I'm of course nostalgic for Barack Obama all of a sudden. David Brooks More Quotes by David Brooks More Quotes From David Brooks Putin has been - and with a lot of the groups, the conservative groups, the more extreme conservative groups that underlie Trump, he's a bit of a hero because he speaks for traditional values, he's against the global institutions. David Brooks conservativegroupshero Students are too busy jumping through the next hurdle in the résumé race to figure out what they really want. They are too frantic tasting everything on the smorgasbord to have life-altering encounters. They have a terror of closing off options. They have been inculcated with a lust for prestige and a fear of doing things that may put their status at risk. David Brooks jumpingracelust Donald Trump is sort of an Orwellian figure, an authoritarian figure who is twisting words in an Orwellian manner, "1984," to exercise power and control people's minds, or is he a 5-year-old who has an ego that needs to be fed, and the universe has to warp around his ego needs so he can feel good about himself, and everybody has to produce photos to make the monarch feel like he's made of gold. David Brooks exercisepeopleyears Through American history, we have had populist movements that often, often, often have this ugly racial element. But, often, there are warning signs of some deeper social and economic problem. David Brooks elementsmovementwarning What's interesting about the Trump administration is how bitterly divided they are in their attitudes towards Putin. David Brooks administrationattitudeinteresting Bill Clinton pandered by telling you what you wanted to hear. John Kerry panders by never telling you what you don't want to hear. This is negative pandering; he talks a lot without really ruling anything out so you can draw your own conclusions.....Kerry has been talking for years, and yet such is the thicket of his verbiage that he has achieved almost complete strategic ambiguity. David Brooks talkingyearsinteresting Empathy makes you more aware of other people's suffering, but it's not clear it actually motivates you to take moral action or prevents you from taking immoral action. David Brooks empathywisdompeople Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. David Brooks debatecourageoussmart If we are going to stop wars on this earth, we are going to have to make war on hunger our number one priority. David Brooks prioritiesnumberswar Freedom without structure is its own slavery. David Brooks slaverystructure Sometime over the past generation we became less likely to object to something because it is immoral and more likely to object to something because it is unhealthy or unsafe. So smoking is now a worse evil than six of the Ten Commandments, and the word sinful is most commonly associated with chocolate. David Brooks evilsmokingpast People generally don't suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters. Instead, people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities. Soldiers who've endured the depraved world of combat experience their own symptoms. Trauma is an expulsive cataclysm of the soul. David Brooks soulsoldierpeople Most people don't form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling. David Brooks selfcallingpeople Putin is someone who has been undermining the norms of what we consider the world order since he got into power and in increasing success. David Brooks putinorderworld Courage is the most important virtue because it is the hardest. David Brooks hardestvirtueimportant We live in a culture that encourages us to be big about ourselves, and I think the starting point of trying to build inner goodness is to be a little bit smaller about yourself. David Brooks tryingculturethinking If you just rely on one model, you tend to amputate reality to make it fit your model. David Brooks modelsfitreality Democrats in environmental agencies tend to be more sensitive to environmental harm. And Republicans tend to be more sensitive to business harm. David Brooks environmentalrepublicanagency Most poverty and suffering - whether in a country, a family or a person - flows from disorganization. A stable social order is an artificial accomplishment, the result of an accumulation of habits, hectoring, moral stricture and physical coercion. Once order is dissolved, it takes hard measures to restore it David Brooks accomplishmentordercountry The zooming wealth of the top 1 percent is a problem, but it's not nearly as big a problem as the tens of millions of Americans who have dropped out of high school or college. It's not nearly as big a problem as the 40 percent of children who are born out of wedlock. It's not nearly as big a problem as the nation's stagnant human capital, its stagnant social mobility and the disorganized social fabric for the bottom 50 percent. David Brooks educationchildrenschool
