalism - Libertarianism. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_liberalism. It is often confused with political liberalism in this country. In Europe, the context is clearer. I do believe he muddied the waters at times, however.

[@ARIZJOE]

@@billturner2112 Yes, I am an educated person, and I was confused by that. Brooks is looking at liberalism from philosophy. However, the confusion is intentional on his part. He wants to put the blame on progressive Democratic liberals. And to distract from the ill-conceived ideas of Conservative Reagan Republicans, of whom David Brooks was solidy behind.

[@ichifish]

So even though the most religious are the most populist, nationalistic, and authoritarian, the cure is to embrace faith?

[@penandsword4386]

I think this talk is is just conservativism in popular /academic clothing- -

[@Inthemeanwhile]

Oh you will find faith, and religion. The question is, will it be in The Party, or in spirit world. Many choose God, many deny God, and put party loyalty above all logic, and reason. That is faith, some people believe in Fauci, some in Jesus.

[@penandsword4386]

@@Inthemeanwhile Yeah, yeah, Jesus. You're the winner, you got the magic word (Oy.)

[@sandal_thong8631]

The definition of faith is believing in something for which there is little to no evidence. He may as well have said that we need prayer in school. But of course they don't mean teacher leading Catholic prayers to the Virgin Mary, let alone a Muslim prayer, or pagan-Hindu prayers.

[@carolgirl29]

So people are lonely and depressed and look to a 'strong man' to solve their problems? Not me, I solve my own problems.

[@buzoff4642]

Your typed comment made it to google's server, due to my work, and thousands of others. Hermits solve their own problems. The rest of us are co-dependent.

[@carlyar5281]

Wow, he is completely missing the fact that the perception that the world is falling apart is not unique and new in most of the world. American exceptionalism never existed. What has existed for the last 80 years was a myth that only Americans held onto which is that they were exceptional. The trend around the world towards populism and authoritarianism is not surprising, and it’s not because of “liberal values”. So many examples he gives are not liberal democracies. What he fails to acknowledge is that it’s harder to create and sustain a democracy that it is to fall under authoritarian rule. 100 years ago, the same concerns about the downfall society and loss of morals and the degradation of the family, etc etc led to the rise of populism. Some of that populism had a socialist flare, but a lot of it also had an authoritarian. The most successful populist movements had socialist ideals, but worst spearheaded by authoritarians. This is why most Americans mistakenly conflate authoritarianism with communism. Right wing authoritarians and fascist never had the real support of their people and they rely solely on brute force and coercion rather than appealing to ideals, even if those ideals are never actually enacted. The reason why it takes roughly 100 years for the echos of history to come around is because it needs three generations and all firsthand memories to disappear. When he talked about the woman he interviewed in Russia, she was 93. That was in the mid 1990s. She saw Russia go through many changes and government always ending back with authoritarians. She would not have been alive when Putin made his deal with the Russian people that has led to his authoritarian rule for the last nearly 20 years. The people alive today remember communism, and they learn romanticize history of Russia before communism, but as Putin eroded Russian democracy in its infancy 20 years ago no one who remembered pre-communist Russian life was still alive to sound the alarms. Stop listening to political or theoretical commenters. Look at history. Never has a strong man ever acted in the best interest a nations population. But authoritarians use populism as a solution for everything that ails. They talk big, but they appeal to emotions, and will vilify logic, reason and “an intellectuals”.

[@AdamBechtol]

Mmmm

[@E-Liza-sg3ty]

I agree that humans have a tendency to romanticize the past instead of seeing the reality;that is one of the reasons why we have a hard time learning from our past.

[@buzoff4642]

No one hears their justified fury. Authoritarians, often air their own frustration, which attracts those who's demise is being ignored.

[@devirama1]

Having given up on American urban life, I have retired with my son's family in a small mountain town. Here in the northern Philippines, the indigenous people allow no one to own property except those who are born here. No one is homeless, most are religious, all are involved in the community, giving what they can when need arises for any of their people. Children are valued, elders like myself are taken care of by family, nature is treasured. I've come to believe that most of the world's troubles are caused by the rise of bloated cities where status, power, and money are thought to be "values." My son is a well-educated, privileged white man who gave up the prosperity religion for a simple life when he joined the Peace Corps and fell in love with the Filipino people. He married a native woman, raised four children, loves to cook, and enjoys his life. Americans who grow up in rural and small town circumstances know very well that their way of life is dying. They value it and go about protecting it in desperate, foolish ways. If Democrats could reach them with educational and social programs that honor traditional ways of life, they wouldn't fall for Trump and his bogus populism.

[@andyw8095]

Thank you…

[@feedtherich11]

Religion is the cause of all evil.

[@William.Driscoll]

❤❤

[@createone100]

Well said.

[@kp6215]

You are correct and I would love with you but my life was destroyed in 🇺🇸 because of incompetent medical care and chauvinistic system that still exists in 2024.

[@jonwesick2844]

By David's definition, I'm an educated elite. I spent 10 years in college to get a Ph.D. in physics but I've never owned a home and have suffered lots of unemployment. I patched things together and made it to retirement but I don't feel like I did better than my parents.

[@jdcharlwood]

Me too! 3 years unemployed and 2 years working without pay (used the time to read a large number of books from the ancients to the moderns). No house car etc and at 75 still looking for work. Considered a 'legend' in my field (malaria research) - traveled the world and so know that most people on this wonderful planet have it much worse than I do.

[@jcg5541]

You’re not the type of educated elite David Brook is speaking of, unless you think you are a superior human because of your education, hence the term “elite”. It sounds like you are serving humanity, not lording over those less educated than you.

[@kreek22]

Overproduction of elites is a problem. Mostly, this is because some of these people end up with miscalibrated expectations about their professional prospects. Even people with garbage Ph.D.'s in fields like sociology think they're too good to do things like teach high school. I know two physics Ph.D.s who were more practical and did well in software for most of their careers.

[@jonwesick2844]

@@kreek22 Fair enough but if they can't get a job because of overproduction, they're not elites.

[@kreek22]

@@jonwesick2844 Maybe, although it's a situation that reminds me of the many cases of aristocrats in "reduced circumstances" that one finds in European history. They were still deemed, tenuously, elite due to their titles. Degrees today are somewhat akin to titles of nobility. Certainly, people with advanced degrees, but limited wealth often think of themselves as elite socially, politically, intellectually.

[@kaskinkead6476]

Thank you David! Your thoughtfulness and vision give me hope

[@chickenfishhybrid44]

On the subject of diversity, i think people need to start with admitting or accepting that it is harder and takes effort. For years now people have been gaslit into the idea it makes no different or been pressured into not talking about things like that at all.

[@ER1CwC]

I think the problem is that we too often talk about diversity but not disagreement. Being able to negotiate diversity ultimately requires the ability to work through disagreements. But too often diversity is seen as a position rather than a practice. So those who are allegedly in favour of diversity condemn those who are allegedly against it as bigoted, while those who are against it react defensively and/or decry those who are in favour of it as unpatriotic, woke, etc.. No one is listening to each other.

[@ER1CwC]

@@cfick Bowling Alone focuses primarily on voluntary associations. Brooks talks a lot about involuntary associations like the family here, so the focus is different. Ultimately, he is more small-c conservative than Putnam. Also, Bowling Alone is 25 years old and hackneyed by this point.

