He belittles the presence of critical thinking in the public sphere even as he defines critique, thinking, and civic responsibility as matters of personal choice.

The result: a column that we have chosen to read (again, wisely) and, moreover, a readerly choice that becomes a sign to others and ourselves that we are active participants in this buzzing world of 24/7 democracy.ĭespite Brooks’ self-deprecating worry about “totally butchering” Taylor’s answer to what it “feels like to live in an age like ours,” there is a brutal edge to Brooks’ anti-intellectualism. His ongoing effort to distill for us the density of jargon is a choice well-honed. Rest assured, we do not need to read Taylor for ourselves because David Brooks can be trusted. Since 2007, when it was published, academics have been raving to me about Charles Taylor’s ‘A Secular Age.’ Courses, conferences and symposia have been organized around it, but it is almost invisible outside the academic world because the text is nearly 800 pages of dense, jargon-filled prose.” “I might as well tell you upfront,” Brooks admits, “that this column is a book report. The first few graphs are pure Brooks-the doctrinal issue the promise of evidence and explication the faux humility in the face of an esteemed authority that the rest of us have chosen, wisely, not to know about. “Taylor’s investigation begins with this question: ‘Why was it virtually impossible not to believe in God in, say 1500, in our Western society, while in 2000 many of us find this not only easy but even inescapable?’”Īnd Brooks’ inevitable spin: “That is, how did we move from the all encompassing sacred cosmos, to our current world in which faith is a choice, in which some people believe, others don’t and a lot are in the middle?” The implication of choice, however, remained the same. They “lack even the basic mental ingredients.” A week after this claim (the occasion being the coup in Egypt, and the object of ire being ‘Islamists’) Brooks engaged in a differently controversial topic-Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. Others, particularly those who might question Brooks’ self-assured rendition of Western/American/Brooksian selves and the choices we make, not so much. We have it in us, naturally, to see the world on its own terms, to choose our battles, wisely, and to wield our hard-won reason in the service of a kinder and gentler world. According to New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks, some of us do not lack the mental equipment to govern ourselves.

Its not about you david brooks appeal