How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps

by Ben Shapiro

With the rise of the Great Society under LBJ, the government suddenly made the consequences of such a moral uprooting palatable. In order to provide a safe harbor from the vicissitudes of reality, government was prepared to step in. Social institutions were sources of cruelty, repression, and guilt; government could make you free. Johnson recast the role of government as a provider of rights rather than a protector of them: “The truth is, far from crushing the individual, government at its best liberates him from the enslaving forces of his environment.”43 A culture of rights, balanced by duties inculcated by social institutions, was replaced by a culture of privileges, provided by government, replacing social institutions with handouts.