What you hear in focus groups and conversations, people will give you 20 minutes of rage about how the borders are out of control. But then you start saying, practically, what are we going to do about it? What are we going to do about the 11 million here? What are we going to do to get some workers we need for the farms? Then people start having a normal conversation.
David BrooksMost poverty and suffering - whether in a country, a family or a person - flows from disorganization. A stable social order is an artificial accomplishment, the result of an accumulation of habits, hectoring, moral stricture and physical coercion. Once order is dissolved, it takes hard measures to restore it
David BrooksMost people don't form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling.
David BrooksThe effectiveness of a group of people is not determined by their IQ but by how well they communicate.
David Brooks