{"id":10395,"date":"2011-09-02T11:14:30","date_gmt":"2011-09-02T11:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/09\/02\/david-brooks-on-the-vigorous-virtues\/"},"modified":"2011-09-02T11:14:30","modified_gmt":"2011-09-02T11:14:30","slug":"david-brooks-on-the-vigorous-virtues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/09\/02\/david-brooks-on-the-vigorous-virtues\/","title":{"rendered":"David Brooks on the Vigorous Virtues"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Brooks makes some good points in The Vigorous Virtues<\/a>, but ends on a silly and naive note:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Finally, there is the problem of the social fabric. Segmented societies do not thrive, nor do ones, like ours, with diminishing social trust. Nanny-state government may have helped undermine personal responsibility and the social fabric, but that doesn\u2019t mean the older habits and arrangements will magically regrow simply by reducing government\u2019s role. For example, there has been a tragic rise in single parenthood, across all ethnic groups, but family structures won\u2019t spontaneously regenerate without some serious activism, from both religious and community groups and government agencies.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

First of all, no one thinks that a reduction in the role of government  "will magically regrow . . . the older habits and arrangements."  So that was a silly thing to write.  Such  a reduction is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of a reversal of American decline.  Second, only a liberal could believe that government activism could lead to a flourishing of the 'vigorous virtues'  of self-reliance, personal responsibility, industriousness and a passion for freedom.  Action is required, but at the level of the individual, the family, the neighbohood, the community, the church, the school.<\/span><\/p>\n

These virtues are what make good government possible.  The notion that government can inculcate them is silly.  The inculcation occurs primarily in the family.  But what does government do? It undermines the family.  <\/span><\/p>\n

On a positive note, David Brooks is a very entertaining and mainly sane writer and proof that the leftist rag-of-record, the NYT, hasn't completely gone to hell on its opinion pages.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Brooks makes some good points in The Vigorous Virtues, but ends on a silly and naive note: Finally, there is the problem of the social fabric. Segmented societies do not thrive, nor do ones, like ours, with diminishing social trust. Nanny-state government may have helped undermine personal responsibility and the social fabric, but that … Continue reading “David Brooks on the Vigorous Virtues”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-virtues-and-vices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}