Knowing the Social Mind

David Brooks Keynotes

David Brook's keynotes cover a field that Brooks knows intimately -- journalism. As a current...

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Journalist David Brooks Talks Self-Awareness in Politics

— February 16, 2012 — Keynote Trends
New York Times columnist David Brooks draws on his experience interviewing politicians to invite new insights into human social skills and the cognitive functions behind them.

David Brooks relates his experience following Mitt Romney during a past election cycle, a man who Brooks says has extremely impressive social skills. He describes the paradox he’s witnessed in politics when very charismatic people “slip into policy-making mode and their social awareness vanishes and start talking like accountants.” An example of this separation is the war in Iraq, as he states the US “invaded Iraq oblivious to the cultural and psychological realities.”

David Brooks claims this is all a system of bigger problems of a society that has separated reason from the emotions and encourages the use of reason to suppress passion that has created a shallow view of human nature.
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