[@cfick]

@@ER1CwC "hackneyed"...lol... David Brooks is hackneyed and shallow. Obviously the complete atomization of American society is the problem. Research shows that the more a culture lacks commonality the more all of these parade of horribles become more likely, at every level up to and including life expectancy.

[@ER1CwC]

@@cfick He is against right wing populism because he is not racist, xenophobic, and authoritarian. But I think what he would say is that diversity was promoted alongside meritocracy, and that the problem lies in meritocracy. It breeds a certain sense of entitlement and either paternalism or condescension towards those who don’t win the rat race. He has been writing about this theme since his essay The Organization Kid.

[@tatersinger]

I think there's just not enough time to cover it all. But, it gets us talking about "bowling alone." ​@@cfick

[@majozishow]

I enjoyed this, very much.

[@indiebaby]

It's hard to be optimistic when it's so expensive to... i dunno.... JUST EXIST. I don't believe it's really as complicated as rich people are pretending it is because they don't want to pay their fair share of taxes.

[@wlms5293]

Once again David Brooks exceeds my high regards in “World on Fire” at the Aspen Institute. After 2+ decades, his diligent journalism & inspirational commentary should no longer surprise me, but I’m delighted it does.

[@todddowning5820]

This talk did not go where I expected it to go. Kindness, compassion, generosity without expectation of something in return are all spiritual acts. I think you are spot on in stating that we are collectively suffer from a lack of spirituality.

[@brokenrecord3523]

What do you mean by "spirituality?" I don't have a real good handle on that concept.

[@patriciarutley1393]

Kindness, compassion and generosity are also traits of moral humanism.

[@user-ti3vp9mt3z]

I think its existencial fear that isolates us and then results in lonliness. One example - Fear of getting sick or in an accudent, then falling into financial abyss. Another- Fear of getting fired under At Will Employment. Another - Fear of police and the surveillance securtity state. People have to feel safe, but the monopolized, corporatized brutal economy twists our culture and interpersonal trust. I agree we are devolving into a cast society. A lovely discourse David.

[@戏曲频道]

17min in, is he saying there is no real problem except our psychological problem? ..........ok, I finished the whole lecture, and did some research on the guy, he supported Iraq war, he is the reason for all the problems in the world, and he has the audacity to come out and preach.

[@deepattison9329]

The Iraq war was about oil and money.

[@penandsword4386]

it would seem this talk may be conservativism in popular /academic clothing.

[@PabloEColorado]

the Iraq war was by every definition a war crime. Bush, Cheney. What a travesty. what useless loss of human life. They spent trillions of dollars on destruction. Now we need drives so that kids will have pencils and paper in school.

[@jaymacpherson8167]

David’s story after 51:00 is one of exercising community. In community we are at our best. I thank M. Scott Peck for teaching me this lesson.

[@bill8985]

Could not watch much of this. Brooks is generally a great speaker - but this talk is simply pathetic and does not get to "root causes." What was he thinking? Holey Moley. To the coordinators of this fancy Aspen Institute event, give Brooks a few years off before he is invited to present again. He needs time to reconsider how he wants to present his ideas and analysis.

[@kathleenwebster7697]

David Brooks the depth, breadth, humor, humility and humanity of this is profoundly reassuring and appropriately challenging..

[@maxheadrom3088]

He's also a great lier ....

[@sharoncrayton9062]

😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

[@831Miranda]

David has been the best the conservative-capitalist movement has had to offer. But in this talk he demonstrates a blind spot: economic inequality! Governments MUST mediate (at least) Capitalism.

[@breffnymadden3328]

@@maxheadrom3088 Why is he a great liar?

[@buzoff4642]

@@breffnymadden3328 He's not so much a liar as grappling with his own blind spots. Do his fiscal incentives for collaborative efforts solve class divisions? As in, who would be attracted with fiscal incentives? Certainly not the coddled offspring of the well off. He speaks of covenant, yet lost his first family by putting his career first. He speaks of class advantage, but falsely attributes it to merit. Industry's fully engaged in classism. Entire buildings are dedicated to stratifying, via one type of employee: management, engineering, production offshore, with janitorial "subcontracted", who're 100% hispanic, working out of sight of their day workers.

[@maxheadrom3088]

8:58 I'll tell you something that may surprise you: Americans were never outliers - no group of humans were ever outliers, btw. It's not that you "aren't anymore" - you never were.

[@carlyar5281]

Shhhhh! Americans, don’t want to hear that the myth of American exceptionalism was just that, a myth!

[@tetianavarvynska2125]

Liberalism is not bad per se, but liberalism married to capitalism is. The most dangerous liberalism was when we as western countries, as western societies said that growing the margin of profitability for the few business owners was more important than the sustainability of our communities and we took our blue collar work to countries with cheap labour. We put those workers out of money and families out of balance. Having a family and taking care of children is now something that is hard to afford for most. Most young people cant afford their own housing. Young people starting a family are supposed to work as if they dont have any kids and raise kids as if they don't have a job. Childcare is costly and right out puts young families at the threshold of barely making the ends meet. Is this really an issue of liberalism, or maybe it does have a lot more to do with the fact that money remains the only true value in the western societies? How do we treat the poor and the disadvantaged, are they equal members of the society? Do marginalised families have a fair access to healthcare and education for their kids? What about the minimum wage, is it livable, can one who does unqualified labor have a decent living situation? So is this really liberalism, you think?

[@DanFeldmanAgileProjectManager]

Liberalism is the good cop of capitalism while fascism is the bad cop. Neither liberalism nor fascism can exist without capital accumulation, wage exploitation, biophysical extraction, and colonial imperialism.

[@ethanadkins5638]

I don't think that's the problem. The problem is liberalism and capitalism are chewing up the things that bind us together and make us whole.

[@pauldandurandboots]

That's called neoliberalism, not liberalism. Most of the concerns David pointed out with the "individualization" from "liberalism" is more inline with neoliberalism. Neoliberalism stands for a much smaller role in the government and believes that government and community support gets in the way of the free market. They believe that true unregulated capitalism and the focus on the individual is the natural order for an self growing society. If David would have used the word neoliberalism instead of liberalism, then I believe he would have been more spot on.

[@NotIdefix]

Brooks defines "liberalism" as the ability to make individualistic choices but he fails to see the historical transition of WHY we make these choices we used to make these choices with the benefit of our family/community/country in mind we then changed to make choices based on more and more individualistic, selfish reasons but now we make decisions out of spite.....to purposefully hurt others......even if it is to our own detriment that's why things are so bad

[@davidrobertson9271]

I’m now a resident of Denmark because of Brexit. Skandinavian social democracy is the way!

[@paulm6059]

It has always bothered me that the right gets to claim the U.S. flag.

[@lizmarron3999]

You have this exactly right and accurate. It’s a global issue now, and what’s frightening is how many of us have our heads in 2:13 The sand!!!! Thank you David Brooks for this excellent lecture.

[@mariondean8499]

Personally I think a lot of people get fired because of incompetent managers. I disagree with him there.

[@edwardboe7290]

The a-holes that aren't fired become bosses.

[@gregggordon7798]

@@edwardboe7290 That's what I was going to say.

