How do you "do" public life without becoming an arrogant SOB?

I've now had this conversation with at least a few good friends, and finally see bits of it are picked up independently by another friend's blog.

"Doing" public life seems to come with a few pieces. First, it comes with a set of values - independent even of opinions on issues themselves. I mean by these values things like: being informed - being engaged - active interest in politics and common life generally - being concerned with "big picture" stuff - and more. Second, valuing these things often (though not always) breeds a certain kind of personality. It means: having a thick skin - being confident - being prepared and thinking strategically - making value judgments quickly and decisively - and more.

I grow increasingly concerned that this matrix of public life is turning me into an arrogant SOB. I find myself increasingly dulled by pedestrian conversation, which does not obviously connect in with public values - values I seem to have mapped onto others as being necessary parts of having a complete, intelligent, self-aware life.

Academics can have the same SOB's problem - but this is different. Academic conversation can be just as pedestrian: sock makers making socks for other sock makers. Public policy types love to condescend the academy as self-proclaimed prophets preaching to no one who's listening - or, at least, no one who is capable of generating real change. Accomplishment is the name of this game. And that, friends, comes in bullet points - not long essays: snap decisive judgment.

I'm not at all impressed with this tendency, or with my collusion in it. It directly contravenes the excellent notions of co-vocationalism and craftsmanship that I have been exploring, but I find it built subtly into my vocational and social life all the same. Dinner conversations inevitably focus on the news of the day, the global economy, foreign policy and capital markets - advertising strategy and business plans. Such dinner tables are - without a doubt - poor hosts; where the values and desires of the home are forced on the guest.

I'm disappointed - but I'm also curious. I think the topic this opens for me is "spiritual formation for public life Christians." - how to stay rooted in the midst of the political cycle. I don't have the answer, and I'm a bit worried about where the road leads from here unless I start to.