Arnon Grunberg

Holy

Every day

David Brooks on sins and holy wars:

"As many writers have noted, in the progressive account, racism has the exact same structure as John Calvin’s conception of original sin. It is a corrupting group inheritance, a shared guilt that pervades everything — it is in the structures of our society and the invisible crannies of our minds."

(...)

"But we Americans are not at our best when we launch off on holy wars. Once you start assigning guilt to groups, rather than to individuals, bad, illiberal things are likely to happen. There’s a lot of over-generalized group accusation in both these narratives."

Read the article here.

Justice is fine, mote than fine, sometimes needed, but avoid holy wars. Collective guilt usually turns out to be a nasty thing. Very much so. And almost every day without a holy war is good day. It's always good to have David Brooks.

discuss on facebook