Here is an excellent column from David Brooks that I think shows both the problem between do-gooders and the rest of the world as well as a way out.
It’s fashionable for progressives to look at non-progressives as not only in the way of achieving utopia but flat out naysayers to everything useful. The truth of course is that all Americans, even conservatives, want all the same basic things progressives want but are seriously put off by progressive policies and rhetoric.
Worldwide, the sensible center is finding that many traditional approaches to fighting poverty and more recently planet husbandry are not just flawed but seriously counter-productive. In the propaganda war, nothing could be more obnoxious than the progressive emphasis on empathy [aka political correctness] – progressives should use W’s smirk and a gum chewing clerk wishing them a Blessed Day as a comparison.
Brooks suggests that empathy is an unconstructive tangent and that we should start dealing with one another on a values basis. One thing is certain, without cooperation, there can be no governance.
The Limits of Empathy
By David Brooks - NYT
September 29, 2011
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