Book: The Age of Grievance
Author: Frank Bruni
Reviewed by: Shelby Grubbs, Arbitrator, Mediator & Special Master at JAMS and principal at GrubbsADR
Author Frank Bruni’s The Age of Grievance laments a current fashion of grievance, which he detects across the political spectrum. Bruni excavates and abstracts evidence from Fox News and MSNBC, talk radio, “liberal” and “conservative” press and university faculty and student bodies.
He questions the notion of “micro” aggressions, perceived slights to eggshell egos beset by pinprick triggers and the notion that others are responsible for all our discomforts.
He laments the exploitation of our spoiled selves by the media and the political class and notes the flimsy basis and unforgiving meanness of many “cancellations” and firings. His evidence is overwhelming and convincing. And while the remedies he offers are unlikely in the current context, they are nevertheless worthy of discussion.
They include:
- Voting reforms – redistricting commissions, open primaries, ranked choice voting.
- Better civic education with a renewed focus on what is required of citizens.
- Redesigned living arrangements – mixing people of different income levels.
- Education reform – deemphasizing college rankings, revising job requirements to eliminate unnecessary degree requirements, reducing the cost of post-secondary education and restructuring secondary education so that it is less focused on university preparedness, and curricula reform to balance historical criticism with pride in history’s achievements.
- Social media reform – repeal of the infamous Section 230, imposition of the “fairness doctrine” on social media, and age restrictions on the use of social media.
- Journalistic reform – resisting the “forging of personal brands that are contingent upon pre-determined and inflexible viewpoints….”
Concluding, Bruni suggests that we become reacquainted with humility as a “bulwark against arrogance, absolutism, purity, zeal.”
He recalls Philippians 2:3 from St. Paul‘s writings in the New Testament: “Do nothing out of vain conceit, rather, in humility, value others above yourself.”
And he recommends Ted Lasso, the TV soccer coach, as a breath of fresh air in a toxic atmosphere.
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