For a discussion of Murray and Vatican II, see Garry Wills' new book THE FUTURE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WITH POPE FRANCIS (2015). But also see Blanshard's book PAUL BLANSHARD ON VATICAN II (1966).
More recently, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, was on the cover of Time magazine, when he was named Time's "Person of the Year." But Brooks does not mention this, because it does not fit into his selective nostalgic account of recent American culture.
DAVID RIESMAN'S BOOK
Now, in Brooks' supposedly magic time-frame of as late as 50 years ago, David Riesman's book THE LONELY CROWD: A STUDY OF THE CHANGING AMERICAN CHARACTER (1950) was still enormously influential. Even though Brooks mentions Riesman's psychotherapist and friend Erich Fromm, Brooks does not mention in "What Is Your Purpose?" Riesman's famous book about the changing American character.
Briefly, Riesman describes three broad American character patterns: (1) tradition-directed (also known as outer-directed), (2) inner-directed, and (3) other-directed. Like Fromm, Riesman himself was a decidedly inner-directed person. As a result, he was worried about the emerging other-directed character pattern that was then emerging in contemporary American culture.
No doubt movement conservatism over the last 50 years or so has celebrated inner-directed persons.
No doubt other-directed persons emerged as more influential in certain progressive and liberal movements in the 1960s and subsequently in the political correctness police.
Of course the political correctness police fancy themselves to be the champions of their version of morality and character development, just as Brooks and other movement conservatives fancy themselves to be champions of their version of morality and character development.
In other words, the clash between movement conservatives such as Brooks and the political correctness police can be understood in Riesman's terminology as the clash between predominantly inner-directed persons and predominantly other-directed persons.
However, in Riesman's three-fold taxonomy of the changing American character, he also describes tradition-directed persons, persons he also describes as outer-directed. No doubt certain Americans in contemporary American culture today can be described as tradition-directed persons.
In his book THE ROAD TO CHARACTER (2015) and in his column "What Is Your Purpose?" (May 5, 2015), Brooks emerges as the voice of and the spokesman for the inner-directed person. In effect, like Riesman at an earlier time, Brooks worries about the other-directed persons who emerged in prominence in American culture after World War II.
WALTER ONG'S ACCOUNT OF WESTERN CULTURAL HISTORY
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