Prometheus 6

It was strictly temporary.

Strange contributions to the public debate

by Prometheus 6
Mon, 05/08/2006 - 3:06pm

The second attempt came from David Brooks in his New York Times op-ed, Marshmallows and Public Policy. This one simply confuses me, because Mr. Brooks is saying government should shift its attention from things that are difficult to influence to things that are impossible to influence.

The results of these structural reforms are almost always disappointingly modest. And yet policy makers rarely ever probe deeper into problems and ask the core questions, such as how do we get people to master the sort of self-control that leads to success?

I don’t understand how a principled Conservative can shape his mouth so as to allow those words to pass aloud. I have never heard such a deep intrusion into the personal lives of Americans advocated in a major media outlet by a figure so central to a party’s message machine.