The status of values

Posted 8/21/12

David Brooks’ March 10th New York Times column, titled “The Cost of Relativism,” began by describing symptoms and then declared that the symptoms were the cause.

“There are no basic codes …

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The status of values

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David Brooks’ March 10th New York Times column, titled “The Cost of Relativism,” began by describing symptoms and then declared that the symptoms were the cause.

“There are no basic codes and rules woven into daily life that people can absorb unconsciously and follow automatically.” (Not even conservative ones?) Former norms, he goes on, “were destroyed by a plague of non-judgmentalism…. ” Here Brooks invokes a common, puritanical, reaction to the—naïve? yes, but not evil—sixties. Mr. Brooks, going further with the cart before the horse, inadvertently hints at another possible cause, “History is full of examples of moral revival...,” and he cites as an example the “U.S. amid the economic stress in the 1930s.”

But what happened in 1930s? We were all in the soup together, and the New Deal’s social programs saved capitalism and gave new life to its ideal of possible opportunity. Since the 1980s, the prevalent social philosophy is extreme individualism, every man for himself. And if it’s every man for himself and you start 50 yards behind the starting gate, it’s easy, unless you are extraordinary, to give up, and maybe flash your middle finger. Most people are neither good nor bad; circumstances bring out the best or worst in people. So yes, values may be poor. When we can feel like we are all in it together that might change.

Roy Tedoff

Hortonville, NY

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