The Unfinished Apostasy of David Brooks

The following is an open letter to the prominent US journalist David Brooks by API Associate Torrey Byles. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Aurora Philosophy Institute.

The Unfinished Apostasy of David Brooks

 David Brooks' opinion piece of 15 February 2024 in the NY Times, The Cure for What Ails Our Democracy, triggered me to write a response.

In it, he encourages his readers to take up the idea of pluralism as explained by the great 20th century historian of ideas, Isaiah Berlin. See his piece here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/opinion/democracy-good-evil.html

My response:

Dear Mr. Brooks,

I truly enjoy and respect your balanced view of our political predicament, yet I continue to be puzzled and not quite sure where your loyalties lie.

I know that you are appalled at what the Republican Party has become. You've written several books now that relate personal epiphanies and changes of heart. I have not read them but have listened to your public talks regarding these.

But when I read your opinion piece today recommending that we follow the words of Isaiah Berlin to embrace pluralism, it just left me non-plussed. Not because I disagree with Berlin. I have been long devoted to Berlin and his exquisite, subtle and deep sense of the complexities of political thought of the modern world. Berlin has been for me and for many years, especially through his student Charles Taylor, one of the greatest intellectual historians and brightest of lights for our times.

What surprised me here was David Brooks, who began his public intellectual career under the tutelage of the authoritarian and ideological thinkers, Milton Friedman and William Buckley, and today he is espousing pluralism!

I applaud your change of heart and your advocacy of the great Isaiah Berlin, but until you reject Friedman and Buckley, your mentors, in root and branch, you really don’t understand nor uphold Berlin’s philosophy of pluralism. And you are simply being this phony, glib “dominator of the social discourse” like you used to do in grad school dominating your seminar discussions.

Friedman and Buckley’s philosophy is what Berlin detested the most. Their adamant and unwavering negative concept of freedom – as freedom from coercion – that any form of regulation, rule of law and constitutional and democratic form of government is untolerable, is exactly what Berlin demonstrated was not only repugnant, but at odds with itself.

Friedman and Buckley are authoritarian, monological (i.e. non dialogical) “government-is-the-problem” autocrats. I can’t think of any other conservative American political thinkers who have more influence and are most responsible for giving the extreme right wing of this country its philosophical foundations than Friedman and Buckley. 

Moreover, the right wing of this country, ever since Nixon, has gotten everything it wanted: from a regressive tax code, to private equity anti-productive financialization, to hypocritical politicians and public servants who make lifelong careers on the message “government is the problem”, to democrat in name only presidents, to Timothy McVeigh and David Koresh as cultural heroes, to Donald Trump attempting coup d'etat with half the electorate approving. And yet, with all these successes, they are even more angry and belligerent – to the point of calling for mass murder of judges, politicians and “the vermin” who oppose them.

 You, of all people, have a lot of nerve to portray Berlin’s notion of pluralism as a “new idea” for us to think about as a cure for democracy!

There is a direct line between your two mentors and the violence and contempt for democracy and pluralism that the Republican party today brazenly and aggressively puts forth. 

I suggest rather than present this “new idea” to the American public, you come out of the closet and disclaim any belief in what your two famous teachers taught. Furthermore, you could focus your new found faith in pluralistic and democratic dialogue on the right wing of this country, and save the rest of us your glib dominance of media. Alternatively, take time off and assess how completely wrong you’ve lived your journalistic life in the spotlight spewing the polarizing crap that we are now dealing with.

You don't need to speak to the whole country. You need to speak to "your people", the conservatives. That's where your ministry should focus. You don't need to lecture the rest of us. We are way ahead of you on this.

Sincerely

Torrey Byles