Modesty and Self

David Brooks wrote an interesting Op-Ed article in the NYTimes today. Here is the link to the article.

My takeaway from reading this article is that by emphasizing too much on "self" and "self accomplishment", we may lose an importance of collectives and the meaning of our lives and values towards making progress at the collective level.

Here are some quotes from the article:

• Brooks questioned whether there is a link between a magnification of self and a declining saliency of the virtues associated with citizenship. He argued: "Citizenship, after all, is built on an awareness that we are not all that special but are, instead, enmeshed in a common enterprise, Our lives are given meaning by the service we supply to the nation."