Wisdom

Have you read any of David Brooks? He is a long-time New York Times opinion writer, contributor to the PBS nightly news, and multi-book author. Week after week, year after year, he can be counted on to write generally decent pieces that are center-right. He is kind of like Thomas L. Friedman: probably too “establishment” and “think-tanky” for me, but he is very tolerable. Lately, he has seemed fairly prescient, as someone of his ilk is just not cut out to appreciate, respect, or support the likes of Donald Trump. He’s more rational, sensible, anchored, and principled than that. He wrote an interesting piece on political moderation, and one on John McCain’s moral and political leadership. I realized then that I have quite a few David Brooks quotes. Is he wise, or wishy-washy? Magnanimous or milquetoast? Secretly co-0pted or smartly conservative? You make the call.

It seems like daily we are inundated by superficial social media, “fake news,” political demagogues, intolerant youth, and oppressive societal institutions. How can one find concentrate on what is real, wholesome, and reliable? Can we reach back into the past and access classical wisdom, traditional values, and a greater sense of fulfillment, meaning, and optimism? Values & Ethics: From Living Room to Boardroom (2017; Palmetto Publishing Group; $17.95 softcover) aims to address big-picture topics such as values, virtues, ethics, and wisdom. The following is a pitch for the book, including endorsements, reviews, an excerpt, description, and author bio.

Circa 1999, this lamentation about self-doubt and loneliness, depression and anomie, begins with the following lines:

Reminiscent of a palm tree placed involuntarily on a faraway, tropical island,
I live a life saddled with melancholy and self-doubt and loneliness.

Albert Einstein said: “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” That is a wonderful quote about wisdom – well, magnanimity to be exact. Magnanimity is from the Latin magnus and animus, meaning “great spirit.” It’s a wonderful value that gets at high-mindedness, points to real class, and denotes a generosity of the heart. Compassion, empathy, and love undergird this phenomenon. Other similar and related virtues similar are grace, nobility, honor, chivalry, greatness, and magnificence. There are few values that reach as high and deserve as much respect as magnanimity, altruism, and kindness.

Is it appropriate, legitimate, and wise for government to tax the wealthy in order to help the poor (i.e., redistribution)? I think this is largely a moral issue, though it clearly touches economics, and politics. It is my belief that it is morally appropriate for a legitimate government to tax wealthy citizens to redistribute to help the poor. It’s not right to live in a society that is the richest in the history of societies, has significant wealth inequality, very low unionization, flagging wages, and so on; many millions are without health insurance, living paycheck to paycheck, not being able to afford daycare, and such. That’s not a good society. The rich need to be willing to propagate and contribute to a more horizontal society than that. It’s also wise, in addition to simply being moral.

Aristotle has discovered and formulated every canon of theoretical consistency, and every artifice of dialectical debate, with an industry and acuteness which cannot be too highly extolled; and his labors in this direction have perhaps contributed more than any other single writer to the intellectual stimulation of after ages ~ Alfred William Benn. The rigorous Macedonian thought leader was a remarkable man. Not perfect, but he was simply called “The Philosopher” by Aquinas and others for centuries for a reason. A pioneer in the area where philosophy meets science, he achieved much in politics, ethics, natural science, and the like. Few come close to his curiosity, intellectual power, or high-minded intent.

I shared the post from February 22nd with a friend who is an economist, and tends to see things in ways that is similar to, but different from, me. He had some interesting commentary that focused on justice, truth, and progress. I thought I would just paste his response here. His name is Robert L. Lloyd. Read the original blog first. We are discussing civil liberties, social justice, truth, and America’s social problems.