David Brooks

We do not connect with one another the way we once did. It used to be normal for us to be willing to die for what we believed in — not any more. These days we look out for our interests much more than we look out for the interests of others. It has not always been like that.

In this article David Brooks looks at how our country has changed in the 150 years since Gettysburg.

As he says in his conclusion, “Makes today’s special interest politics look kind of pathetic.”

If we look at this from a chakra viewpoint, i think we find that the will chakra is a little weaker. We are still willing to risk our lives, but not as freely and not in far fewer situations.

What has totally changed are the heart, desire, and spirit chakras. We are no longer connected to each other through the heart chakra. Parents and children may have enough of a link to lead the parents to risk their lives for their children. There are very few other places where the link is strong enough for us to risk our lives for someone else.

We’re at the point now that we deny other people enough to food and shelter if we think they aren’t “contributing enough.” It’s not like the ones who are doing the denying will be seriously hurt by giving up a little more. I read that as the desire chakra getting way too much power.

The spirit chakra seems totally lost. Brooks talks about how the soldiers at Gettysburg used words like “gallant,” “valor,” and “chivalric” to describe other soldiers’ actions. Those are things found in the spirit. Our lives are not just our own. They are part of something greater, too. We’ve just forgotten.

I hope we can start to remember that there is more to us than our body. We don’t have to fight and die, but we do need to rebalance our souls.