Glenn Beck

Following his April 22 address at The Asheville School, journalist-writer-pundit David Brooks fielded a broad array of questions for about 20 minutes.

A male student asked, “You talked about polarization of society.” He then said “many feel certain journalists are disingenuous,” including Rush Limbaugh, Rachel Malow, Glenn Beck and others.
“One of those is a friend — and the others, I don’t have any use for,” Brooks replied. “Sometimes you get ‘truthiness’ instead of the truth.”

“Distancing yourself from the things you’re covering and not being an activist is important for journalists,” he said. “If everyone’s doing the wave, you need to be the one not doing it.”

He added, “Sometimes it feels like the newspaper is like the whaling industry — and we won’t be around because of you guys, but standards should be preserved.”

A male student asked how Brooks viewed the future of American culture in 50 and 100 years.

De Tocqueville (1805-1859), a French political thinker and historian, “wrote about American culture in the 1800s — and not much has changed,” Brooks replied. “There are traits that run deep in our nature — subconscious ways we see reality (as Americans) that are different.”

Brooks added that “when people predict the future, they tend to underestimate technological change and overestimate psychological change. We’ll just have dumber movies and better TV.”

A male student asked about Brooks’ views concerning Thomas Jefferson and Arthur Laffer.

“I’m a Hamiltonian,” Brooks answered. “He created a political system with a design for limited government to give people a chance to succeed.”

Under Hamilton’s view, “government has a role to enhance social mobility.”

This notion, he said, contrasts with Jefferson, whose philosophy was “government governs best that governs least.”

The audience laughed when, Brooks noted that he “once gave a talk at Monticello (Jefferson’s homeplace in Charlottesville, Va.) and 15 minutes into my discussion, lightning struck ... Thomas Jefferson was trying to kill me!” He explained that Hamilton and Jefferson did not like each other.

A female student asked how Brooks sees women’s future roles in politics.

“I mentioned the important of social skills,” Brooks replied. “Women were twice as accurate as in smelling fear” in a recent study. “Right now, 120 women graduate for every 100 men” in undergraduate colleges. The ratio is 150 women to 100 men in graduate schools.

“I think now, women are much better educated than men ... That will translate to political power. So I’m going the way of the dodo.
Another female student asked if Brooks agrees with Rousseau’s famous quotation — that man was basically good by nature.
“I guess I don’t,” Brooks replied with a smile. “Are people naturally good? I think they are naturally good — and complicated ... We’re guided not by reason and logic, but by our affections.”

“When you’re attracted to someone, you know it deeply,” Brooks said. “We have certain senses about us — and they’re built in deeply.”