Archive for the ‘education,’ Category

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/opinion/the-great-restoration.html?ref=davidbrooks

This article by David Brooks is quite interesting.
href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/opinion/brooks-in-defense-of-romney.html?_r=1&ref=davidbrooks”>

David Brooks recently wrote this article [which I edited] and I find that I must agree with him. Read for yourself and let me know what you think.

 

The Politics of Solipsism
By DAVID BROOKS

Over the years, the democratic values have swamped the republican ones. We’re now impatient with any institution that stands in the way of the popular will, regarding it as undemocratic and illegitimate. Politicians see it as their duty to serve voters in the way a business serves its customers. The customer is always right.

A few things have been lost in this transition. Because we take it as a matter of faith that the people are good, we are no longer alert to arrangements that may corrode the character of the nation. For example, many generations had a moral aversion to debt. They believed that to go into debt was to indulge your basest urges and to surrender your future independence. That aversion has clearly been overcome.

We no longer have a leadership class — of the sort that existed as late as the Truman and Eisenhower administrations — that believes that governing means finding an equilibrium between different economic interests and a balance between political factions. Instead, we have the politics of solipsism.[ extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.] The political culture encourages politicians and activists to imagine that the country’s problems would be solved if other people’s interests and values magically disappeared.

The democratic triumph has created a nation that runs up huge debt and is increasingly incapable of finding a balance between competing interests. Today, the country faces three intertwined economic challenges. We have to make the welfare state fiscally sustainable. We have to do it in a way that preserves the economic dynamism in the country — that provides incentives for creative destruction. We also have to do it in a way that preserves social cohesion — that reduces the growing economic and lifestyle gaps between the educated and less educated.

These three goals are in tension with one another, but to prosper America has to address all three at the same time.

Voters will have to embrace institutional arrangements that restrain their desire to spend on themselves right now. Political leaders will have to find ways to moderate solipsistic tribalism and come up with tax and welfare state reforms that balance economic dynamism and social cohesion.

Over the past months, there has been some progress in getting Americans to accept the need for self-restraint. With their various budget approaches, the Simpson-Bowles commission, Paul Ryan and President Obama have sent the message that politics can no longer be about satisfying voters’ immediate needs. The public hasn’t bought it yet, but progress is being made.

There has been less progress in getting political leaders to come up with compromises that balance dynamism and cohesion. Republicans still mostly talk about incentives for growth, and Democrats still mostly talk about economic security. The breakthrough, if there is one, will come from the least directly democratic parts of the government, from the Senate or some commission of Establishment bigwigs. It will be enacted when voters realize we need to build arrangements to protect ourselves from our own weaknesses. It will all depend on reviving the republican virtues upon which the country was founded.

view from the chair

attitude of gratitude  February 25, 2011

As I was recently thinking about SJK…I decided that I would develop for myself an attitude of gratitude. Since I had a stoke in 2005 life has changed for me.  I was a very independant person….cut wood,fix things, and drive myself everwhere. Now I depend on others to help me. Since I ended up here at SJK I have become more appreciative of others. The nurses here help me so much. So I allowed myself an attitude change. This has been great for me. Each day is like an adventure. Starting my day with a smile is not too difficult afterall.