The Decline of Maturity

National Post [Canada] ^ | Wed. Oct. 14, 2009 | Barbara Kay

[canuck_conservative]

Cultural observer Joseph Epstein pinpoints the transition from adulthood to adolescence as American culture's default "moral condition" in the decade following the 1951 publication of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. In his 2004 essay, The Perpetual Adolescent, Epstein notes: "Salinger's novel exalts the purity of youth and locates the enemy... in those who committed the sin of growing older, [Holden Caulfield's] parents, his brother ... and just about everyone who has passed beyond adolescence and had the rather poor taste to remain alive."

Adolescence as the new adulthood is a widespread but thankfully not a universal phenomenon. A smart and savvy subsection of the middle class -- my own children and most of their peers, for example -- present as counterweights to the extreme solipsism that Christina Rosen wrote about in these pages yesterday.

Today's young adults who are consciously choosing to step over the threshold from adolescence to adulthood grew up in social enclaves where maturity and other traditional bourgeois values remained longer in force than in the general population. They have more egalitarian gender roles than my generation did and married a bit later, but in other essentials, they are following our example. They have embraced connubial domesticity with enthusiasm; make personal sacrifices and curtail selfish desires without complaint; limit their material and recreational pleasures to provide tomorrow's security and cheerfully endure great swathes of tedium bringing up children in the belief that transcendence of the self -- and for the common run of humanity that means children -- is nature's plan for optimal self-realization.

Maturity as a general virtue, however, declined in the Sixties when indiscriminate sexual liberty, detached from responsibility and emotional engagement, became a human right from puberty forward. With no need to defer the gratification of appetite, there was no ....

[canuck_conservative]

For all you social philosophers fed up with the prevalent tattoo-and-porno culture.

[buccaneer81]

Here's a perfect example...

Health Care Insurance To Age 27 On The Parents

[fieldmarshaldj]

Well, the tattoo part at least...

[rbg81]

I dunno. I’ve been in too many meetings where “maturity” dictates you don’t say anything controversial (even if its the truth) and go along with the crowd over a cliff.

[LearsFool]

Adolescence as the new adulthood is a widespread but thankfully not a universal phenomenon.

It's widespread enough, unfortunately, that the few adults get shouted and voted down.

Children are dependent, always in search of someone to take care of them. And of course there's always someone willing to do so - for a price: "Give up your liberty. Give me money and power. And I'll take that heavy burden of responsibility from your puny, underdeveloped shoulders."

Folks need to just grow up. Cuz I don't feel like living in a daycare nation with 'em.

[Cicero]

I read Catcher in the Rye in school, shortly after it came out.

I remember thinking, even back then, that it was a pretty sick novel precisely because of that “perpetual adolescence.” At the time, I believed it was incumbent on me to grow up.

It has always struck me as a singularly inappropriate book to give to adolescents in school.

[ken21]

for the life of me,

in high school and college

i found this book boring.

[hinckley buzzard]

I think this article is about you. Your example is a classic illustration of knuckling under to adolescent peer pressure as opposed to exercising mature self-assertion. Time to grow up and figure out the difference.

[Iron Munro]

I found this book boring.

I heard so much about it.
So I read it and reread it and ended up thinking it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

But now I understand why some people were/are enthralled by it.
It is about an empty life and they identify with that.
.