In the present OEN article, I discuss the petinent work of the American Jesuit scholar Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) of Saint Louis University, where, over the years, I took five courses from him, and I succinctly highlight the conservative author Christopher Caldwell's 2020 book The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties (Simon & Schuster).

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) April 3, 2026: For all practical purposes, the conservative author Christopher Caldwell is writing about our contemporary secondary oral culture in his 2020 book The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties (Simon & Schuster; I am using here the 2021 paperback edition which has addition pages in the front matter).

I do want to comment here on Caldwell's main title. The expression The Age of Entitlement does not strike me as necessarily pejorative. But Caldwell clearly intends for it to be understood as a pejorative term. However, as a non-pejorative term, The age of Entitlement could be seen as an apt way to refer to the still emerging successor of the Age of Enlightenment - which emerged historically in the print culture in our western cultural history that emerged in Europe after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in the mid-1450s.

Now, by 1960, the communications media that accentuate sound had reached a critical mass in American culture with the prevalence of television sets in American homes. However, Caldwell does not mention Ong's fourfold media ecology account of Western cultural history. At first blush, Caldwell's oversight in not mentioning Ong's fourfold media ecology account of our western cultural history seems inconsequential. However, Caldwell dwells on the U.S. Constitution, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, on American culture in the sixties and subsequent decades.

But the U.S. Constitution emerged historically in print culture (in Ong's terminology) in our Western cultural history after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in Europe in the mid-1450s. (For specific page references to Caldwell's discussion of the U.S. Constitution, see the entry Constitution of the United States in Caldwell's "Index" [p. 330]).

By contrast, American culture in the sixties and subsequent decades emerged historically in our contemporary secondary oral culture (in Ong's terminology).

Now, I have decided to examine how an American conservative himself views American conservatism over the last half century or so by examining the conservative American journalist Christopher Caldwaell's book The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties (2020).

Now, Caldwell's subtitle of his 2020 book calls to mind the subtitle of Doris Kearns Godwin's 2024 book An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s (Simon & Schuster).

I have written about Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2024 book in my OEN article "Thomas J. Farrell's Personal History of the 1960s" (dated April 16, 2024; viewed 1,110 times as of April 2, 2026).

In Caldwell's Chapter 8: "Losers" (p. 258), Caldwell discusses Harvey C. Mansfield's book Manliness (Yale University Press, 2006), but Mansfield's 2006 book is not listed in Caldwell's "Bibliography."

I have written about Mansfield's 2006 book Manliness in my OEN article "Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., and Walter J. Ong, S.J., on Male Agonism" (dated January 14, 2024; viewed 1,209 times as of April 2, 2026).

Now, the most efficient way for me to provide you with an overview of Caldwell's 2020 book The Age of Entitlement is to tell you the contents of the 2021 paperback edition:

Title page (p. v)

Copyright page (p. vi)

Dedication page (p. vii)

Contents page (p. ix)

Part I: "The Revolutions of the 1960s" (p. xi)

Chapter 1: "1963" (pp. 1-6)

Chapter 2: "Race" (pp. 7-35)

Chapter 3: "Sex" (pp. 36-65)

Chapter 4: "War" (pp. 66-89)

Part II: "The New Constitution" (p. 91)

Chapter 5: "Debt" (pp. 93-130)

Chapter 6: "Diversity" (pp. 131-172)

Chapter 7: "Winners" [aligned with the Democratic Party] (pp. 173-232)

Chapter 8: "Losers" [aligned with the Republican Party] (pp. 233-279)

"Notes" (pp. 281-320)

"Bibliography" (pp. 321-326)

"Index" (pp. 327-342)

Now, in Chapter 1: "1963," Caldwell says, "For two generations, 'the sixties' has given order to every aspect of the national life of the United States - its partisan politics, its public etiquette, its official morality. This is a book about the crises out of which the 1960s order arose, the means by which it was maintained, and the contradictions at its heart that, by the time of the presidential election of 2016, had led a working majority of American to view it not as gift but as oppression" (p. 3).

So, Caldwell's scope in his 2020 book is 1960 to 2016. In the 2016 presidential election the "Losers" (in Caldwell's characterization) aligned with the republican Party elected Donald Trump to be the president of the United States - and they also voted from Trump in the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. However, Caldwell does not mention Trump by name, although he clearly alludes to him on pages 127 and 279.

In Caldwell's Chapter 2: "Race," he develops the chapter through the following subsections: The Civil Rights Act (pp. 8-24); What did blacks think they were getting? (pp. 24-25); Not civil rights but human rights (pp. 25-29); Origins of affirmative action and political correctness (pp. 29-35).

In Caldwell's Chapter 3: "Sex," he develops the chapter through the following subsections: The GI generation and its failure (pp. 36-42); The Feminine Mystique and male sexism (pp. 42-50); Gloria Steinem, capitalism, and class (pp. 50-53); Roe v. Wade and the Supreme court (pp. 53-57); Our Bodies, Ourselves (pp. 57-62); The Equal Rights Amendment (pp. 62-65).

In Caldwell's Chapter 4: "War," he develops the chapter through the following subsections: The Vietnam War as an establishment undertaking (pp. 67-69); America's weak rear (pp. 69-74); The Vietnam War generation and class (pp. 74-82); Sources of Baby Boom power (pp. 82-89).

In Caldwell's Chapter 5: "Debt," he develops the chapter through the following subsections: The counterculture in middle age (pp. 94-98); Reaganism: a generational truce (pp. 98-103); Reaganism: a political strategy (pp. 103-107); What did the debt buy? (pp. 108-112); Immigration, inequality, and debt (pp. 112-115); Immigration and the failure of democracy (pp. 115-119); "People of color" and "African-Americans" (pp. 120-124); Immigration and inequality (pp. 124-126); The quest for a new elite (pp. 126-130).

In Caldwell's Chapter 6: "Diversity," he develops the chapter through the following subsections: Computers, homogenization, dehumanization, and atomization (pp. 132-136); The truce with technology (pp. 136-139); Postmodernism: the authenticity of Banana Republic (pp. 139-143); Bakke: Diversity begins (pp. 143-148); The Martin Luther King holiday (pp. 148-153); The exemplary destruction of Al Campanis (pp. 153-156); Political correctness (pp. 156-159); Diversity and the Pax Americana (pp. 159-162); The war for the soul of America (pp. 162-166); Heather Has Two Mommies: Diversity spreads (pp. 166-172).

In Caldwell's Chapter 7: "Winners," he develops the chapter through the following subsections: Outsourcing and global value chains (pp. 174-178); Politicized lending and financial crisis (pp. 178-183); Civil rights as a ruling-class cause (pp. 183-189); Google and Amazon as governments in embryo (pp. 189-192); Eliot Spitzer, Edward Snowden, and surveillance (pp. 193-200); The affinity between high tech and civil rights (pp. 200-204); The rise of philanthropy (pp. 204-208); Obama: governing without government (pp. 208-216); From gay rights to gay marriage (pp. 216-222); Windsor: the convergence of elites (pp. 222-227); Oberfell: triumph of the de facto constitution (pp. 227-232).

In Caldwell's Chapter 8: "Losers," he develops the chapter through the following subsections: The rise of the Tea Party (pp. 234-239); The decline of white America (pp. 239-245); Race as the entirety of culture (pp. 245-250); "n-word" and "white supremacy" (pp. 250-254); Margaret Seltzer and Rachel Dolezal (pp. 254-258); Manliness and crime (pp. 258-263).

Now, in the "Index," we learn that two entries have by far the most sub-entries: (1) Supreme Court of the United States has 15 sub-entries (p. 340), and (2) Vietnam War has 9 sub-entries (p. 341).

However, there is no entry in the "Index" for the term social justice. In my estimate, social justice is a rubric that includes the black civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and subsequent decades.

Even though the term social justice emerged as a popular term in American culture in recent decades, the Roman Catholic Church has a tradition of social teaching that goes back a century. The aim of Catholic social teaching is to bring about social justice.

For discussion of Catholic social teaching, see the lay English theologian Anna Rowlands' book Towards a Politics of Communion: Catholic Social Teaching in Dark Times (T & T Clark, 2021). (She does not explain what all she has in mind by Dark Times in the subtitle.)

As you may know, the Roman Catholic Church has a centuries-old tradition of individual personal moral teachings. I first articulated my sweeping criticism of the Roman Catholic Church's moral vision of individual personal development in my OEN article "Robert Moore on Optimal Human Psychological Development" (dated September 17, 2024; viewed 1,703 times as of March 29, 2026).

My sweeping criticism of the Roman Catholic Church's moral vision of individual personal development is based on my claim that it is a manifestation of what Robert Moore refers to as The Impotent Lover "shadow" forms of the masculine Lover archetype of maturity in the human psyche and the feminine Lover archetype of maturity in the human psyche.

Several months later, I first articulated my sweeping criticism of the anti-body heritage of Christianity is my wide-ranging and deeply personal 18,800-word OEN article "Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump's Foreign Policy" (dated March 24, 2025; viewed 2,230 times as of April 2, 2026).

Now, as I have argued in various OEN articles, I see body-positivity and sex-positivity as necessary for all Americans to develop to counter the anti-body heritage of Christianity in their psyches, because the anti-body heritage of Christianity has permeated American culture for centuries.

Now, back to Caldwell's 2020 book The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties.

The focus of Caldwell's 2020 book is on the theme of the so-called Age of Entitlement as an age focused on and emphasizing individual personal development - and in my OEN article "Robert Moore on Individual Personal Human Development" (dated September 17, 2024) is compatible with Caldwell's focus.

Now, over the years, I have written about legalized abortion in various OEN articles. However, apart from legalized abortion, I have not written about all the other Supreme court decisions that Caldwell writes about.

Now, we also learn from the "Index" that Caldwell discusses every presidential election from 1960 to 2016 (pp. 337-338).

Curiously enough, however, Caldwell does not mention that Hillary Rodham Clinton was the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in 2016 - he does not mention her at all, not even in connection with his discussions of feminism and women's rights. When we turn our attention to the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2016, we find that Caldwell alludes to Donald Trump on two pages (pp. 127 and 279), but he does not mention him by name. Because I mentioned misogyny above in connection with Trump and his MAGA supporters, I should point out here that Caldwell does not mention misogyny, but he does discuss both feminism and women's rights extensively - good for him.

In addition, we learn from the "Index" that Caldwell does not devote an "Index" entry to it, even though he occasionally uses the term - see, for example, his subheading "Origins of affirmative action and political correctness" (p. 29). In the 2016 presidential election, Trump frequently invoked the term because Hillary Rodham Clinton represented the spirit of political correctness. (The "Index" does contain an entry on affirmative action [p. 327].)

Now, the Simon & Schuster Paperback edition of Caldwell's book The Age of Entitlement features three pages of excerpts from reviews of the hardcover edition in the front matter, three of which strike me as worth quoting here:

Writing in New York magazine, Andrew Sullivan said, "A deeper, wider cultural and constitutional narrative of the last half century. . . . Caldwell's account is indispensable - especially for liberals - in understanding how resentments grew. . . . Nuanced and expansive."

No doubt Trump appealed to resentments.

The Associated Press review said, "A sweeping but insightful examination into every social, political, and legal decision, movement, and trend that leaves us where we are today in a polarized nation. . . . A fascinating read that could ignite one thousand conversations . . . Caldwell's analysis of our Vietnam legacy is particularly masterful but the book brims with brisk evaluations of how a confident nation became an argumentative, fragmented one."

No doubt "we are today a polarized nation." Because I participated in protests against the Vietnam War, I am interested in understanding "our Vietnam legacy."

Reviewer Andrew Roberts said, "Scholarly, provocative, insightful: this is history-writing at its best. Readers of Caldwell's journalism will instantly recognize his capacity to use a single moment or event to illuminate a much wider phenomenon. Anyone wishing to understand the failure of the American elite over more than half century since President Kennedy was assassinated, and thus why Donald Trump was elected, must read this profoundly thoughtful book."

I am still struggling to understand why Donal Trump was elected first in 2016 and then again in 2024 to serve as the president of the United States.

Now, writing in the ominously titled "Did the Civil Rights Movement Go Wrong?" in The New York Times (dated January 17, 2020), reviewer Jonathan Ruch says, "Being a homosexual American now miraculously married to my husband for almost a decade, I can't help feeling astonished by a history of America since 1964 that finds space for only one paragraph briefly acknowledging the civil rights movement's social and moral achievements - before hastening back to 'But the costs of civil rights were high.'

"Perhaps most depressingly, Caldwell's account, even if one accepts its cramped view of the Constitution and the one-eyed moral bookkeeping, leads nowhere. It proffers no constructive alternative, no plausible policy or path. The author knowns perfectly well that there will be no 'repeal of the civil rights laws.' He foresees only endless, grinding, negative-sum cultural and political warfare between two intractably opposed 'constitutions.' His vision is a dead end. Unfortunately, it also seems to be where American conservatism is going."

In this respect, Caldwell's vision conservatism in his 2020 book accounts for what American conservatives voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

However, in the "Index" in Caldwell's 2020 book, we find entries on gay marriage (pp. 169, 216, 219-231, and 250) with sub-entries on adoption by gay (p. 220) and civil unions (p. p. 220) and on gay rights (pp. 35, 161, 163, 164, 166-170, 2160220, 223, and 229) with a sub-entry on gay population (p.250) and on homosexuality (pp. 34, 64, 65, 101, 166-168, and 217) with a sub-entry on lesbianism (p. 59).

In conclusion, Caldwell's 2020 book The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties is thought provoking and informative. Nevertheless, I still prefer to use Ong's work to interpret America since the sixties as living through our contemporary secondary oral culture in which certain individual persons may experience stage eight of the eight stages of consciousness described by Erich Neumann.

Authors Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~tfarrell

Authors Bio:

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage.

On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:

Click here to listen the Technologizing of the Word Interview

Click here to listen the Ramus, Method & The Decay of Dialogue Interview