David Brooks Nails the “American Ideal”

post 89 - something every folk musician should know

A PREDICTABLE FIX

Our nation continues to spin further into the totally predictable chaos the president promised he’d create. At every turn, the president is Hell-bent on igniting any situation that can bring conflict. (Don’t get me started on why you can’t spell “disruption” without the letters s, t, u, p, i, and d.)

But even before the smoke begins to clear, we can start rebuilding. And the place to start is with a different promise – the promise of the “American Ideal.” It is time to reclaim “America” and resume instituting the promises of the Ideal.

What, again, is the American Ideal? The American philosopher David Brooks (yeah, I called him that) hit the nail on the head in his May 29 New York Times opinion piece.

The piece’s title, “I’m Normally a Mild Guy. Here’s What Pushed Me Over the Edge,” doesn’t give an adequate clue to the profundity of its content. So, in case you missed it, I recommend you read this article, especially if you aspire to be a meaningful folk musician – not because you can’t be meaningful if you don’t get Brook’s point, but because his point is so relevant to the value of folk music and the power of song. The piece also sheds light on who I am, where I am currently, and where I have always been coming from.

BROOKS WRITES:

“…America stands for a set of universal principles: the principle that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with inalienable rights, (and) that democracy is the form of government that best recognizes human dignity and best honors beings who are made in the image of God.”

AND I ADD:

“…that we the people do not need to be told how to run our lives by kings, queens, or princes; popes, rabbis, or imams; business leaders, market forces, TV personalities, or influencers, as long as we responsibly govern ourselves through representative democracy.”

These principles add up to an “Ideal” because they form a vision of perfection that will never be fully attained but that needs to be forever striven for.

A FULCRUM

The “American Ideal” is a fulcrum in my public life. My spiritual discoveries lead to the same principles. These principles then lead to my work of representing, reflecting, and advocating for the Ideal through songs and stories.

A PIPELINE

The American Ideal is also a pipeline to a greater understanding of our spiritual nature. Follow it back to its source and you discover that the it only makes sense if it is also true that no individual or group of people has a monopoly on truth; that God loves us all equally and hence we are all of equal spiritual value; that, although there are ways we can communicate with God, we have been endowed with the tools we need to figure the way ourselves. We do this individually by adhering to the Moral Compass. We do it collectively through honest, collective efforts to discern how the world works.

A DOUR OBSERVATION

The story of the American Ideal is not complete if I don’t mention, again, the dreaded music conference I attended in Michigan in 2019, for it was the antithesis of the Ideal.

I have mentioned this “Conference” ad nauseam in this column because there I experienced a full-throttle attack on the American Ideal both in general and specifically toward my work. I am confident that thousands of others have had similar experiences, and I suggest that if you wonder how America got where it is today, the answer may lie in these experiences.

It’s been said that the seeds of the future can be found within the present. And, as it turned out, the America of 2025 was easy to see within the Conference in 2019. There were open displays of contempt for “America” and for me because I had the audacity to call my music “American Folk Music.”

PURE TRUMPISM

And tell me this isn’t one hundred percent Trumpian: My detractors felt they were “right” and I was “wrong” and thus had the moral imperative to use any means necessary to silence me. Throughout the conference, I was subjected to name-calling (racist, an old, clueless white man of privilege, “step aside Boomer” and more), harassment, disruption of a panel discussion I led, public humiliation, false accusations, and other forms of “professor targeting.”

I could handle all of that. But what hit me hardest was being vilified by the Board of Directors for “violating the diversity policy” because while explaining to a Board member that we had a problem, I described my assailants - the people who called me “Boomer” among other names - as “Millennials.”

Woe is me, for sure! But that’s not why I share this.

A BIGGER POINT

The bigger point is that America is in a fix today, and the culprit is not just one maniac attempting to crush the American economy for his self-enrichment, or steer his suicide cult to create constant “states of emergency” that give him unbridled power. The culprits are the enemies of the American Ideal.

All of the resistance in the world of the current attempts to destroy this nation will most likely be fruitless if we don’t double down on rehabilitating the vision of the American Ideal.

NO LONGER OVER THE EDGE

There’s more to the story of why David Brooks felt pushed over the edge by recent events. I was pushed over the edge five and a half years ago at the Conference, and I spent a lot of time there. But I’m not there anymore. Nor will the world we live in today push me back. Instead, I look straight ahead, and like the tip of an arrow racing toward a boar’s heart, I am fixed on a target - to sing louder about the principles of the American Ideal.

***

Your support allows me to continue singing these songs and writing this series. If you find value in this work, please consider upgrading to a supporting subscriber. This way, I can keep “Looking for America” free for those who cannot afford it, and continue writing and giving concerts of hope and optimism, especially in these challenging times when a clear path through the darkness is not always easy to see.

Keep the Flame Alive!