Reading Journal

What I'm reading

Monday, November 14, 2005

On Paradise Drive, by David Brooks

I laughed more while reading his Bobos in Paradise, but this was good too. Lots of funny social commentary.

I guess me and my family are "Crunchy Cons" (Crunchy=progressive/environmentalist/non-conformist, Cons=conservatives). "Crunchy Cons -- the pro-life vegetarian high-church Catholics who can their own preserves, care too much about zucchini, home-school their kids, and read Edmund Burke while wearing Swedish clogs."

Interesting observation about our endless quest for self-actualization... it's a lot of weight to bear. In the end it's self-defeating. "It means that the central question of life is not 'What does God command and love?' but rather 'What is my destiny and fulfillment?' It is not our duty to humbly obey God's law and submit to the universal order. It is our duty to create and explore our self, to realize our own inner light. It is up to each of us to justify our own existence."

Taking up Christ's yoke sounds like a better plan to me.

1 Comments:

  • At 8:15 PM, Blogger Holly said…

    David Brooks' books have the promise of a juicy, voyeristic, demographic statistic lover's dream. However, they only offer a little fulfillment of this hope. I always find myself in a quagmire of boredom half way through. I haven't really analyzed why. Overall, he is one of the only authors out there writing about people in this way (that I have found at least-- Juliet Schor being another) and for that I will read everything he writes.

     

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