Celebration celebrates wrong things.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Brian M. Thompson For The Register-Guard

I read with interest The Register-Guard's editorial last September about the absence of conservatives at last year's Eugene Celebration. I concurred with the editors' observation. I come from conservative roots, and although I can clearly identify the events and aspects that keep me away from the celebration, I was unable to articulate my reasons.

As 2006 passed into 2007, the question stayed with me. I purchased a few books mentioned in the pages of The Register-Guard: "Who Really Cares," by Arthur Brooks, and "Generation Me," by Jean Twenge. In these books, along with "Deus Caritas Est" (God Is Love), Pope Benedict's first encyclical, the divide between left and right becomes clear.

Brooks, director of the Nonprofit Studies Program at Syracuse University, describes himself as a stereotypical liberal professor. He studies the economic aspects of charitable giving. He was forced to change his political views based upon the strength of the evidence he revealed. His research has clearly shown that conservatives are far more charitable - by any measure - than liberals. Further, being charitable makes conservatives happier, healthier and more successful.

Brooks defines four characteristics of conservatism: religious faith, stable two-parent families, personal entrepreneurism, and an opposition to government income redistribution.

The data are compelling. Whether rich or poor, conservatives give more than liberals. Conservatives give more of themselves in all aspects of American life, including volunteerism. If liberals gave blood at the rate that conservatives do, donations would rise by 45 percent. The data even show that being charitable is associated with being more honest and courteous.

Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate for president in 2000, has stated: "A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity." The reality is far different. Government income redistribution is clearly linked with a reduction in charitable giving. Income redistribution is taking us in the wrong direction. Charity is the right direction. Charity makes us happier, because it is a form of love.

Another form of love is self-love, also known as self-esteem. The liberal secular progressive movement has made self-esteem a priority. Children who grew up in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s have been raised to "be themselves" and to focus on the individual without regard to society or the greater good. These people are the subject of "Generation Me," by Jean Twenge, an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University. She is also a member of "Generation Me."

Twenge studied why "today's young Americans are more confident, assertive, entitled - and more miserable than ever." Twenge writes: "Self-esteem is an outcome, not a cause...?. It just doesn't do much good to encourage a child to feel good about himself; just to feel good." She goes on to show that unconditional self-esteem tends to lead to narcissism. And "Narcissism," Twenge writes, "is one of the few personality traits that psychologists agree is almost completely negative."

Her data clearly show that Generation Me, brought up to live out the liberal ideal of self-love, tends to be self-absorbed, unhappy and hard to love.

In "God Is Love," Pope Benedict discusses the three types of love: eros, agape, and philia. Eros is "that love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings." Agape is self-giving love, in which one gives of oneself fully to another. Finally, we have philia, or brotherly love, exemplified in charity.

The pope writes that "love of neighbor, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful." Love of neighbor is a hallmark of charity, honesty and courtesy - each an important social virtue. They are associated with the core values that mark someone as a conservative.

What does all of this have to do with the Eugene Celebration?

According to Brooks' definition, I am a conservative. I attend church regularly. I come from a strong two-parent family. My wife and I are raising our children in a strong two-parent family. I am hostile to government redistribution of wealth; and I strongly believe in personal entrepreneurism. I hold all of these things dear.

The organizers of the Eugene Celebration simply do not. The celebration is dominated by Eugene's liberal, secular progressive culture. This culture celebrates eros over agape and philia, love of self over love of neighbor, and heralds self-fulfillment over self-discipline and self-control.

Liberal, secular progressives are entitled to their world view. However, Twenge's data clearly show that the secular progressive tenet of focusing upon the individual - focusing on oneself - is harmful. It is harmful to the individual. It is harmful to families. It is harmful to society. This evidence is troubling.

In contrast, Brooks' research clearly shows that charitable giving is helpful to individuals, helpful to families, and helpful to society. It also shows that political conservatives are the preponderance of those doing this work. Of course, there are exceptions, but the trend is clear. A society that focuses on making oneself happy, including a focus on eros, does not create happiness. A society that focuses on philia - brotherly love and charity - and agape - self-giving love - creates health, happiness and success.

Deep in my heart, I have always known that the liberal, secular progressive focus upon the individual at the expense of society was wrong. I have known that secularism, divorcing my day-to-day life from my faith, was wrong. I knew that much of what I saw in the papers regarding the Eugene Celebration - and the Oregon Country Fair - was wrong.

Let me repeat a question that a Baptist minister once asked. "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the creative light of altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's persistent and most urgent question is `What are you doing for others?' " - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brian M. Thompson is a Eugene attorney.