tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13617569.post7354288805822672252..comments2024-03-27T02:13:58.088-07:00Comments on Integral Options Cafe: David Brooks on Mitt Romney's Lack of an Internal Sense of Visionwilliam harrymanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06981478282688361274noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13617569.post-25964921060648346572012-02-12T09:18:24.656-07:002012-02-12T09:18:24.656-07:00It is a mistake and maybe a sign of a cultural dum...It is a mistake and maybe a sign of a cultural dumbing down to take Brooks's take on Riesman's, et al, "The Lonely Crowd" as anything above a distorted way to back into a piece of propaganda.First of all his definition of inner-directed was all too self-serving because it seemed to equate that style solely with conservatism.What Riesman wrote about inner directed was that it signified a strong sense of personal convictions that could be enacted by conservatives, liberals and radicals alike. (All the old politicos known as "New Deal Liberals" from FDR to LBJ were inner directed men.And they were neither simplistic nor simple minded.)<br /><br />It is also a mistake and maybe a sign of cultural dumbing down to put Riesman's categories alongside Integrally flavored stages of development. There is ample evidence in "The Lonely Crowd" that the authors saw "other directed" as a sign of cultural decline not advance. And since it appears that Romney and Obama are nothing more that opposite sides of the same Property Party counterfeit coin I'd rate this "self-sufficient" nonsense (Riesman wrote nothing of self-sufficient) as a columnist's meaningless throw-away line in that it is always incumbent on a writer to mention the President when writing politics even if he has nothing meaningful to say about him. Obama as postmodern is a sorry joke.Steven Nickesonhttp://derechosalvaje.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com