David Brooks Misses the Point

Oh, some will say, there they go again, riding their hobby horse. In today’s column, David Brooks argues that things have never been better in the world. In America, for example:

Compared with all past periods, American cities and suburbs are sweeter and more interesting places. Of course there are the problems of inequality and poverty that we all know about, but there hasn’t been a time in American history when so many global cultures percolated in the mainstream, when there was so much tolerance for diverse ethnicities, lifestyles and the complex directions of the heart, when there was so little tolerance for disorder, domestic violence and prejudice.

, , , The scope of the problems we face are way below historic averages. We face nothing like the slavery fights of the 1860s, the brutality of child labor and industrialization of the 1880s, or a civilization-threatening crisis like World War I, the Great Depression, World War II or the Cold War.

True enough, and we should be thankful for the blessings we enjoy our grandparents didn’t. But Brooks leaves out of his rosy picture a reality some of us can’t forget: the killing of millions and millions of unborn children and the fact that so many, especially among the elite, don’t even think of people eliminating a child they don’t want as anything more than an inconvenience. Or, like Brooks, don’t think about it at all, even when surveying the state of the world today.

If the unborn child is a human being and deserves our care, yet can be legally killed, and with the approval of society, up to the very moment of birth, we do face something like the slavery fight of the 1860s, the brutality of child-labor, and a civilization-threatening crisis.