Posted on 09/29/2007 7:20:26 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine's brother
Diana West, syndicated colunist for The Washington Times, has written a booke entitled, The Death of the Grown-up: How Americas Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization. Hot Air has posted a two part interview of the author by Michelle Malkin. I believe that the interview is worthy of your attention and time and gives us all something to ponder.
Michell Malkin Part 1 Interview of Diana West about Death of of the Grown-Up
The Death of the Grown-Up, Part 2,
If we think things are bad now, just wait until it is compulsory to start your toddler to public school! Besides dumbing down the population, they are trying to annihilate the family. Let them pass national health care and we are all slaves!
Post World War II America (1947 to 1973) was an economic anomaly, the likes of which we are very unlikely to see again. Not only is Europe re-built, but Asia is developing infrastructure (both human and manufacturing) at a very rapid pace.
I have a personal theory that marijuana use causes “arrested development.” An emotionally mature 16 year old is unaffected, but an immature 19 year old is emotionally “frozen” until long after marijuana use is stopped. Once frozen, more effort is required to emotionally mature.
OK, it’s just a theory....
Everything these days is “for the children”, so why shouldn’t adults act like kids?
That's the problem. Do schools and colleges in China or Japan or India dumb their curriculum down at the behest of "liberals"? Do kids in their schools spend as much time learning about diversity as they do learning calculus? Is the curriculum in their schools PC and "gay friendly"? Are they routinely taught that their country is the source of the world's evils? The Asian students at my school are adults when they arrive here as freshmen. I guarantee you they won't be still having keg parties and sponging off their mom & dad when they're 43. Can't say the same for a lot of Americans, though.
Yep. But the funny thing is — strictly in terms of progress — it doesn’t matter. “If America doesn’t do it, then nobody will do it” is no longer true. If we don’t invent the next supercomputer, then somebody else will invent it. If we don’t do genetic engineering, then someone else will. If America doesn’t want to pour a ton of public money into pure research, then somebody else will — and reap the benefits.
I had a student once tell me that the university should provide free contraceptives to all the students. After all, she said, we’re adults now and can have sex. I asked her why she couldn’t buy her own contraceptives since she’s an adult. She just stared at me as if to say, “Like, it’s too much trouble to drive to the pharmacy every time”.
They THINK they’re adults, and they want to do adult things that are “fun”, but don’t want any of the responsibilities of adulthood. They want mommy & daddy, or a surrogate mommy & daddy (the university administration, their employer, the government...) to provide for them.
So we can just party and let the Asians do all the brain work, and it won’t hurt us a bit?
I think that Arnold described himself(RINO’s in general) and the left quite accurately, “GirlyMen”.
Medicine is an applied science and art not a hard science.
We still have driven and incredibly smart kids here with very high level skill sets. And they will accomplish great things. I’ve met many of them, but I gotta tell you, they don’t care if they work for a Japanese company, German company or American company. Same for the Indians or Japanese.
And those kids who spend their time on nonsense will end up detailing the cars and cleaning the bathrooms of the kids who put in the effort.
And we're beginning to pay it. There's a saying in science that "nature abhors a vacuum." It works culturally too. If property is left unfenced and unprotected, squatters will rule. Our national boundaries, physical and metaphorical, have been left unfenced and unprotected and it's plain to see what the result is.
The illegals and jihadists who are encroaching aren't troubled by multicultural or politically correct concerns. They want to rule and they will do so if left unchallenged. Who will stop them?
Seems like some of our Founding Fathers were only in their thirties -- Thomas Jefferson for one.
I don't get the connection. I would think that at least some homosexual activists -- the ones in NAMBLA -- would embrace that position.
I wouldn't state in broad terms that it's an "arbitrary and useless concept." A six-year-old should not be engaged in sexual activity, driving a car, buying liquor, working full time or signing contracts. Puberty happens, and children gain maturity and wisdom with time.
The ages -- age of consent, 16 to drive, 18 for most definitions of adulthood, 21 to drink -- are wholly arbitrary. There re certainly some 16-year-olds who are more mature and ready for responsibility than some 26-year-olds. But when it becomes a matter of law, there needs to be a clear enough line that folks can understand the law and obey it.
In the olden days, people older than 14 or 14 were adults and got married.
And children under 6 worked in sweatshops and were basically bought and sold; sexual exploitation of children was rarely if ever reported; most people were illiterate; and the life expectancy was about 30.
Maybe growth requires hardships or, at least challenges.
The poor in our country are so well off they can just rest on the governments laurels.
That idea is one theory of why people in cold countries develop and thrive while people in places like Africa and the M.E. just hang out in tribes.
“The old successful people never went to college thing is way overplayed and largely untrue.”
Sorry, college always has been overplayed.
60% of the economy is small and medium sized companies. Most of them are owned and run by people who never went to college.
1/2 of the “large cap” companies on Americas stock exchanges were small cap companies fifteen and twenty years ago and 75% of them were started by people with no college.
Where does college “pay off” (outside of medicine and engineering). In academia itself, in the entire non-profit and in government sector where, frequently, the very same job, with the very same tasks and the very same responsibility will be filled with candidates that could acquire extremely different salaries - one salary for one with no degree, one salary for one with an “undergraduate” degree and one salary for one with a “graduate” degree - FOR DOING EXACTLY THE SAME JOB. US job-financial statistics are skewed by this factor (higher salary if one has a college degree) as governments in the US are those who most often do this idiocy and “government” is the largest single class of employment in the US.
>Everything these days is “for the children”, so why shouldn’t adults act like kids?<
If I may record a few thoughts here: Ms. West’s “Revolution of being limited” brought with it a certain sense of “freedom” from responsibility.
Moral principles were challenged and found prudish. People sought the “freedom” from being moral.
The plunging dress code was and is a sign of both the above. When I was in school if a girl showed up in jeans, she would have been sent home to change to a skirt and blouse or sweater. If her personal body skin was bare, she would likely have been suspended from school!
Total tolerance is “freedom” from having principles, and leads to disintegration of one’s own identity. This is largely taught in schools at all levels today. Individualism is politically incorrect. Utilizing the political correct is “freedom” from being an individual.
It has been coming on for 50 years. It is high time the pendulum begins it’s journey back!
I will purchase Ms. West’s book.
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