Great article from David Brooks: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/opinion/brooks-the-spirit-of-enterprise.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212 "People who work hard and play by the rules should have a fair shot at prosperity. Money should go to people on the basis of merit and enterprise. Self-control should be rewarded while laziness and self-indulgence should not. Community institutions should nurture responsibility and fairness.
This ethos is not an immutable genetic property, which can blithely be taken for granted. It's a precious social construct, which can be undermined and degraded. Right now, this ethos is being undermined from all directions. People see lobbyists diverting money on the basis of connections; they see traders making millions off of short-term manipulations; they see governments stealing money from future generations to reward current voters. The result is a crisis of legitimacy. The game is rigged. Social trust shrivels. Effort is no longer worth it. The prosperity machine winds down."----- Common Sense community building is an effort to deconstruct the cultural impediments in order to restore the values Brooks is talking about. Kevin Kervick Discovering Possibility: A Common Sense Conservative Manifesto (For Classical Liberals Too) is available at www.discoveringpossibility.com. The book offers a sociological perspective and corresponding culture change approach, that relies on the principles of classical liberalism and a Deistic spirituality and promotes four pillars of community - freedom, personal responsibility, neighborliness, and thrift. All proceeds from Discovering Possibility go toward the furtherance of our mission at A Place for Possibilities, www.aplaceforpossibilities.org, a 501 (c) 3 educational nonprofit corporation. Also, check out my writing about Independent politics on Examiner.com at http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-manchester/kevin-kervick -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
