David Brooks’ op-ed, “Culture or Character at Duke,” which appears in today’s News & Observer, is a revealing piece of cultural anthropology. And it’s not because of the opening and closing references to Tom Wolfe’s “Charlotte Simmons” novel.
Unfortunately, Brooks’ piece is a New York Times Select item, and available under subscription only, so I quote from his excellent remarks:
“If you wnader through the thicket of commentary that already surrounds the Duke lacrosse scandal, the first thing you notice is how sociological it is. In almost every article and piece of commentary, the event is portrayed not as a crime between individulas but as a clash between classes, races, and sexes.”
And later:
“Several decades ago, American commentators would have used an entirely different vocabulary to grapple with what happened at Duke. Instead of the vocabulary of sociology, they would have used the language of morality and character.”
Exactly so. Check it out.
