Angelus News | April 19-26, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 15

don’t all agree on matters of public
policy.
What we have to realize is that the
caricatures of our ideological opponents
that we see on social media and
in the news are not representative of
the beliefs and behaviors of the American
people.
Lopez: Who are the most decent
people you know, who you look to on
days when your faith in your book’s
theme might be tempted to waver?
Brooks: In writing this book, one of
my most important sources of inspiration
was my friend and occasional
co-author, the Dalai Lama. His own
story is an important reminder for me
when I am treated with contempt and
want to respond in kind.
Though he and his people have been
persecuted by the Chinese government
since his teenage years, the
Dalai Lama prays for the leaders of
China every morning that they would
lead good and happy lives.
His advice to me has been similar:
When you are treated with contempt,
practice warmheartedness. This might
sound like soft and weak advice, but
as I’ve learned from the Dalai Lama,
being a person of warmheartedness in
fact requires great strength and toughness.
Strange to say, the Dalai Lama
has made me a better Catholic.
Lopez: You write, “Political scientists
find that our nation is more polarized
than it has been at any time since the
Civil War.” Does that worry you that
people talk in those terms? Did you
hesitate to put it in the book?
Brooks: It certainly worries me!
When the data show that 1 in 6 Americans
has stopped talking to a close
friend or family member because of
politics, you know that things are not
as they ought to be.
But that’s why I wrote this book,
because I believe we have a real problem.
I think the worst thing we could
do is ignore the problem, and I want
to offer public leaders and ordinary
citizens alike a series of practical
strategies for fighting the culture of
contempt.
Lopez: And yet you name civility
and tolerance as “garbage standards.”
How is love the game changer and is
it really practical in politics?
Brooks: In its truest form, love is not
soft or sentimental. It is a clear and
bracing commitment to the good of
our fellow men and women. It holds
us to a higher standard.
If a married couple told you they
were civil with one another, you’d
probably think they needed to go to
counseling. If your colleagues at work
merely tolerate you, you’re probably
looking for a new job.
In other words, we set the bar too
low when we strive for civility and
tolerance. There’s nothing wrong
with civility and tolerance, per se, but
they do not require that we actively
will what is good for the other (as
Saint Thomas Aquinas put it), which
is what we need to make genuine
progress.
To the second part of your question,
relying on the principle of love
is practical in politics because it
provides a moral consensus around
which meaningful disagreement can
revolve. If we know that our fellow
Arthur C. Brooks with the Dalai Lama in 2018.
IMAGE VIA TWITTER @ARTHURBROOKS
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