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Obedient and less-than-sinful Joshua asks God nicely to halt the sun during battle. (source: John Martin c. 1816 via Wikimedia)
Okay, it’s my own fault. Watching the panel of Meet the Press is diving into the deep end of inanity, but I did it anyway. Even for the Meetheads, this one was outstanding. The New York Times’ David “Bobo” Brooks has the answer to the violent tragedy of Tucson.
It’s sinfulness.
MR. BROOKS: I’m, I’m a little more pessimistic. What’s the root of civility? It’s sinfulness. I, I don’t want to get into the Reverend’s business here, but…
REV. SHARPTON: It’s all right. It’s Sunday morning. It’s Sunday morning.
MR. BROOKS: But it’s an awareness of how sinned you are, how ignorant you are, how weak you are. And because of those shortcomings, you need the conversation, you need other people to correct you. And we’ve had a culture which has downplayed sin, and therefore people think, “I–my way’s the right way, and 100 percent of what I want, that’s what we should have.”
MS. NOONAN: Yeah.
MR. BROOKS: And, and so that’s a–kind of a deep problem to get over.
Admittedly, this reflection is a little mangled even for Bobo. But I get it, really. We all can make the bad things not happen if we just follow those laws of faith based communities — as extrapolated by Bobo. Since the right wing has defined sin as doing things they disagree with for the most part, I guess Bobo had in mind the nasty stuff that we do in war. But no, of course not. “Thou shalt not kill” is not the sort of commandment the right goes in for. As he said, if we all just let the wingers correct us, we’ll be okay.
Now women taking charge of there own reproduction? There’s your sinful sort of behavior when it’s not what the Bobos countenance. Taking up with a gay lover because that happens to be your own innate choice, that’s more like going against the holy word of Bobo. Sin is offensive to the Bobos, who think up stuff like “You need some one to correct you.”
No doubt, the deluded shooter in Tucson was brought up to respect life. No doubt, when his mind was warped away from simple goodness, he was suffering from something we don’t know or understand. That the sinfulness he descended into was the problem is so simplistic, it’s hard to take seriously that anyone could come up with such a piece of idiocy.
Sins are easy to commit; a look into the “Good Book” will show you that quickly enough.
If you don’t, say, pierce your ears, you will be that good little girl mamman wanted in that deepest corner of her heart. Yep, that and eating animals with cloven hooves is sin. Another one you have to avoid is belief in another god besides the one in the Bible, meaning anyone not taking what Bobo believes for the truth is sinning, too.
I could go on, but I’ll just pass the award to Bobo for the absolute number one most ridiculous thing anyone said this morning. Hopefully, that will be as low as it goes for media intellect for the day.
It’s not a sin to be resoundingly dumb, but I do think it’s a sin against the NYT readers to pay him good money to babble about nonsense when the same use of time might give some one a real, worthwhile idea worth ever so much more.
38 Comments
I didn’t watch any of them today. I just could not stomach it. We had such a beautiful morning today. Sun with temps up to the 60′s and I was not going to ruin the first really nice day since the snow storm.
What I do take offense to is their insuiation that only people that follow the good book are inclined to be good natured. Just wrong on so many levels. Well, you know and I don’t have to type a tombe here.
This one was good for laughs.
And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion: for we are many.” The Gospel of Luke, Luke 8:30
MR. BROOKS: I’m, I’m a little more pessimistic. What’s the root of civility? It’s sinfulness.
No its Civil
Word Origin & History
civil
late 14c., from L. civilis “relating to a citizen, relating to public life, befitting a citizen,” hence “popular, affable, courteous;” alternative adj. derivation of civis “townsman” (see city). The sense of “polite” was in the L., from the courteous manners of citizens, as opposed to those of soldiers. But Eng. did not pick up this nuance of the word until late 16c. ” Courteous is thus more commonly said of superiors, civil of inferiors, since it implies or suggests the possibility of incivility or rudeness” [OED]. Civil case (as opposed to criminal ) is recorded from 1610s. Civil liberty is from 1788.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/civil
Bobo needs an editor with google Civil is not spelled with an S amateur mistake on National tv.
But it’s an awareness of how sinned you are, how ignorant you are, how weak you are. And because of those shortcomings, you need the conversation, you need other people to correct you. And we’ve had a culture which has downplayed sin, and therefore people think, “I–my way’s the right way, and 100 percent of what I want, that’s what we should have.”
