A boomer myself, I see much gone astray, but I hesitate to ascribe our current state to the disappearance of some mythical sense of community and civic consciousness. These are red herrings, diversions from the realities (and evils) of the frequent wars, increasing economic inequality and political corruption that have marked America’s trajectory, beginning in the early 1960s. The fragmentation that Mr. Brooks laments has little to do with the encouraging recent history of expanded educational opportunity and social freedom. LOMAX, SAN FRANCISCOTo the Editor:David Brooks admires our country’s progress to a meritocracy, while clearly explaining its weaknesses. What we need, he claims, is “a new ethos to reconfigure it.” Actually, what we need is quite an old one: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

Source: New York Times June 02, 2018 19:01 UTC