27 June, 2015
Author: David Brooks
Genre: Current Affairs
Category: New Books
The problem with modern society according to New York Times columnist and author of the bestselling The Social Animal, David Brooks, is that we focus too little on our 'eulogy virtues' and far too much on our 'resume virtues'. To decode: we should spend more time developing the kind of virtuous behaviour that will be remembered at our funerals and far less time acting in a way that will see us into a new and better job or getting a new Facebook friend. Brooks is a good storyteller and the book is filled with biographical stories of people past and present who have managed to achieve 'eulogy-oriented' lives and he argues cleverly that it is only within community that true fulfilment can be achieved. So really this is a book about community, its decline and how we can look to ourselves to find the solution.