[@kiwitrainguy]

The (ex)-employees of Sears would agree with you.

[@sandal_thong8631]

There's a saying that you get promoted to your level of incompetence. That is, you may be doing your job well, but your skill set might not be suited for the next position. After which you stop getting promoted. So in a really big company, over time they become filled with incompetents. Not sure if I agree with the Dilbert principle's version where they promote bad engineers to management to get them away from the people they need to do the work.

[@ronkrate609]

These troubles would be much improved if he bottom 80% had twice their present income.

[@awuma]

I wonder if that is true. I well remember visiting Communist Poland over 50 years ago and comparing poor areas of Poland with poor areas in North America. People in Poland were materially much poorer than, say, those in the "slums" of America where many had cars and other seeming luxuries, but it was perfectly safe to walk in the streets at night in Poland but not so in America. The highly educated were often just as poor as the uneducated, and there was a lot of political resentment at the authoritarian parvenus running the country, but people were not demoralised, and the level of culture was very high. Culture is at least as important as wealth or poverty. Social cohesion is very important.

[@franjkav]

@@awumanothing about what you’re describing indicates social cohesion is particularly important.

[@buzoff4642]

@@awuma Stability matters. People would tune their lives to their income, if income and outgoing were stable. Did you know min wage for tipped labor is $2.13 an hour, and has been for 30 years? Do tell who could live off of that. Who's purpose it serves? Yes, street crime rises, in proportion to crime levels on Wall St. Then there's the instability of boom/bust cycles of those banking scams busting down the middle class. Buy a house, lose the house. Win/win for Wall St.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Maybe there was something to take away from his drivel. And that is the turning point may have occurred during the '07 housing crisis and Great Recession. Some people had homes underwater, whether from buying them with variable rate mortgages they didn't understand or getting home improvement loans they couldn't pay back. Certainly a hit to the belief in home ownership was a major shakeup to the American Dream. Though I don't think Brooks went into all that; he just mentioned the timing.

[@buzoff4642]

@@sandal_thong8631 2008 was preceded by late 1980s housing/bank scam bust, and then 2001 housing/bank scam bust. 2008 was notable only in scale, globalized. And every one of them, habituated US public to bailouts. Aka corporate welfare, now on global scale. And, now during non-bust times. The recent giveaways by US gov to stoke industry included foreign owned companies. Lose/lose for US public.

[@AH-ml4vi]

Here in UK Labour achieved huge victory over the (centre) right party of the Conservatives. The far right party Reform got just 4 seats despite its leader Farage getting way more attention in the press than he deserved, more attention than Liberals who got 71 seats, more attention than Greens who got the same number of seats, 4. What conclusions: People want change and Conservatives had been in power for 14 years so Labour is considered a change. Different to USA whereby Republicans/Democrat parties have switched in/out of power and until Trump where viewed as a uni-party. With the gap between rich and poor increasing this labelled both parties as failures for the majority. 2. Why are candidates like Farage getting all the attention. Whose interest is it to bring Farage like characters to the front. Raise money to solve housing crisis, fix roads, improve public healthcare all the things that affect and improve the lives of the majority. The feeling at the moment is that parties favour the wealthy only.

[@chrisinnis270]

If the UK had proportional representation, the allocation of seats would have been very different!

[@fsaldan1]

Total absolute baloney. Labor only got 33% of the vote. Their "victory" was due to the right splitting into two.

[@buzoff4642]

"parties favour the wealthy only" That's not a feeling, that's a reality. In UK, US, EU, Australia, Japan.

[@kiwitrainguy]

Of course Farage being Farage, if Reform got in to power and failed to fix the housing, roads, healthcare, education, etc, he would blame it all on immigrants and the UK would see even more riots and the burning of mosques.

[@bretolpp7680]

Grace under pressure is something I work to expect from myself. To explore from a secure space, this makes perfect sense. To have compassion to your fellow individuals; and if I might add,honesty when no one is looking is what all need to stive for. James Baldwin is a great example of taking the "High Road". Thank you for the talk!

[@uncleshamus3451]

Bs

[@BradleyLayton]

Great closing. After watching Trump get creamed in his Trump University deposition, I can just envision Donnie as a boy getting berated by his father. I also see a lot of Trump's followers also a people who were mistreated or ostracized as children or young adults who now see Trump as their means of "getting even." Time to show compassion rather than derision and to pull ourselves together to solve looming issues that affect us all.

[@AnnGastle]

So accurate!!!!! ✅️

[@aaronclifton9905]

I’d be interested to see as far as the rise of social media and mainstream media with the shifting of “truth” to subjective rather than objective mixed with emotional states of fear perpetuating everyday life and future. What does what we consume play into our ability to see the “otherness” of other people? How does “my” right reflect in “others” right. Who hold the keys to truth?

[@buzoff4642]

The public's been fed a steady diet of half truths. Literally, half truths, from both sides of the aisle. I discovered that, with Romney's "46% pay no taxes". I went and found that report, true, 46% pay no taxes. Whole truth: 45% are elderly in poverty and students who only work 13 weeks a year. The other remaining 1% are _the_ 1%. Whole Truth Matters "others" are those who interfere with the functioning of community and culture. We've had immigrants coming for as long as we've been alive. Now, as has been the case historically, the public rises to furious, when importing a worker glut to deliberately displace citizens at work. Chinese Exclusion Act was born from wholesale layoffs of citizens, to replace them with Chinese workers. Much as is occurring now. Whole Truth Matters

[@SteveBrant55]

I enjoyed watching this a lot. And I have not been a fan of David's past PBS Newshour appearances when he was a "Trump apologist" (saying "That's just Trump being Trump" back in the day). I can tell he know knows Trump is part of an existential threat to democracy (showing he is capable of learning new things)... and I really appreciate all he says here about the root causes of the crisis we are in here in America.

[@wildmouse5888]

After the 2016 election, Brooks went on a tour of the Midwest to see where he went wrong. It is obvious that he didn't learn a thing.

[@Matt-fs1yy]

Social media created ALL of this. I remember life without it. Life without social media was better than today.

[@NotIdefix]

social media derives income from outrage.....and mainstream media has followed suit to try and compete so no wonder that people are "sadder and meaner"

[@dontdoit6986]

Social Media amplifies negativity for people who are on social media, but life was not unicorns and rainbows before social media. I think we tread dangerously close to making excuses for political and business leaders when we cast blame on social media.

[@buzoff4642]

@@NotIdefix True. I noticed 25 years back a hierarchy of civility level, based on communication type. Best behavior in person. Next down the list was on the phone. Last was email, often people don't response at all. The unaccountable anonymity of online brings out the worst, in the worst. But, I do hear, on the political thread, it is 9% (Far Left/Far Right) generating all the hostility and noise. While the rest of us are assumed by them to be one of the two.

[@buzoff4642]

@@dontdoit6986 Look under the hood, of Far Left/Far Right. Who benefits? I come to the same conclusion as you, politicians and business leaders.

[@kiwitrainguy]

@@NotIdefix Mainstream media hasn't followed social media, if anything it's been the other way round. News programmes started to go for sensationalism starting about the time of the Vietnam war (although to look at the news programmes from those days you wouldn't say that it existed but that just shows how bad this has become). Come to think of it, sensationalism started with print media back in the 19th century.

[@jaggillar6680]

David Brooks at Aspen. What could be more predictable?

[@ursulacook9883]

So wonderful to hear someone state all that! So sad that so many people won't hear or listen!

[@Servant_of_1111]

Thank you for providing clarity on these issues! Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸Internal independence fosters external responsibility, which leads to true freedom! 🙏

[@ZainKhan-sm8gr]

Loved you comment! Also found your "I had a dream" video really insightful and artistically curated :) Happy independence 🇺🇸 and prayers for your loss ❤

[@Servant_of_1111]

@@ZainKhan-sm8gr ~ Thank you very much! I had goose pimples reading your touching comment about “I had a dream video” on my KZbin channel. Didn’t think anyone would react to it. 💐🥰🙏

[@831Miranda]

David has always been a consertative. His blind spot seems to be the devastating effects of economic inequality. He admits the US is a caste😢 system today, but falls short of admiting that this is at the root of the instability and profoundly destructve stress on families! The neo-conservatives eroded to almost nothing the social pact of 'raising all boats' , of having a social safety net in times of crises, of protecting the weak, and nurturing the potential of those in poverty (both parties are guilty...there is no left in the US). When the majority is deeply insecure and afraid, how can we have hope and trust?

[@quackslikeaduck]

His other blind spot is the appearance of the front of his pants.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Not a fan of this guy. I'm always looking to see if he's two-faced on the Newshour. The title was a good one, that I'd put in my "watch later" list, but I groaned when I saw that it was David Brooks' views. Nothing much to take away from his opinions here.

[@hopebless4697]

Defiant humanism. Leave it to James Baldwin and David Brooks! Yes, yes, yes!

[@swaggboymcgee210]

Gassing up "liberal democracy" at this point is honestly comical. Minimal mention of capitalism makes this totally unserious.

[@sandal_thong8631]

The capitalists don't really believe in capitalism. They believe in monopolies and oligopolies and government bailouts. And perhaps not even in profit per se, but rather increasing profit each year.

[@Zkbbkzzz]

The statements about education and wealth does not ring true to me, although I do believe it’s true for the very rich. My parents born in the depression, grew up illiterate in cotton fields. Their generation were able to earn a living without an education. They were able to retire with a pension so they didn’t have to rely solely on SS. Their generation and the baby boomers could move into middle class and beyond without education. What changed is corporate greed and trickle down economics. Being educated became known as going into debt and so many of those folks also worked in the same jobs as uneducated folks. Today having a college education means being poor, in debt and being poorly educated.

[@wlms5293]

“Trickle Down” economics is sorta like “Pissing up a Rope” & please excuse my crass smiley to history’s past/present/ ??future??

[@buzoff4642]

I remember as a kid, waitresses being able to afford an apartment. Today, their takehome pays don't even take them home. Min wage is $2.13 an hour for tipped workers, for 30 years now.

[@larrybaisden6648]

Wow~! Very insightful. Thank you David, and thank you Aspen Institute.

[@fredgarvinMP]

Pure garbage. Stay in your elite lane, Brooks.

[@fromeveryting29]

This is, frankly, a horribly arrogant and extremely poor analysis. It’s not that a mystical «spiritual decline» has gripped the world and made us lonely and spiteful, and THEN becoming politically polarized. That assumption is not at all justified, on the contrary. It’s the economic conditions, and that is so extremely painfully obvious in both the data and the academic work of philosophers, historians, economists and psychologists. We live in a system that requires exploitation of the many for profit. That is how capitalism works. The system isn’t evil, but it encourages anti-social, individualistic and consumer-centered lifestyles. That’s why people feel lonely. That’s why people feel alienated from each other. That’s why the environment is going to shits and young people dread the future of more economic inequality (powerty) and a detoriorating environment. Or, others, get radicalized into wanting to BE the ones who exploit and «win» the economic system, and inedvertedly end up perpetuating the issues. It’s a matter of adressing the faults in our economic and political systems to stop the endless exploitation of those faults. We have economic elites who control politics for their own gain, making themselves richer and richer and the rest poorer and poorer, and fascism as an ideological deflection they use. Pointing to «the degenerates» and «immigrants» as the real problem, and not the economic system that empowers their anti-democratic abuse. The right is going full force into authoritarian fascism, claiming they stand for «freedom» (to abuse, dominate and exploit), whil oppressing every decent and minority. The solution IS to «join a team». The solution is to resist the urge to sit isolated in outrage, and to empower ourselves together to fight back against the ones who abuse democracy and exploit us. We can do that in organizations, unions, voting and activism.

[@kenjmyer]

Excellent analysis! Look at the top five happiest countries then see where they focus their resources. These are not countries that have a strong commitment to religious institutions. He might do better starting from existential evaluation.

[@gregmckenzie4315]

I'm not sure about how useful generalizations are right now. Our global assortment of governments and "civilizations" are obviously not doing what is needed to preserve our place near the top of the food chain. This is an historic time right now and all of us may need to prepare for changes we are unable to predict, and that many won't believe that they can survive. Life is short. It has to be. That is how we evolve. This is the time when we can make the most useful changes if we work together. Some people are frightened. But this is our best opportunity. If we stand up for the challenge...nothing else really matters. Get to know your neighbors. When the system collapses your neighbors will be your community. Our species is very resilient and pretty clever. But can we be clever enough? Right now our species, with our pollution, wars, chemical agriculture, nuclear waste and other great inventions like motorhomes, cheese popcorn, plastic straws, and bungie jumping...I have to admit that we really may be, the stupidest creature that have ever walked the Earth. It does not seem that our brains are up to the challenge of climate change. Perhaps we should open our hearts. We will all die. That's how it's always been. But each of us has a chance, during this critical moment, to perform wonders and to work miracles. That is also how it's always been.

[@briboker]

This was agreat lecture but as a Republican, he's missing the decimation of unions (stagnation of wages) and corporate neoliberalism (from free or almost free public higher education to costly corporate funded education) which are certainly major causes not addressed.

[@buzoff4642]

Yes, the elephant in the room. But then, the Aspen forum is about digestible speeches for the wealthy.

[@cheersmodreams691]

David Brooks has a talent for stating great insights succinctly in short rapid-fire pieces of wisdom. I feel a need to digest and memorize all of them. If I succeed, I will be a better person and those around me will benefit. I'm 74 so I better get on with it.

[@kmick8108]

🙄

[@chewings1]

🎉❤

[@paulsturgul5829]

"I hate quotations." [Emerson]

[@kevincollins133]

Amen brother.

[@jess7150]

Our society will rot without a strong middle class. That means corporations have to stop funneling the super majority of profits to a few at the top. Full stop. Nothing else matters if this is not addressed. while it is needed, no amount of generalized morality can fix this.

[@garyowen3662]

Great lecture. The name is John Bowlby. He worked on Attachment Theory with Mary Ainsworth of State Univ. of NY, Stony Brook. Great stuff.

[@adelevet]

Secure the family, secure the flag, secure the faith? I hope there are additional pathways to securing individuals’ foundations

[@aaa777aaa]

Internet and social media: seeing limitless options, also different values to choose from, confusion... And russian covert malign meddling in social media, amplifying social divides.

[@kreek22]

The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!

