In a world that often seems to be inhabited only by old fat rich white men, we almost lose a sense of what standard men we could respect are really like. The feminists have seemed to insist that the alternative is blubbering weaklings who must be rescued all the time. I mean, if even the English Queen's sons are seduced by child-girls and being dissolute in wealthy, corrupt groups, who is a prince? Only a purple pop singer?
From a surprising source comes a reminder. It's actually an interview with Stephen Colbert as interviewee with Anderson Cooper asking the questions. They are serious, frank, and address both religion and death in grownup terms, quotable. For instance, Colbert depicts his mother's death as the "quiet closing of a door" to the past and memories. But what seized the media attention is the fact that Cooper wept. That says a lot about what this culture believes in as grief.
I've added David Brooks to this group for my own thinking because of his life-trajectory change and where it has brought him, which is no less than a new life. He may be too liberal or in some way "soft" for others to like, but I do respect that he has found a way to be religious, progressive, and Republican against all tides and signs. I think about him when I try to understand groups that sustain what I used to think of as culture, meaning that these men are attached to each other and the rest of the world without making them exclude each other. His approach to the media is analytic but in a different way from Cooper's, which sometimes verges on "gotcha."
This clip is introductory to the interview that intrigues people.
This is the link to the whole first half of the interview.
Where are we going? Clip discussing Trump:
"This is a "Tweet" from 'Anderson Cooper 360°. It's reference to the point in the interview that confronts the most difficult question for Christians, one so prominent in trying to understand theory that it has a name as an entire discipline: "theodicy." The question of how a benign and protective god can allow such suffering in the world.
The quote:
You said "what punishment of gods are not gifts. Do you really believe that?" @andersoncooper, choking back tears, asks Stephen Colbert, as they discuss grief.
"Yes," replies the comedian. "It's a gift to exist and with existence comes suffering. There's no escaping that."
Then Colbert goes on to say two things about suffering. One is the importance of knowing as oneself that one is indeed suffering and that it is part of existence, an inescapable price. The other is that one's own suffering opens one up to the suffering of others, meaning it sustains empathy which is part of being fully human.
This is where it becomes relevant that Brooks searches for groups who are fully human and reaching out to others like them. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brooks_the_lies_our_culture_tells_us_about_what_matters_and_a_better_way_to_live I think one could defend the idea that this was something like what Republican conservatism was once about..
Granted that these men are handsome, very well educated, employed and known as high status, and that their suffering has mostly been emotional. Colbert and Cooper both lost their fathers at around age ten, before they reached the age of struggling with sex in society. Both had exceptional mothers to whom they devoted themselves without being captured. There are other differences and likenesses. Both lost brothers.
"In a recent Ted Talk, published July 3, 2019, Brooks speaks about his views on the state of culture and relationships in America today. In a speech that surprised many long-time followers of Brooks, he shares his experience with loneliness, and how it led to his reevaluation of what is important to focus on in one's life. Brooks shares about Weave, a social reform project that he is involved in." He has a degree from the U of Chicago as well as being on their Board of Trustees. (I have an MA from the U of Chicago.)
Colbert graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in theatre where I graduated from the same department three years before he was born. That means he missed my two most powerful professors: Paul Schilpp, a former Methodist humanist, who taught Philosophy of Religion; and Alvina Krause, an acting teacher who ran a summer theatre. Anderson Cooper would have loved her. Colbert's personal outlook comes from reading Tolkien completely and obsessively. There's currently a film but I'm not sure how relevant it is. Link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ1vn85iQRE The official trailer. It's a bit "Downton Abbey" when it's not "Game of Thrones."
The Brits are in as much embroiled in danger and embarrassment as we Yanks and even the Canadians, which is what Brooks was originally. All of us need to keep in mind what grown men used to be like, both emotionally and rationally, how they found resources for coping and then shared them with others. They weren't tempted to spend a lot of money on their houses and airplanes, nor did they find it desirous to torture pretty women in whatever shades of gray, I don't think they bought paintings of male presidents wearing blue dresses and red shoes nor would they be particularly amused to see one. They have their down sides but they are not despicable.
These were white public men most of us respect -- they had standards and they became "standards", which became exclusive. That became demonic. I think about them with affection and respect. We shouldn't forget them even if those of us who are different struggle to find our own strengths. These three would not turn away people who have honor or are in struggle.
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