You need Fear Sorry Bobo nobody gets to Heaven unless they follow the rules because they have joy in their heart.
Societies based on fear don’t last thats why Democracy beat Communism you can only scream Fear for so long without numbing people’s Desire/Joy, Greed/Desire is a negative substitute it encourages rat eat rat behavior.
But Rat eat Rat does explain Bobo so much.
Just before he(they) ran away with all the pigs. Another favorite.
Bobo needs some sense, you can see how he might mix that up with sins.
Having joy in the heart makes Bobo very, very afraid.
the right wing has defined sin as doing things they disagree with for the most part,
The rich either buy justice McCain’s wife does no time for enough drugs to get my entire HighSchool Stoned. Rudy’s campaign chair does about a year for what was it a half or full kilo of coke?
Or they just never go to jail Enron nobody goes to jail. But Bobo if anything should be protesting that the rich never go to jail.
This shooter is going to jail why unarmed people tackled him while the Gun owners in the crowd were still picking targets.
Justice will be served there will be punishment but not because of AZ’s gun laws.
Lets see Bobo complain about Valerie Palme getting outed as a spy no punishment there.
Civil is based off Sin and Bobo is what passes on the GOP side as an intellectual?
Bobo is also against kids being raised amid a chorus of applause. Just what does Bobo have against kids being Happy? You can’t be happy and be fearful at the same time.
I like that those three; Brooks, Noonan and Sharpton, are in the same category. Knock yourselves out!
Bobo needs a brain that actually works…
Right, because people who feel like they’ve sinned, who see themselves as flawed, imperfect, those people never commit crimes or acts of violence or incivility. It’s people who feel as if they’re not sinners, who feel strong and positive about themselves, who commit crimes and act out violently and so on.
If David Brooks ever wrote a column in which he didn’t get everything backwards I think I’d faint from the shock.
I remember Camille Paglia pushing this same conservative drivel once a few years back, claiming that kids who ended up being violent and getting into all kinds of trouble were too confident about themselves, that the “low self-esteem” claims were backwards, because these kids were full of self-esteem — completely missing the point that strutting around desperate to prove your manhood or womanhood isn’t a sign of healthy self-image and pride, it’s a sign exactly the opposite.
What morons people listen to in this country. It’s astonishing.
i cannot ABIDE the host of MTP!! i can’t even call his name!! i recall the WH correspondents dinner where he embarrassed himself with another who shall not be named…. UGHHHHH!
“how sinned you are”? is that right? sinned is a past tense verb where i come from. he turned it into.. what… adjective? what the fuck is he talking about?
I say “column” BTW because he wrote this same idiotic idea in a column a few days ago, which is where I first read his “insight”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/opinion/14brooks.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Brooks says a lot that’s mock-worthy, but this isn’t one of them. Albeit in religious vernacular, he’s saying humility is at the heart of civility.
People that are missing that are a little douchey.
Religious vernacular is also at the heart of a lot of wars…just sayin’.
i’m re-reading this. in disbelief. trying to make SOME sense of SOMETHING….and an awareness of your own ignorance, he says?? speak for youreslf, man.
and all this talk remionded me……… our new miss america is a born-again yaHoo, huh? FOX & friends. tomorrow.
LOL..Gretchen and Anita Bryant were there barking in the background..
Civility is a different concept from sin or lack of sin, one is a religious concept the other is not, it’s civic.
I don’t agree with you that humility is at the heart of civility, and I certainly don’t agree with Brooks that a sense of being a sinner is at the heart of civility.
People with a great deal of humility can be civil but so can people with a great deal of pride. The claim that a proud, not at all humble person can’t be civil is nonsense.
Religious tradition often has it that a sense of oneself as a flawed, sinful person needing saving is a good way to avoid the perils of pride, which is considered a sin and dangerous, but not that this is the only way to have people being civil, which is a different idea.
And so you coming along and calling them names isn’t douchey at all…
Not to mention that people proclaiming their utter humility in front of a vengeful God have committed some of the most uncivil acts in human history. To put it mildly.
So the answer to all of our troubles is a theocratic dictatorship? What fabulous insight Mr. Brooks lends us!
http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/
“My way’s the right way, and 100 percent of what I want, that’s what we should have.”
That’s what Bobo’s wonderful conservative friends always say. He must not be aware of that.
I’d better email him.
Good diary, thank you, Ruth.
“Sin” just means “off the mark”. I heard that years ago from Jacqueline Small, psychotherapist, and it took a lot of the sting out of the term.
