Maybe a bit unfair on my part.
| Not at all. Either he is a wannabe fascist or a pampered fool. |
| Those are not mutually exclusive choices, particularly these days... |
People seem to have a harder time building friendships across class lines. As society becomes more unequal and segmented, invitations come to people on the basis of their job status. Middle-aged people have particular problems nurturing friendships and building new ones. They are so busy with work and kids that friendship gets squeezed out.
So, in the fantasy world in which I have $500 million, I'd try to set up places that would cultivate friendships.
| We already have that, it's called "Disneyworld". It even makes money which is more than your fantasy world would do... |
I know a lot of people who have been involved in fellowship programs. They made friends that ended up utterly transforming their lives. I'd try to take those sorts of networking programs and make them less career oriented and more profound.
Well, David, you can try your local sports bar on a Monday night...
| I simply must introduce him to my friends among the lay Dominican monks. Fellowship, utterly transformed, retreats, across class lines... of course, one must profess to be a practicing Catholic, and the ones I know are all ferociously intelligent, but surely our Mr. Brooks could fake all that for long enough. |
| Not a chance, the Dominicans would see through him in seconds... |
To do that, you have to get people out of their normal hunting grounds where their guard is up. You also probably want to give them challenging activities to do together. Nothing inspires friendship like selflessness and cooperation in moments of difficulty. You also want to give them moments when they can share confidences, about big ideas and small worries.
Translation: Places complete with steroid thugs with search wands
So I envision a string of adult camps or retreat centers (my oldest friendships were formed at summer camp, so I think in those terms).
| (Darling, you were twelve. Things are different when one is twelve. Also, all the kids you knew had parents who could afford the expense of summer camp, which means the other kids may have been from far away, but they were in the same demographic as your family.) |
Groups of 20 or 30 would be brought together from all social and demographic groups, and secluded for two weeks.
And you can use trucks, paint 'em black and call them something sinister: I know: Black Marias!
| What happens to the job and the kids while one is enjoying all that "me time"? There's a reason your Pops kept working while you were at the summer camp of your chilhood. |
| Job? What job? In this fantasy world Pops is unemployed, on the dole, and waiting for ObamaCare to take care of his broken heart... |
They'd prepare and clean up all their meals together, and eating the meals would go on for a while. In the morning, they would read about and discuss big topics.
Translation: yet another "common sense" discussion, which mysteriously winds up a leftist lecture.
| Pining after the bull sessions of his callow college years and the summer camp of his boyhood? The poor man must be having a dreadful time in the adult world despite his apparent success. |
| The 'read and discuss big topics' sounds like an self-criticism session at a corrective labor camp, where the biggest mistake you could possibly make as a kulak is to open your mouth... |
In the afternoons, they'd play sports, take hikes and build something complicated together.
| Like mining coal or felling trees in the Kolyma... |
At night, there'd be a bar and music.
| Tell you what, Mr. Brooks: you recreate one of those resorts in the Adirondacks that were so popular with Jewish families from New York City from the Thirties to the Sixties, and see if you can make a going business of it. Surely Mr. Soros and the Ford Foundation would be happy to contribute to your little exercise in guided development for the masses. And if they sponsored a children's camp next door, all worries about the kiddies would be put to rest. Whether the jobs would still be there after a two week sabbatical is a question for another day. |
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