David Brooks is “paid to be a narcissistic blowhard,” says David Brooks. He confesses in his new book The Road to Character (Random House, $28) that he has achieved more career success than he ever imagined, but it’s not enough. In certain people, he has noticed a deep inner morality that he strives to have.
The Road to Character is Brooks’s attempt to figure out what the path toward moral goodness looks like, and perhaps even “save [his] soul.” He’ll talk about his findings at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue on Thursday, April 23rd at 7 p.m. His recent (and “most emailed”) New York Times column touched on some of the book’s big themes.
One of them is résumé virtues versus eulogy virtues. “Most of us have clearer strategies for how to achieve career success than we do for how to develop a profound character,” Brooks writes.
The first step toward strong character? Humility, he says, and it is something we aren’t great at. He cites a Gallup poll where high school seniors were asked, “are you a very important person?” In 1950, 12 percent said yes. When asked the same question in 2005, 80 percent said yes (and social media was barely in utero).
Each chapter of The Road To Character is about a person from history that Brooks sees as an exemplar of character. But they weren’t born that way; they had to rein in their “core sins.” For civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, it was ego; for novelist George Eliot, it was desperate neediness; for President Dwight Eisenhower, it was anger.
These figures cultivated their goodness the way we cultivate our LinkedIn profiles. With a little redirection, there may be hope for us yet. In typical David Brooks fashion, the book blends psychology, politics, and spirituality.
Brooks is an opinion columnist for the New York Times. His past books include The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement; Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There; and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense. He lives in D.C.
Tickets can be purchased online only. One ticket is $17, one ticket and one book are $30, and two tickets and one book are $35. A Q&A and book signing will follow. Seating is first-come, first-served and doors open at 6 p.m.
