This is the Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times opinion.
You've heard the news, here's what to make of it.
My name is David Brooks.
I am a columnist for the New York Times and I write about politics, I write about culture,
I write about social science, and from time to time I write about world events.
Since October 7th, I've been thinking a lot about the spreading brutalism of our world.
Israel has seen attacks overnight by both rockets and gunmen.
Dozens of rockets were fired from the.
Gaza's health Ministry said the death toll from the 13th month long war has ticked past 44,000.
Because the middle east is so contentious, a lot of the brutalism is right here in our own country.
And that's the vicious debates we're having, that's people screaming at each other.
And the thing I've been wondering about is how do we live in this brutal environment without being brutalized ourselves?
How do we live in a way where we remain open hearted and we don't get calloused over by our own hatreds?
We're not the first group of people to live through brutalistic times.
So I wanted to learn from the wise people in the past, how do you stay humane in times that are inhumane?
And so I went back to two intellectual and moral traditions.
And those two traditions are symbolized by two cities, Athens and Jerusalem.
And they're different, these two traditions, but they each have resources upon which we can draw.
And so, for example,
the Greeks lived with constant warfare between their city states