The Key to Understanding the Traditionalists

History Is Running Backwards In the May issue, David Brooks considered why reactionaries are taking over the world. “History Is Running Backwards” is a provocative article. But I think David Brooks errs in framing traditionalism and modernity as an either/or, when in fact they exist in a both/and context. One can be both a traditionalist and a modernist simultaneously. The key, as Brooks notes, is that “a well-adjusted life consists of daring explorations from a secure base.” Would that we all…