[@danetcherry]

15:08 "it's not clear why this happening" - Jonathan Haidt has a pretty good idea about why that is happening, and Anna Lembke as well. + Social media is either a bubble or hatred. but mother of all ailments is the fact that big corporations don't pay their taxes, and that's global. No money to make society a place of justice, fosters individualism and to each their own.

[@buzoff4642]

Love your succinctness.

[@AgeLessAcademy77]

David is such a rational voice...and worth a careful listen ESPECIALLY by trumpets who are mean & sad.... Not good!!!

[@AgeLessAcademy77]

By "trumpets", that is

[@AgeLessAcademy77]

"trumpers", that truly is.

[@DK-ys2cw]

Wow, just wow. I have listened to David on PBS in short snippets. This is another level.

[@ribbrascal]

Yes, another level of incoherence, cowardice and nervousness.

[@buzoff4642]

@@ribbrascal He's uphill on his learning curve, a hill of what's currently derisively called privilege. He's trying, which is far more than others are attempting...

[@bpw8139]

He states how you do in school and how you do in life are not correlated. I believe that to be incorrect. Generally people who do well in school do better in life. People who do well in school have an increased chance of going to University and getting a degree and then getting a reasonably well paying job. The correlation is not perfect, but generally those that do better in school do better in life. He states there is no correlation.

[@TimMountjoy-zy2fd]

Nope. Listen again you have mis heard him. He actually agrees with you. He says that educated people ensure their kids go to school, get educated, he kids have their education valued and then from doing well at school they go onto to do well in life. School matters but he notes the difference in backgrounds between those who do well at school and those who don't.

[@buzoff4642]

That's fading away. Industry's veering cheapest labor/cheapest quality.

[@mrjvc]

Beautiful and profound, thanks

[@heatherdaley1650]

This was a profoundly lazy and empty presentation. What a bunch of vague garbage. It is profoundly disrespectful to say that the problem with poor people is lack of education and community.

[@LoSGatoS-pe9hk]

I promise you Mr. David brook that i will shout how great you are as voice of hope! Thanks for the tremendous inspiration and knowledge you dropped on us ❤

[@bertnijhof5413]

Humbug, the problem is not a lack of relations. meaning or privatization of values. The privatization of values is only affordable for the millionaires and their greed has to be taxed so high (Eisenhower times 92%), that greed becomes useless. The problem is that 30% to 50% of all people feel poor, because they are poor, it is that simple. Most people are right to be angry, they don't see a solution, so they are looking for a messias. We admire Elon Musk (rich and ruthless) more than Florence Nightingale (good and helping). In Europe the 3 big countries are run by Socialists now :) :) In the past the socialists in Europe have organized Social Security and they have taxed the rich to help the poor. They got confused after Thatcher/Reagan and disappointed their voters and lost them completely. So the voters were looking for a messias; like Orban; Meloni; Wilders; Maria Le Pen; Boris Johnsons (Brexit). The tide is turning. The UK election is won by Labour, The French election the largest party are the Socialists. Germany and Spain are run by a socialists. The second party in the Netherlands are the Socialists again. After the messias Wilders fails, because he produces no solutions only noise, the socialists will win the next election again.

[@djwurst2616]

One of the main problems is that people have made government their God. We want government to solve all of our problems, give us everything, absolve us for taking any responsibility for our own decisions and our own lives, and that does not work. Government has tried to do that and now the whole world is in such a huge debt trap that it is going to change all of our lives at some point, and not for the better. People forget that whoever pays the bills gets to make the rules and make the decisions, so there goes your freedom in the end. That is why history is so important because it's happened over and over and over, but everybody thinks oh wow this never happened before. Not sure what we can do now to fix it, but I would guess the first thing we should do is stop digging the hole deeper. Probably not going to happen.

[@rickbroderick9146]

Who is digging the hole deeper? Seriously.. where are the trillions going? And who are the ones spending the actual proportionate bulk of the bill. I spent 35 yrs as an RN, Devoted to my work in critical care and emergency care.My kid had severe mental health issues uncovered by that "overtaxed government' you mention, and the bulk of my income went into 30 years of out of pocket uncovered health care. While paying my taxes. Finally pretty much done, but retired with zero pension afforded to a frivolous career saving human life. Empathy is the key mate.

[@sandal_thong8631]

The Libertarian philosophy is "shut down the government and smoke 'em if you got 'em." They didn't have answers to what they would do during COVID other than "um...." The Republican philosophy is "government programs must support big business and the rich or be shut down." Obviously I reject both ideas.

[@careerecology]

I am not in agreement with David Brook's take. From deep contemplations and research, I see the core issue being patriarchy. Human beings for the vast majority of our species development were prey animals. Once we moved to predator and then to apex predator, we went mad. Killing seemed to appease the human psyche's fear of death. When we look at lions, they hold the position of steward in their ecosystems - not apex predator. They are balanced and in harmony with their environment. Humans, on the other hand, create blood rites and wars, racism and misogyny to appease fear of dying. It is time in human evolution to finally move away from patriarchy and into mutual stewardship. It's not natural for men to rule the world. To do this, our culture severs men's access to their compassionate hearts. It forces men away from their holistic selves. Our boys are dying and killing from this lack of wholeness. I often run the thought experiment of imagining a world where women and men participate in decision making, equally. A world where radical diversity was embraced, not feared. Patriarchy is wrong and unnatural - and it erodes society because society becomes bereft of feelings and compassion. Leadership is key in complex social systems, yes, but it thrives in systems like wolf packs (where a female and male wolf share the helm). David Brooks fails to recognize the fundament truth that women have been suppressed through the rise of modern culture and as a result, so has compassion. The rise of right wing populism is connected to despair being hijacked by power brokers desperate to keep patriarchy alive (just ask Steve Bannon . . he's fighting like hell to juice it). But divine love will not sustain systems based on fear and loathing. Notice how all the people David Brooks quotes are men - no women. The age before us is "the great compassion". It's time to call on women to help heal society. Rwanda did it this way. We need to as well . . .

[@williamhinchcliff6290]

The rise of social media matches the symptoms and statistics David talks about. This new form of information distribution mirrors what happened with the rise of radio; spread of disinformation and the coalescence of populism/authoritarianism.

[@ttomgast1769]

David Brooks is disingenuous at best . Always has been . Always will be .

[@jcg5541]

The greatest trait of human beings is to “love your neighbor as yourself”, including your enemy. It’s that simple.

[@excaliburironforce9908]

If it was that simple, humanity's history, especially since WW2 wouldn't be so😓

[@tatersinger]

​@user-cr4vb4zb6w how did you come to that conclusion from their statement?

[@ribbrascal]

It's that naively simplistic, rather.

[@buzoff4642]

@@ribbrascal There's nothing naive about it. We're all on the uphill of learning curve. What we're learning, varies.

[@sparkythancztwise]

This was disappointing. He ends on a failed trope. It fails if one is confronted with the worst of bad actors. They only register weakness, not empathy. Yeah, to maintain the state of mind James Baldwin espoused can (in some circumstances) help some people feel better (and does contribute less to escalating widespread conflicts). Yet if his intention was to propose a mollifying or encouraging perspective, what he delivered does not remotely begin to *solve* even one of our biggest problems we are facing in our plight as the state of the nation and the state of the world deteriorates. It seems to me everything he said is obvious. And he oversimplified numerous issues. Then left us hanging with impotency. Oof. Terrible *unintentional/unplanned* word play there. 😆But I'm leaving it for levity. [I'm not a male and never was in circumstances to console or cope with ED, and recognize it's no laughing matter for many, so apologies if my choice to leave the words may sting as insensitive for anyone.]

