Brooks advocates emotion, connection for solutions

David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times, spoke Nov. 17 for the last speech of the George T. Hunter Lecture series of the season.Brooks' lecture, titled "How We Flourish: Building Community from the Brain Up," focused on community development and that connection and sometimes lack of connection in public education, arts and culture and the home environment of an individual.

Brooks gave his lecture to a full crowd, and began with praise for Sen. Bob Corker whom had told Brooks of the rebound Chattanooga has made with "bottom up change." Yet, the columnist was quick to poke fun on every group from progressive suburbanites to what he called "über-moms."

There are all different types of living situations and relations, and part of being an American is moving into the pockets where people identify others who are like them, Brooks said.

"By moving, we lose bonds of community, which is the key to happiness," he said. "The other problem is segmentation. We do everything with people like ourselves and this has created inequality."

Brooks also cited facts proving that the home an individual is born into often determines how well they succeed in life.

Besides Americans spending excessively, another problem leading to a growing distance between the community bonds is a stagnation in education development. This is shown in the statistic that over the last 30 years the number of people who have graduated college have become stagnant, Brooks said.

"We've looked at all these problems as economic problems," he said. "But to me if we are going to solve these problems, it's not thinking like an economist but rather like Opra."

Brooks said emotion and interpenetration of minds are the keys to joining together people and solving these problems. Interpenetration of minds is displayed in a study done that showed that a couple on a date will synchronize their breathing patterns, vocabulary and mannerisms. The factor is further displayed by the mimic effect displayed in a 43-minute-old baby who can imitate someone wagging their tongue after seeing it done, Brooks said.

It is the individual, neighborhood and national interpenetrations that will determine the outcome of this nature for the future, Brooks said.

The emotional response to situations is so important, he said, that the second highest reason college students drop out is because they do not feel emotionally engaged with the atmosphere. The first is that they were not prepared for college by high school curriculum.

Brooks ended his lecture by reiterating, "We will define the problems we have."

Brooks is a bi-weekly Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times, and is a regular analyst on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and NPR's "All Things Considered." He is the author of two books called "Bobos in Paradise" and "On Paradise Drive."

Brooks has written for such publications as Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and The Washington Post.

Prior speakers from previous lectures include former secretary of state Dr. Madeleine Albright, author Frank McCourt and environmentalist Majora Carter.

For more information on the Benwood lecture series, visit www.benwood.org or call 423-267-4311.