Arthur Brooks Serves Up a Wickedly-Delightful Anti-Statist Slant
Echo de Tocqueville and Nisbet's emphasis on the importance of local associations. The ruling class doesn't want us to get along. More strife means more intervention. More intervention means more opportunity for them to exercise power and rape our country's resources. (Blog Post)
I'm pretty sure the dicks-in-girls'-bathrooms stunt was merely the most flagrant play to date from the Big-State and Ruling Class Playbook.
The more excited we all get about Team USA [in the World Cup] and the tournament overall, the more likely we are to see a reset in our polarized culture, at least temporarily.
Of course, such comity is not in everyone’s interests, so there will be plenty of pushback. Polarizing leaders from the worlds of politics, media, and activism aim to conquer people by dividing them. When you’re induced to hate others for ideological reasons, you have been turned into a commodity, and someone is profiting—just not you. Your joy and friendship are existentially dangerous to the Outrage Industrial Complex. Enjoy the NBA Finals or the World Cup together and, the next thing you know, we might actually figure out that we like one another, despite whatever urgent political story is being served up on cable TV to stir indignation. So, expect to see disparaging comments about teams and players from politicians, media stories that seek to politicize the tournament, and perhaps even some displays of narcissistic activism from a player or two.
Arthur Brooks: The Knicks Just Made the Case for Sports Fandom
New Yorkers poured into the streets after the Knicks’ title run, embracing strangers in shared joy. Social science suggests that instinct is good for us—and for the country, writes Arthur Brooks.
Arthur Brooks