[@BillL1955]

I didn't know who you were. Now I do. (I seldom watch broadcast television or read the NYT. ) I just watched this video. It was mesmerizing! Your content was concise and insightful. It was also a little mind-bending and got me thinking differently. Thanks for sharing! I look forward to reading your books.

[@kimberlyhennessy-reddom2856]

The right wing and authoritarianism is surging in Canada too. We have so many Trumpers and Putin lovers here

[@Prisoner_844]

If people used these statistic to reorient how are society functions and try to actually solve these things. And discuss them openly with the public so they can be informed. And contribute to solving these things.

[@buzoff4642]

We have that, statistics driven economy. As is the case with all science, the outcome goals along with the metrics used to measure are the drivers. And right now, that is wholly centered on rate of growth of profits. Not the growth of profits, the rate at which it grows. It's sucking all of the value of labor, from workers, driving populations into poverty. It was at first sucking out workers' free time, but has increased to include rock bottom wages. When I was growing up long ago, persistent 5% returns was considered great.

[@jessicaintl]

My children were homeless for 11 months, but got great educations at highly respected Universities, and are great LIBERAL adults who don't buy into the populist poor person far right.

[@iainmackenzieUK]

being into your phone on the train feels safer than talking to a real person. Risk free. By avoiding risk we are inviting isolation, loneliness, depression and enhancing fear of other. Just my experience.

[@AffirmativeArtsOnTheRoad]

I'm old enough (60) to remember when it was "normal" to talk to "strangers" at the cafe or the bar, or the counter at the neighborhood diner....or the manhattan neighborhood bus/subway or the coast to coast bus/train, neighborhood playground, park, the previously free NYC Rec Center Gym...the once affordable movie theater (now you're an asshole if you talk back to the dumbass...or occasionally OD smart....characters in the movie who obviously NEED OUR good and wise ADVICE, AM I RIGHT???), we couldjump up and down and shout our genius advice to the ball players (at "the Garden") without "annoying" or "triggering" our seat neighbors.......hell, I remember a time when it was "normal" to talk to the driver of the car you were lucky enough to be hitch-hiking in....that's how I met Cher, Bill Murray, Hunter S. Thompson...oh, that famous actor...always plays jerks or worse...ugh...his name will come to me before I'm ready to hit "send". Oh, yes, THAT'S IT: JACK....Jack Nicholson, AND countless non-famous mostly very very cool people who also were not afraid to pick me up and drive me to school in their cars. and talk to me...tell me stories of their lives, politely listened to my dumb/pseudo-deep....traumatized runaway adolescent poems I'd memorized....who would often ask me *actually* deep/existential questions I could not answer, , but which were valuable and thought provoking for me...I wouldn't have ever grown into myself without all those kinda baffling, over-my-empty-head, fascinating conversations with strangers in their cars on freezing cold, early Rocky Mountain icy road mornings, when you REALLY need to trust the driving skills of strangers while they talked and appeared to also listen., when they should have been just focusing on staying on the correct side of the slick and curvy road....They were all nice and kind...generous, some drove me the few extra miles out of their way to get me to my Aspen High School classes on time (which was a 35-45 minute walk from the highway)...none of them "bothered me" and I never "bothered" them, or maybe I must have been annoying at times, but you know what I mean....... they were NOT afraid of me...nor I of them...back in the 70's when we could wear "vintage" 1950's clothing, read Kerouac, listen to jazz, cut our bangs very very short and imagine looking mad cool while hacking and coughing while pretending to smoke because we stupidly thought it made us look "cool" when it only actually made us look stupid.......and hitch-hike coast to coast without (TOO much fear)...I EVEN remember when it was "normal"....even, just fine, to go to friends's homes and ring their doorbell without prior plans....back when it was even truly FINE to just out of the blue CALL a friend on the phone without texting first to ask if it's ok to call....back when few of us actually had a working doorbell, so we actually just threw pennies at their window until we actually hit the right window and got their attention so they could throw the keys out the window so we could walk up the 6 flights without them having to come down to let us in....my daughter used to CRINGE WITH EXTREME EMBARRASSMENT WHEN I WOULD RANDOMLY STRIKE UP CONVOS WITH STRANGERS...where-ever...bus stop, diner, PLAYGROUND, anywhere....her generation found it SHOCKING, TOTALLY CRAZY, INAPPROPRIATE, COMPLETE LUNACY, TRIGGERING, TRAUMATIZING, WEIRD, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN WANT TO, ANYWAY? HOW COULD YOU EMBARRASS ME SO? JUST TALKING TO SOMEONE, ANYONE, ABOUT NOTHING, OR ANYTHING, FOR "NO REASON"...."WHAT'S REALLY WRONG WITH YOU"??? NOW, WE HAVE LOST ANY SENSE OF THE "COMMONS"...NOW EVERY SPACE IS A COMMERCIAL, TRANSACTIONAL SPACE, AND INTERACTIONS ARE STRICTLY LIMITED TO TRANSACTIONS...YOU GET TO FEEL LIKE A HUMAN WHO ACTUALLY EXISTS AND MATTERS ONLY WHILE *PAYING FOR SOMETHING* YOU MAY OR MAY NOT EVEN WANT...BUT YOU JUST WANT TO FEEL SEEN FOR A FEW SECONDS...SORRY, NOT "YELLING" I accidentally hit capslock and I cannot retype (BAD ARTHRITIS)....I'll bet you can understand....WELL ANYWAY, I REMEMBER A TIME WHEN PEOPLE *LIKED* TO TALK TO ONE ANOTHER....SOMETIMES EVEN ABOUT MEANINGFUL IDEADS, SOMETIMES WE EVEN TOOK 'RISKS' AND MADE NEW FRIENDS OUT OF RANDOM IRL CONVOS! IMAGINE THAT!!!! OOPS...NOT-"YELLING"....AGAIN...CAPSLOCK TROUBLES AGAIN... YOUR COMMENT WAS OBVIOUSLY VERY EVOCATIVE FOR ME...I HOPE I HAVEN'T "CROSSED YOUR BOUNDARIES" OR "TRIGGERED...TRAUMATIZED...SHOCKED" YOU BY JUST STARTING TO TALK TO YOU WITHOUT ASKING FOR WRITTEN PERMISSION BEFOREHAND....I APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENT. I WISH KZbin COMMENT SECTIONS WERE MORE INTERACTIVE. NO ONE EVER ACKNOWLEDGES MY COMMENTS...EVEN ON THE OCCASIONS WHEN I MAKE A REAL EFFORT TO WRITE SOMETHING WORTHWHILE, WITH EVEN ACCURATE SPELLING......I ALWAYS TRY TO ACKNOWLEDGE OTHERS, BUT I DON'T THINK THEY EVER NOTICE, BECAUSE I DON'T THINK ANYONE EXPECTS OR IMAGINES THEY WILL BE SERIOUSLY/MEANINGFULLY, RESPONDED TO HERE....POSSIBLY DON'T EVEN WANT TO BE RESPONDED TO....THAT MAKES ME SAD. I'M GLAD I DON'T HAVE TO LIVE THAT MUCH LONGER IN SUCH AN UNTRUSTING, LONELY WORLD. I'M NOT IMAGINING TRYING TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOU BECAUSE HONESTLY, I'M TOO DISHEARTENED TO BE A GOOD FRIEND ANYMORE...I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND ANYONE TRYING TO BEFRIEND ME, AT THIS POINT, THIS WAS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE, BUT IT IS NOW....THE WORLD AS IT IS HAS MADE ME WEIRD....MAYBE, OR MAYBE I JUST *SEEM* WEIRD COMPARED TO HOW PEOPLE ARE NOW. I JUST RESPONDED TO YOUR COMMENT TO SHOW YOU MY RESPECT AND APPRECIATION FOR YOUR COMMENT. I'm STILL *not* "yelling"...AT ALL...the capslock key is my nemesis....I wish you well.

