My most favorite journalist and yet I haven't read any of his books. My excuse being he has written just two books and the fear of hitting the destination stopped me from even starting. Good news is, he is in the process of writing a book on social impact of neuroscience (if I remember it correct, that darn memory again) and I think its coming out some time this year.
I picked up Paradise Drive:How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense by David Brooks last weekend and once I started reading it, I honestly wanted to cry. I wish I read this book few years ago, it would have answered many of my questions about this country so elegantly with humor. But yet, I don't regret not reading him and I am so glad I didn't. Since this sheer quest had bombarded me with more questions and in that process, I did learn lot of things about not only American life but life in general. The whole process helped me "grow-up" (well, its a never ending process).
I cannot even begin to explain what a spectacular book it is and I wouldn't do justice even if try to explain. A warning - this book can help propagate the self fulfilling fallacy for pro-americans, anti-americans and most of all the other flavors out there. If we have grown up enough to shed these mundane biases, this book will be an intellectual oasis. Sadly this is the delirious illusion most of us so convincingly live in but what's more worse is, most don't even realize this deliriousness before kicking the bucket and thanks to genes, these vicious cycle continues.
"As you may have noticed, 90 percent of Americans have way too much self-esteem (while the remainder has none at all). Nobody in this decentralized, fluid social structure knows who is mainstream and who is alternative, who is elite and who is populist. Professors at Harvard think the corporate elites run society, while the corporate elites think the cultural elites at Harvard run society. Liberals think their views are courageously unfashionable, and conservatives believe they are bravely dissenting from the mainstream media.
Most people see themselves living on an island of intelligence in a sea of idiocy. They feel their own lives are going pretty well, even if society as a whole is going down the toilet. They believe their children's schools are good, even if the nation's schools in general are terrible. Their own congressperson is okay, even if most of others should be thrown out of office. Their own values are fine, even if civilization itself is on the verge of collapse. We all live in Lake Wobegon because we are all above average. We are all okay; it's the vast ocean of morons who are mucking things up."
Ain't that the truth :-)?
Check out the following lines/hypothesis, it precisely describes the mind-set of commoners oozing with ...errr cognitive dissonance.
"The future-minded person is discouraged from crashing his progress on the rocks of principle. On the contrary, he is encouraged to be a little fuzzy in his principles for the sake of perceptual advancement. He is not likely to be unprincipled, exactly, just flexible. Hope is a lawyer, not a martyr."
This is the reality and people aren't going to change miraculously by some magic switch. In fact, I can safely assume they are not going to change in my life time. This is the curse of life driven by principle. I am still trying to find peace with that reality and best away to live with it is spicy it with humor. I am still working on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment