What better guide than Frank Bruni to dissect the age in which we live, an age where folks on the right and left (but primarily on the right) exist in a state of perpetual disgruntlement about how society is stacked against them. Sure, blame Donald Trump for fostering this state of mind, which includes an unhealthy dollop of vengeance, but, as Bruni wisely points out, “we Homo sapiens began pointing fingers and appointing scapegoats shortly after we stood upright, if not sooner.”
Grievance in itself is not bad; after all, the 13 American colonies split from Great Britain out of outrage over punitive taxes. But this time grievance is both more toxic and minute, going far beyond what we once considered to be injustices that needed to be righted. Take Harry and Meghan, who have built a lucrative career from their Montecito mansion in which they air all the slights they suffered from the House of Windsor. Conflict and debate are necessary for any society to thrive, but what is also needed, as Jonathan Rauch calls it, is a sense of “fallibilism,” meaning the intellectual humility that acknowledges we may be wrong and the need to be open to opposite views. Thanks to Bruni’s gifts as a storyteller and stylist, The Age of Grievance is a sharp and witty argument in favor of less righteousness and more uncertainty.
