Review: The Age of Entitlement

 

Two things happen in 1963 which propelled the American entitlement culture according to Christopher Caldwell, in his book, The Age of Entitlement:  America Since the Sixties. Those being the assassination of JFK and the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

The crux of the matter is the diminishing of the right of freedom of association.

The ACLU explains, “The First Amendment guarantees our right to free expression and free association, which means that the government does not have the right to forbid us from saying what we like and writing what we like; we can form clubs and organizations, and take part in demonstrations and rallies.” (https://www.aclu.org/other/your-right-free-expression). The Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment implies and guarantees freedom of association.

The equality assured in the Civil Rights Act has gone from believing and codifying in law that all people are equal to a growing belief that there must be equity for all people. LBJ said it was not enough that everyone has equal opportunity, but that they must achieve equal outcome (31).

Caldwell visits the changing views on race, sex, war, debt, diversity, and examines who the true winners and losers are in a society that grants entitlements such that equity is achieved.

This means that the high school drop out working in the supermarket should make the same salary as the college professor – and so forth.

It also weakens the right of freedom of associate from – to use a modern example – anyone may make a cake for a gay wedding to anyone asked must make a cake for a gay wedding. Also, a la MLK, rather than judging a person by their character, people are judged by the color of their skin – and their place in the hierarchy of intersectional victimhood.

Caldwell writes, “The strongest case for letting people make choices without the interference of the state rests not on their competence as choosers but on their dignity as persons” (214).

Entitlement and the erosion of freedom of association leads to authoritarian – top down – government. “Freedom of association is the master freedom – it is the freedom without which political freedom cannot be effectively exercised” (218).

The book concludes with endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.

I found Caldwell’s argument and historical analysis persuasive. What he describes is where we are today. We have become a people less tolerant and more divisive, and, if nothing amends our trajectory, the future of this country is in jeopardy.

A sobering and important read.

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]