David Brooks: commitment

Transcript context

…They’re each quite manageable in terms of expense, safety, just in general. You’re not going to have any problems in either one. Sicily is this amazing mix of Norman, Arabic, Italian, North African cultures, still vitally diverse in that manner. Arguably the best food in Italy. Incredible Greek ruins. Make sure you go to Siracusa, avoid Taormina, and I even love Palermo. I think it’s fantastic as a semi-modern Italian city in the 20th, 19th-century sense. So, I would recommend that. Japan will blow your mind and change how you think about community and social cooperation. They’re not, in a funny way, that cooperative, but they completely cooperate, and that’s the paradox. I’m still trying to think that through, and I’ll never figure it out. If you leave a bottle of water on the table and leave the restaurant, they’ll come running after you down the street, “Here’s your bottle of water back.” At the same time, they’re not that civic-minded. The next trip my wife and I are taking is to northern Ghana, which is a kind of Sahelian culture of the Sahara. Those cultures are usually too dangerous to visit. Civil war, Russian intervention, whatever, but in Ghana it’s fine. There’re some elephants you can see there, but some very famous old mosques, awesome towns with a lot of arts in them. No one really goes to northern Ghana, so that, to me, will somehow change how I think about things. I can’t answer anything other than where we’re going, and that’s where we’re going for two weeks. I will see you at the Four Seasons of northern Ghana. I publicly thank you. Tyler has something called Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide, especially in the DC area I guess you’re in New York, too. Sure, a lot.…

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