But Brooks has no business telling the rest of us his religious views and expecting any of us to buy it.
Here Bobo, Bobby Kennedy said it way better than you–excerpt from his Mindless Menace of Violence speech:
“Among free men,” said Abraham Lincoln, “there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs.”
Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.
Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.
Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.”
Robert F. Kennedy
April 6, 1968
Don’t you see? He’s being so humble himself, laying it on the line for us to marvel at his beautiful bridge … appealing to the ‘better angels’ on ‘both sides’ who will stop reverently and ponder HIS marvelous off-the-cuff soliloquy on the ugly nature of the public he so humbly serves and shepherds.
I’ve never found much use in Brooks, even for opining about the nature of the conservative or middle class or suburban culture ad nauseum over the years. It always seemed like he always just took a few facts or pieces of anecdotes and stuck them in a cuisinart. Then ladled it onto toast with a rubber spatula, with thickness and consistency determined again through the lens of this month’s view on his intended audience. At best it’s chewing gum that you know will dissolve and leave a bad aftertaste.
You’d think he’d get better at stringing together ideas after all this time and exposure.
Brooks was born in Toronto and grew up in New York City in Stuyvesant Town. He graduated from Radnor High School (located in a Main Line suburb of Philadelphia) in 1979. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1983 with a degree in history.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brooks_(journalist)
So Bobo Sin, Civil they are not the same but just how did you ever graduate UIC?
I stopped watching MTP; ratings are declining, there is a reason why
First Bobo blames the shooting on kids being raised happy then he goes all Fear is good on us normally Bobo is the nice normal conservative who sells the GOP to Moderates as not being a bunch of crazy gun toting loons.
I think the shooting has made him face what the GOP really is but rather than embrace reality he has turned up the crazy.
I smell fear!
I read an interesting variation on “Thou Shalt Not Kill”
It went: “Thou Shalt Not Kill Members of Your Own Tribe”.
IIRC it was Alan Watts that wrote that, along with an equally interesting story about Adultery and that commandment.
“MR. BROOKS: But it’s an awareness of how sinned you are, how ignorant you are, how weak you are. And because of those shortcomings, you need the conversation, you need other people to correct you. And we’ve had a culture which has downplayed sin, and therefore people think, “I–my way’s the right way, and 100 percent of what I want, that’s what we should have.”
Is he talking about the sinners or the righteous? Or maybe the righteous sinners, you know, the ones who proclaim “I have sinned, but now I’m right” which leads to the righteous declaring “I–my way’s the right way, and 100 percent of what I want, that’s what we should have” along with any corrective measures (laws passed) by the righteous to bring everyone else in any society into line with their righteousness. And where behavior is concerned to the righteous reformed-sinners, there is no compromise, no leeway, no wiggle room, no forgiveness. Punishment, yes, but forgiveness as Jesus taught, nope, especially since Jesus practiced unconditional love and Spirit, which actually looks past sin (and the flesh) to the Holy Spirit beyond, unlimited, free, holy, innocent. Focusing on sin, no matter what form it may take, is the opposite of what Jesus was teaching. Focusing on sin IS the Crucifixion (of oneself as one puts others on one’s old, rugged cross of condemnation and judgment). Focusing on the Resurrection is the exact opposite of the idea of sinfulness, of hell, of the Crucifixion. The Resurrection, at least to believers, proves that Spirit always triumphs over the flesh, love conquers hate, light shines away darkness, innocence makes the idea of guilt vanish…and as Jesus arose, so will we all arise, eventually, inevitably. It’s our choice, but Jesus made the choice for himself, for all of us, in the Resurrection. As he said, “As I have done, you can do also.” All it involves is changing one’s mind, changing the focus. David Brooks, at present, seems to have a sinfulness fixation, choosing the Crucifixion over the Resurrection, but this too will pass, as all things in this world do. The eternal, the innocent, the Spirit, is never compromised. Believe this and you are free…as in “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set ye free.” (Why do think there are so many references to the Spirit of Truth in the New Testament?).
And thank you.
I made the sacrifice to save you all. /s
You seem to be under the misimpression that insulting folks will make them think you’re right. I guess you’ve been listening to the Bobos a lot.
What’s that class kids used to study in high school? Civics? Where they used to learn how their government works and how one can interact, get involved, get ones needs addressed?
Maybe if the Tea Partiers knew their civics, they wouldn’t need to resort to guns.