And off that last post on Children, I dug up yet another related post in the backlog.
This serves a partial book review on David Brook’s the Road to Character.
*Afternote: gosh its been more than year between reading the book and actually posting this. *
On Character
As remarked in the previous post on education I see the need to manage ourselves well (Life-led) as equally important to academics. This is something that cannot be directly “taught” in a school, but I believe it to be critically important as the world becomes ever more complex, uncertain and complicated.
As an extension of this line of thinking, I (not recently) read a book about character, which is a nice word to encapsulate all the relevant terms related to this topic: Call it integrity, values, self-mastery, discipline.
But in general (and indeed, the premise of the book), every “great” individual goes through journey, often with a non-lethal measure of hardship, shaping them into the mold of renown and “greatness”, though flawed in their own ways for sure.
But I am of the similar view that for every individual’s rise to greatness, - there are just as many, or perhaps far more unwritten tales of a struggle with the very real human tedency to slide into matters of deprivation, self destruction and akrasia. To be clear, this is not an encouragement nor a worldview where I believe that everyone should aspire to “greatness", but rather an observation on what might have be done right that we mortals could learn from.
Crap my previous coherent draft ended here.
So, given that the book very much reflects on the growth of morality and meaning in a purposeful life, I have parked this as an interim post on education, in the context of how people can be enabled to achieve this in a non-lethal manner without too terrible a hardship.
Some related mental models I had penned down here:
- The Adam I vs Adam II concept on our primal instincts vs a logical one. My view is that both must be groomed well
- That tough times build tough people, and we must fight the overbearing protective instinct to inculcate the necessary trade-offs for thoughtful development.
- Surrounded by good influences
- Succession cannot be done alone. Perhaps its a mixture of personal (Adam I, emotional) investment, together with a rational, objective structure (Adam 2)
On Succession:
In my earlier notes, I had contemplated the mystery of Succcession of Marcus Aurelius. For a great philosopher king as he - was he not able to groom a successor well?
Some questions come to mind:
- Whether character can be taught - though the answer, i suspect lies in between i) a tough time and ii) reflection
- Inherent trade-offs around wanting the best for loved ones (
- Trading-off with wanting the said loved one to like us as individuals (we’re all softies aren’t we)
- How much and how close we take after our parents?