David Brooks of The New York Times wrote an interesting anecdote in his welcome message on his site. Brooks is the rare right-leaning voice in the Times. And somehow, these words struck me.
“Tom Wolfe was once asked what was the most important thing that’s happened in his lifetime. He said that was an easy one: Co-ed dorms were obviously the most important phenomenon of the 20th century.
What I think he meant by that joke is that for centuries co-ed dorms would have been unthinkable. And then suddenly, without much debate, they just happened at colleges all around the country.
They were a reminder that the most important changes in our society are not planned. They are not the ones organized by political leaders. They are the ones that happen organically, through some intellectual or cultural shift. They are the spontaneous result of millions of people consciously or unconsciously changing their attitudes or behaviors or mental frameworks.”
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