Murray Edsall Video Lecture Responses

Murray Edsall

Video Lecture Responses

Charles Murray: Coming Apart

In his lecture, "Coming Apart," based on his recently released text of the same name, Charles Murray attempts to explain the reasons for a seeming expansion in the gap between the experiences of certain Americans. Murray's perspective, which takes a decided socially-conservative angle on the subject, is that this gap is not attributable to race, income or region. Instead, Murray explains as the centerpiece to his argument, "over the last half century the United States has a seen a widening cultural inequality. Not income inequality but cultural inequality. We have developed a new lower class and a new upper class."

A values-based argument on the subject, it is Murray's view that the dissolution of the institution of marriage, an erosion of religious affiliation, a declining work ethic and a lack of respect for the law have created two distinct cultural groups. Referring to those in the 'upper class' as the 'cognitive elite,' Murray offers an argument that is couched in a certain inherent racism and classicism. In order for one to argue that economic factors, income and resource accessibility are less relevant than one's ethical or moral value system with respect to socioeconomic hierarchy, one would have to have born with the privilege never to have experienced difficulty attaining these things.

Murray's argument must willfully dismiss the relationship between economic disadvantage -- a highly racialized reality in a nation with a history of segregation and a continually unclear immigration policy -- and a lack of access to education or familial stability. Such is to say that many of the cultural features that Murray considers determinants of 'class' are truly only accessible to the privileged.

Thomas Byrne Edsall: The Age of Austerity

The central premise of Thomas Byrne Edsall's lecture and book, both entitled the Age of Austerity, is that the American economy has been largely hijacked by an inefficient and destructively divided political process. The bulk of his talk is dedicated to demonstrating that the rigid and uncompromising political values of Democratic and Republican party leaders are at least partially responsible for our current, dire economic state and entirely responsible for our incapacity to resolve it.

Most particularly, Edsall argues compellingly that both political parties are short-sighted and dedicated to career survivalism as opposed to the improvement of affairs for the American people. As a result, both tend to use manipulative tactics to pursue policies that satisfy short-term voter desires but which do little to address the long-term consequences of our wasteful and unsustainable way of life.