Comments on: David Brooks’ ‘Humility’ Syllabus: Not Right for His Audience

By: jason taylor

jason taylor — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:55:18 +0000

Meekness bears a LOT of resemblances to soldiers. To be a soldier one must be meek enough to endure discipline. Those who are not are at best warriors and at worst thugs.

By: Helen Rittelmeyer’s New Blog » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:38:11 +0000

[...] uncanny side-by-side reading of The Brothers Karamazov and “Arrested Development,” a critique of David Brooks’ humility syllabus, comments on Nigerian soccer, and advice to aspiring [...]

By: DavidZ

DavidZ — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:38:57 +0000

I would suggest starting with Thomas a Kempis and “The Imitation of Christ.” Perhaps they could start each class by repeating the statement “He who knows himself well is mean and abject in his own sight, and takes no delight in the vain praise of men.”

Other lessons they should focus on:
1. If you think that you know many things and have great learning, then know for certain that there are many more things you do not know. So with true wisdom, you may not think yourself learned, but ought rather to confess your ignorance and folly.
2. If you would learn anything and know it profitably to the health of your soul, learn to be unknown and be glad to be considered despicable and as nothing.
3. The highest and most profitable learning is this: that a man have a truthful knowledge and a full despising of himself.

All from the Third Admonition.

By: Doomsdaypicnic

Doomsdaypicnic — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 01:27:01 +0000

All true, but at least Brooks did write that ‘I Was Totally Wrong About Obama’ article, so at least he’s not a complete stranger to humility.

By: BenSix

BenSix — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:37:28 +0000

This is worth it purely so one can imagine the trouble that students who ace the class will have deciding how to greet their own success.

“I got an “A” in my class on humility but, er, it was nothing…”

By: James

James — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:12:09 +0000

I appreciate the author’s critique of David Brooks’ syllabus on humility. In fact, I agree with much of it, but I would be very interested in the author’s suggestions for the syllabus. For that matter, what are the commenters’ suggestions?