The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties (utgåvan 2020)

Christopher Caldwell’s “The Age of Entitlement” is a somber reflection of how America 2020 arrived at its current polarized, factionalized state. Caldwell delves into the schism that developed in the mid-1960’s as legislative and cultural changes created two opposing visions of the United States: a Constitutional view, reflecting the country’s historical restraint on the power of Government vs. the post-Civil Rights Era view, where social and political interest groups became intent on leveraging legislation aimed at righting historical wrongs for self-centered gains. The result was a raid on the values and beliefs that most Americans hold dear.

For those who had benefitted or had no special ambition to game the system, the Constitutional view was the foundation that enabled this country to progress on the many fronts that awes the rest of the world. For those wishing to leverage their perceived inferior status to a higher, more influential level, the post-60's view enabled these special interest groups to 'divide and conquer' by the use of government force and intimidation.

In the Constitutional view, Government was emphatically limited; (“Congress shall make no law…”, “…shall not…”, etc), while the opposite occurred post-Civil Rights legislation (Government mandating quotas, proactively creating protections for new classes, enabling the bureaucracy to determine acceptable social mores and punish non-adherents, Judicial activism, etc). One could argue the post-1960s is a case study of unintended consequences and the lack of comprehensive, reasoned policymaking resulting in outcomes diametrically opposite those originally envisioned.

Caldwell’s narrative arrives at the same destination as other recent books examining the increasing decay and stratification of our society, albeit through the lens of the social upheavals of the 1960’s. Depressingly, the author has no solution for the situation America now finds itself in; indeed, the book’s analysis leads the reader to project America on a trajectory that will inevitably destroy this great nation.