[@iainmackenzieUK]

@@AffirmativeArtsOnTheRoad Not sure where to start. I am just getting up - on holiday from school now - II am 64 and teaching Physics in China. You have a great writing style so I feel a little jealous and intimidating myself with your words. But here goes anyway - I am British but also was hitch hiking in USA in the 80's. Summer camp in New Hampshire in 1985 and then hitched to Pensilvania where I spent 10 days working on an Amish farm - just walked up to Chris and asked for some work. 10 Dollars a day for 10 days. As he wrote the check, it felt like a thousand dollars. . These days you would have to pay for a cultural experience like that. Anyhow - no point complaining about today. You can see, for example, from this conversation that there are still enough of us around. And I dont think things were so different in some ways back then. Everyone warned me that hitching in the USA you would get shot. All i got was generosity and a warm welcome. One guy drove me to my destination in his sports car just for something to do - and because he loved driving in his car. As for conversations - I was always amazed at how easy it was for driver and hitch hiker (in UK, Europe and USA) to open up - knowing we would never meet again offers a different kind of confidentiality i guess. Judging by the temperament of the vast majority of my students, human being still need and value each other. Like gold diggers, or astronomers we seek a way to one another's souls. And, thus, to our own. Or else whats the point in it all? Thanks for your reply. Enjoy whats left of your life. Dont let the cynical winds of the world erode your delicate beauty. Keep exercising those hands - keep the blood flowing. Keep writing to strangers. The end will come soon enough and that's the glorious, final part of this mystery and miracle. Good to share - take good care :)

[@franjkav]

Some people just don’t wanna talk. Speak for yourself

[@iainmackenzieUK]

@@franjkav Thats true - of course. But I think you miss my point. Not that I expect everyone to get my point. It is what it is

[@joythought]

​​​​@@iainmackenzieUK thanks for the effort you are making here. I have problems adding comments to KZbin. KZbin generally deletes everything that I type in unless I quickly make edits to it and save it again. That's hit and miss. So we'll see if this message ever sticks around. I'm 56 and based in Oz. I appreciate what David is saying. When I travel I like to strike up conversations with others. I feel like we can share little windows into each other's lives and I find that really rewarding... While many people just may wish not to have to talk with others I do think many more people have a better day just by having real conversations with people as they go about their day.

[@karenbolton9526]

I avoid community now too many agendas and post Covid saw all biases in hostile community , only support close family and friends. No more media or gvt or talking to strangers for me and as lot happier. Also working less

[@richardnunziata3221]

this guy love to do the bait and switch style of monologue

[@kokolanza7543]

Wonderful insight into "the whole global mess." David B is a treasure, I always enjoy and learn from him. It seems to me that the current psychological-spiritual-political crises are a more or less a natural progression of Modernism - the technological-social revolution that has been gaining speed over about 6 centuries. Humans moved into radically new circumstances in ignorance and often clinging to obsolete beliefs and social forms. The wolves were given control, certainly in the US e.g., rich man's Senate going back to the 1870s. And so on. Religion has been relentlessly attacked for centuries - not that it didn't deserve it, but there was no alternative given other than nihilism (to overgeneralize but that's the gist). The problem is the system. There needs to be a more thoughtful and wise reorganization of power relations, education, and empathetic relationships. The general problem stems from these historic factors and without recognizing that and changing things from that root, it's less likely to find remedies that will work. Definitely things that we as individuals can and should do, but the system that evolved over the past 600 years carries everything with it.

[@kooale]

And as he said, a person who never stops trying, and risking, and learning, and reaching.......

[@jillcicerostoryheadjill]

Somebody needs to ask Mr. Brooks to clarify and expound upon his view of reactionary lgbtq policies, because I'd like to hear his solution of inclusion that doesn't fall back on bigotry or ignorance.

[@TRUMP2024_We_Got_This]

Like Populism bad? wow

[@robwealer5416]

Some contradiction... first part of speech said happiness, viability, longevity was predicted by educational achievement and 2nd half claimed it was not a predictor of success.

[@musoid6308]

Yeah, astute observation. Could it be that advantages people with a college education got through, in general, their more privileged childhoods, more secure homes, music lessons etc., were more the determining factors in their better well-being stats through their lives than perhaps the grades themselves? Just thinking out loud.

[@buzoff4642]

@@musoid6308 The misleading quagmire is right there: "in general". Demographic blocking. Political blocking. It's leading to ... block heads!

[@JohnSmall-vm7ed]

Distribution of wealth, climate change, eliminating church and state.

[@Guitargate]

Wow. There’s so much gold here, delivered so succinctly.

[@lukehightower4198]

I don’t know if there was a single original thought in that entire thing

[@jameskinney4543]

David is one of my favorites. One of the greatest thinkers of our time. A true conservative in the best way.

[@everythingandmore5537]

He didn't mention of right wing populism in israel

[@catfoodgeneration]

David is one of the most mediocre thinkers of our era. I am appalled at his ubiquity.

[@abditus5842]

David is another east coast elitist and not a conservative.

[@jiahan3849]

I used to watch him in PBS. Not anymore.

[@donttrudd2310]

​@catfoodgeneration To be an effective communicator you need to talk to your audience. If you use foreign concepts to the person or people you are talking with, and their gaze wanders, if you want to communicate you need to try another technique - use a different style of language or example that resonates. David watches his audience (be it one or a room full) and adjusts his communication - his words and examples until people's eyes fix on him again. His message, the concept he is trying to share doesn't change- just the style. So perhaps you couldn't grasp his message because you don't speak the language or have the life experiences this audience does.

[@jasonbeary5771]

First of all, it is MOST ironic that the Aspen Institute would address populism as if the people AT the Aspen Instiitute and thier recalcitrance to sharing their abuncance with Labor wouldn't be a source of dangerous populism. Populism is just an element of a democracy.

[@buzoff4642]

Truly, it should be called unpopularism, as it's a reaction to how a failing nation's being run.

[@victoriaburkhardt9974]

Thank you for giving us this talk by the great David Brooks. Brilliant analysis!

[@AliceHLin-l7j]

World on Fire: we wait for the fire of the Holy Spirit for revival; not the fire from hell .. "6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell" (James 3:6)

[@JamesCappleman]

I've listened to a lot of David Brooks over the years, but this one hits it out of the park. It was a bit depressing in the beginning, but on a deeper level, I already knew it to be true. The talk ended with me feeling more hope and confident that I have the tools to work with others to move us all forward.

