Order out of Chaos
Dear Ester:
Sorry you had trouble with your e-mail account. Actually, last night I had
trouble getting at an open line. But, today, I made a second pot of coffee and
am settling into my office at home.
Like you, I read Safire's piece on the Brooklyn Museum issue in the New
York Times . It was on the mark. The museum's ad on Page B10 of the
Times only confirmed his point. It's as if everybody has their script
and dutifully follows it--including the media and pundits. In my own
experience, including with courts, I am stunned by how willing people are to
trivialize the concept of free speech in order to exploit it for some form of
political advantage. But, it is only the beginning of the season.
The stunner in today's news was the atrocities by some U.S. troops in Korea.
As tragic as it is to hear, finding out about it at least serves the purpose of
demonstrating that monstrous evil is not only to be found in the former
Yugoslavia or African countries. The capacity of "good" people to do, or at
least tolerate, evil things should never surprise us.
Finally, for now, I have continued to think about the discussion I attended
the other night about Fukuyama's book The Great Disruption . I think that
we are slowly beginning to understand the dynamics of why the disruption
occurred: the changing role of women; the interaction of that change with "the
pill"; the "freedom" that resulted for some men (no longer "responsible" for
being a parent); the excesses that accompanied the moral "freedom" that many
felt from normative setting institutions such as the church; and many of the
other powerful ideas that caught on so very quickly (e.g., that mental illness
did not exist) and shaped social policy. (I think that I wrote you about the
conversation among, Fukuyama, Adam Wolfe, Norman Podhoretz, and others.) The
part of the discussion that didn't begin, and which I would have enjoyed even
more, was why things now seem to be turning around now. I can write what I did
the other night about why and how crime was reduced in New York City, but it
still begs the question of why suddenly (and a decade is suddenly) individuals
and organizations could commit themselves to successful strategies and
collaborations. Although I haven't finished Fukuyama's book, he seems to
suggest a biological drive toward order and that humans are rational, can see
their mistakes, and can correct themselves. I wonder.
So, I hope your e-mail problems are solved.
George Kelling
