Though he normally toils in the realm of bare-knuckle politics, David Brooks these days prefers the more ethereal realm of the unconscious. The unconscious mind, he says, is what “shapes who we are.”
Brooks’ new book, “The Social Animal,” barely touches on the partisan battles he covers in his thrice-weekly New York Times column and on “PBS NewsHour.” Rather, it is a sprawling inquiry into the darker recesses of the mind, and how character forms within.
He will share more of the book’s insights when he speaks at “FedFest One Hundred,” an all-day celebration marking the centennial of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation. It takes place 3 p.m. April 10 at the Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF.
Brooks is a very out-and-proud Jew, which accounts for his invitation to FedFest. But “The Social Animal” is not about the Jews. For the book, Brooks invented a couple, Harold and Erica, following them from cradle to grave as they emerge into their best selves. He intersperses their fictional narrative with nuggets of scientific insight into the mind.
Brooks left religion out of his story, even though the relationship between faith and the mind is ripe for neuroscientific research.
“The religious aspect I did leave out,” Brooks says, “in part because the theme I favored was human development, how people learn and achieve. I had a secular bias there. Faith in the brain is such a complicated project, it’s hard to get into it halfway.”
Brooks returns to the subject of religion with his FedFest address, titled “Are Jews Social Animals?” One need not have grown up eating lox and bagels to know the answer to that question. For such a small segment of humanity, Brooks notes, Jews have survived and thrived in part because of the social infrastructure inherent in Judaism.
Out of that, Brooks says, Jews have built an enduring civilization and contributed immeasurably to humanity.
“The most obvious is certain fields of Jewish accomplishment; by that, I mean swimming and pro golf,” he says, adding with more seriousness, “If you look at the number of [Jewish] Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winners, it’s astounding.”
A sociologist by training, Brooks rose to the top of the punditry pile with his moderately conservative views. In his columns and weekly PBS roundtable with Mark Shields, he established himself as the un-Limbaugh, preferring thoughtful discourse to shouting.
His grand observation about American politics boils down to two competing and intransigent systems, one focused on freedom (conservatives), the other equality (liberals). Brooks sees the merit in both.
That ability to see both sides might have something to do with Brooks’ devotion to Judaism. He certainly has the shtetl street cred in his background. His immigrant great-grandfather was a kosher butcher on New York’s Lower East Side.
From there it was “100 years of assimilation,” as he puts it. Though he did have a bar mitzvah. Brooks attended an Episcopal school and later went on to marry a Protestant woman. But that’s where the assimilation ends.
“Three years later she announced she wanted to keep kosher, convert and become a rabbi,” he says. “Now we send our kids to Jewish day schools. Through her I lead quite a Jewish life. We have an iron rule: Never go out on Friday nights unless it’s for Shabbat dinner. I’ve turned down dinner with presidents.”
Writing “The Social Animal” has altered the way Brooks views political events. “It’s fascinating to watch the Middle East as an emotional contagion,” he says, referring to the current revolutions in the Arab world. “A lot of people still have the basic view that emotion and reason are like two sides of a seesaw. My point is, that’s not true. It’s important to pay attention to emotion and respect it.”
Despite having written a book about getting in touch with the unconscious, Brooks admits sometimes he can be clueless about it all.
“I’m not mister touchy-feely,” he says, “The other day I got into the car before my wife, and she said, ‘Can you tell what I’m feeling right now?’ ”
“The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement” by David Brooks (448 pages, Random House, $27)