Frank Bruni, a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, offers us all a useful message of complexity and humility. [1]
As a professor and writer, Bruni says he is not “an ambassador of certainty or a font of unassailable verities but as an emissary of doubt. I want to teach . . . how much [each of us] always [has] to learn. A lesson of humility and “respect for tradition, which is a force that binds us, a folding of the self into a greater whole. . . [W]e share the stages of our communities, our countries, our worlds, with many other actors and should conduct ourselves in a manner that recognizes this fact. And ‘it’s complicated’ is a bulwark against arrogance, purity, zeal.”
Bruni cites Charlie Baker, a former Massachusetts governor, as a frequent advocate of humility who frequently quoted Philippians 2:3 from the Holy Bible as a lodestar for governing: “Do nothing our of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourself.”
Or as he stated in his co-authored 2022 book Results:
- “Snap judgments—about people or ideas—are fueled by arrogance and conceit. They create blind spots and missed opportunities. Good ideas and interesting ways to accomplish goals in public life exist all over the place if you have the will, the curiosity, and the humility to find them.”
Bruni concludes the New York Times column with the following words: “While grievance blows our concerns out of proportion, humility puts them in perspective. While grievance reduces the people with whom we disagree to caricature, humility acknowledges that they’re every bit as complex as we are — with as much of a stake in creating a more perfect union.”
This blogger thanks Frank Bruni for these important reminders.
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[1] Bruni, The Most Important Thing I Teach My Students Isn’t on the Syllabus, N.Y. Times (April 20, 2024); CFrank Bruni, Biography, N.Y. Times.