Lessons Learned from a Serious Gaffe re. Arthur Brooks

I learn a lot from our readers who post in the Comments section of the DM daily. And I invite others to join in. Recently a reader named Daniel, who offers regular and thoughtful comments, informed me that my celebrating the “wisdom” of Arthur Brooks was deeply tarnished.  

I had focused exclusively on a long article in big.think.com where I was struck by the facts he shared about the explosion of depression among young people today, including students he knows. I liked questions Brooks posed about where the depression is coming from and possible remedies including searching for meaning and transcendence and honoring the left brain/right brain reality.

Of course, I jumped on the latter point since I am in agreement with Einstein that American academia fails at honoring the “intuitive brain” putting all its eggs in the “rational brain” basket. Having spent close to five decades fashioning pedagogy for adults and youth that incorporated both the rational and intuitive brains and witnessing dynamite results, Brooks and I share common ground there.

Our Cosmic Masses bring new life to ritual that too easily succumbs to reading prayers from a book or being preached at rather than celebrating with. Plus other practices like the Stations of the Cosmic Christ and recovering the mystics to nurture the mystic and prophet in ourselves–all this has been my life’s work and incorporates the right brain along with the left.

What I did not know about Brooks and where I am indebted to Daniel for informing me, is that he flunks the Via Transformativa. As president of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank funded by the Koch brothers and other far-right influencers and climate deniers, he is part of the Republican lead-up to MAGA. In his book in 2010 called The Battle, which Rush Limbaugh endorsed as a “must read”, he pits “free enterprise” against social democracy. His supporters included far right-wing leader Newt Gingrich, who paved the way for MAGA.

All I can say is, “YIKES!” and “I apologize to our readers.” But there are lessons to learn here.

The most valuable is that I find the whole experience to be a very strong lesson in understanding the full rigor of the Four Paths taken as a whole.

I was moved by Brooks’s commitment to the Via Positiva and his search for Joy and what holds us back. And the role of awe and wonder and a sense of transcendence.

He treats the Via Negativa by endorsing silence and the positive side to boredom and shouts about letting go of addictions to the screen, whether large or small, and how to go about that. There too we are on common ground.

But the deal-breaker is the Via Transformativa. While attending daily Mass, he appears to turn his back on the teachings of Pope Francis about care for our common home as laid out in Laudato Si. Does he consider climate change a “hoax” as the head of his party does? Does he countenance locking immigrants up in concentration camps (many of whom share his same faith as Catholics)? Does he oppose Christian Nationalism and racism in the highest levels of government? And budgets that give billionaires tax breaks while taking $1 trillion from health care? Does he put limits on capitalism?

Maybe he should read my new book on St. John of the Cross and the Triple Dark Night of Our Times as well as my book on the antichrist and learn the full scope of the mystical tradition including its prophetic dimension which dares to see evil and injustice and call it out. Hildegard’s and Signorelli’s paintings of the Antichrist are a very good start.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.

Banner Image: The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Photo by Ajay_Suresh. Wikimedia Commons. 

Queries for Contemplation

How important is it that we incorporate all four paths into our spiritual awareness and life practice and work?

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Times. 

Sins of the Spirit, Blessing of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society. 

Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ. 

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Times. 

The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human. 

Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times. 

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance. 

The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times. 

Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet. 

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality. 

The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.