[@lorettaobrien8599]

Education Education Education.... Is the way forward....

[@NathansHVAC]

indoctrination indoctrination indoctrination was always the way forward

[@sparkythancztwise]

His proposed likenesses are shallow and specious, when he speaks of how some study (not adequately discussed in terms of how it was designed and conducted), seems to indicate that the rest of the world matches US American "values" and regard for current issues. Fraught with potential misconstrual, that set of data. Value dimensions are very complex and it is too easy to read into those statements what we may want to presume. On another note: My first sociology professor introduced the class that I was in to the topic of how we were all socialized differently than nearly every child from a very rich family. Progeny of the very rich (old money families) are not taught the same sort of empathy espoused in James Baldwin's outlook. Their cognitive and emotional development, psychology/personality and value dimensions are shaped differently from lower-upper class families, from middle-upper classes, and even most upper-upper class families. They don't regard the world, other persons and "human rights" in the same way. And it's very uncommon for their own attachment experiences and life experiences to support any consequential courage through any possible path of disillusionment to shift them out of that socialized set of mind. The tendency instead is to cling to and fight for maintaining status at any cost because the costs of losing it are beyond bleak and terrifying for multiple reasons. If any cracks in the veneer occur, denial is far less taxing on mental state, than confronting any real world schisms which may become apparent.

[@paulsturgul5829]

One takeaway for me from David Brooks' presentation. I will purchase an American flag which I will proudly display from my porch on holidays, and other days as well. I recently attended, in Calumet, Michigan, a commemoration of Anne ["Big Annie"] Klobuchar Clemenc, the young, female, heroic leader of the Copper Mine Strike of 1913-4 in the Copper Country of the Upper Peninsula Michigan. In every photo of Annie during the strike, she is shown carrying the American flag. Our American flag, and what it stands for, is just as much ours to display as it is for anyone else. [During the strike, James McNaughton, the general manager of Boston-based Calumet & Hecla, constantly referred to Slovenian-American Annie as an outside, foreign agitator. In fact Annie was born in Calumet. McNaughton was from Canada.]

[@chitownforever]

It's hilarious to me that many of the problems the attendees seem to want to tackle would be solveable, if they just paid their fair share of taxes.

[@laughia7311]

And I'm laughing all the ay to the foodbank.

[@KW-qd9vq]

Great talk! Deep, meaningful, insightful and he had the receipts (data). The one thing that came to mind most likely to be correlated to the global negativism and depression, especially in girls/women, is the iPhone and social media exploding around 2012. It seems like 2008 started more negative headlines, and maybe that flavor got swept up, and echoed to the 10th power with the IPhone around 2012 and beyond??

[@larryhutson3386]

We're not going to talk our way out what's coming.

[@tennisbum7527]

Maybe political parties themselves are a big part of the problem. When elected officials can abandon personal responsibility for their votes and have the fig leaf of saying they have to adhere to the positions of their party in order to not get primaried that is the first problem. Second, corruption: Contribute to the party and/or a few well placed elected officials and you can pretty much buy the whole group wholesale, which is a lot easier and cheaper than having to purchase their support individually. Last, deluding the public: We are really picking between coke and pepsi, there are overlapping supporters and influence buyers and policies that pander to different constituencies and for the most part not easily enacted. That leads voters into thinking that thrashing back and forth between them will result in getting many of the promises made to them enacted and when that doesn't happen, switching again.

[@buzoff4642]

Mega donors split 60%/40%, giving the 60% to which of the 2 is in power. Lose/lose for the public.

[@karylrader7159]

Not clear why negativity is on the rise? Income inequality, climate crisis, corporate corruption, overpopulation…..

[@Ryanlexz]

exactly don't forget wars

[@JonDasBoot]

Things were much much worse 100 years ago. If you don't see how things have improved, you are part of the problem.

[@CeciliaDCollins]

exactly my thoughts! The 3 items I said to myself before I read your post

[@Ryanlexz]

@@JonDasBoot how things has improved?! Liberalism/globalization is the reason why Iraq, Afghanistan etc.. are in chaos

[@JonDasBoot]

@@Ryanlexz I'm going to assume you don't know much about history. There have been massive improvements over the past 100 years. You may want to read Steven Pinker. Extreme poverty has dramatically declined. According to the World Bank, in 2019, about 9.2% of the world's population lived in extreme poverty, compared to over 68% in 1920. In 1920, the global average life expectancy was around 34 years. As of 2021, the global average life expectancy is about 72.6 years. In 1920, about 27% of children died before reaching the age of five. In 2020, the global under-five mortality rate was about 3.8%. In 2020, the global under-five mortality rate was about 3.8%. In the United States the homicide rate in the 1920s was around 9-10 per 100,000 people ... it is now 5 per 100,000.

[@terievans7318]

Fierce kindness!

[@granitfog]

Family and moral order are not fundamental;, they are a consequence of each person's underlying security in the social order. Each person has to feel secure in their life BEFORE creating a stable family or defing a moral order, because personal security is THE fundamental drive. The problem in the last few decades is that there is a mismatch between our expectations (to provide personal security) and the ability of modern society to create that environment. In the decades past, our expectations were lower because life was indeed simpler. Health care could not do what it can now, but was cheaper and more affordable. But now we have cures for cancer and many other chronic diseases and disease prevention, but at a cost that makes health care less affordable. In the past, families expected to stay in their smaller houses. (Younger people are now staying longer at home but this is not an expectation but a reluctant necessity). But now houses are larger and people move from one house to another more often. Retirement was to rest so rather than travel the world, so financing could be simpler in the past. But people want to enjoy their retirement now. And companies expected to keep emplyees for life, but now they are fired and hired to keep labor costs low. And in the past high school was enough to be well employed, and then a college degree, and now a more specialized degree. Technological innovation of cable TV, internet, cell phones, computerized homes and cars create more expectations but with a diversion of personal income to pay for them, costs that were not present 40-50 years ago. So, people have higher expectations that society is failing to match. But why is society failing to the indifidual. Because, profit /wealth has become the penultimate goal of corporate and elite society. Corporate powers have coopted government to lower taxes and reduce social program funding or minimize social programs, reduce governments ability to regulate, and minimize those factors that make life less secure and maximize those factors that make life more secure. CEO's once made 40x their employee salaries, now they make 300-400 x. Income for these financial elites is not about paying for life needs and wants but represent a badge of accomplishment. These incomes have to come from somewhere, and that is the pockets and policies the previously supported the life of the common individual. In summary the rise of populism is the result of 1) greater complexty 2) greater expectations related to that complexity 3) the conflict between the benefits of greater complexity of modern life vs the costs reated to them 3) the diversion of resources (financial and political) by and toward wealthy individual and corporations that otherwise would have mitigated to costs of modern lifes complexity.

[@raymoose8568]

There is a possibility that order is a counter to Postmodernism. Postmodernism, create your own reality! Has to be the ultimate in individualism gone crazy.

[@joanhartman399]

Thank GOD for David Brooks! Hope and direction in this time of fear........

[@Teeveepicksures]

😂