Deconstructing David Brooks...

"The old days when gray-haired sages had all the answers about the ultimate issues of life are over." 

" 'What is Your Purpose?' is a very revealing piece of writing. Brooks’s deeper concern is less the diffusion of conversation than the nature of the conversation itself. Today's intellectuals "write more for each other and are less likely to volley moral systems onto the public stage," he writes, later adding: "Public debate is now undermoralized and overpoliticized. We have many shows where people argue about fiscal policy but not so many on how to find a vocation or how to measure the worth of your life.” Here, as throughout the piece, Brooks describes moralism as an existential matter, one connected to the life of the soul—not, as #BlackLivesMatters would have it, as the practical matter of actually living and surviving. 

The "gray haired sages" were a product of their time -- good and bad.