Posted on 03/12/2010 10:43:24 AM PST by Kaslin
We see them on the streets and in the mirror: middle-aged men wearing jeans and baseball caps. Grown men, dressing and -- all too often -- acting like boys.
So where did we, an immature generation, come from?
On a recommendation from George Will, I picked up the book “Men to Boys, The Making of Modern Immaturity” by Gary Cross. Sadly, the book didn’t provide the answer.
Cross provides an in-depth review of American pop culture, which he sees as shaping people’s actions. He observes there were 27 westerns on television in 1959 (and he provides a recap of seemingly each one), and notes that these programs take a far different view of male responsibility than modern programming (think Friends or Family Guy).
Fair enough. But pop culture doesn’t drive our lives so much as it reflects our lives.
Consider one of the examples Cross highlights: The series of movies starring Mickey Rooney as “Andy Hardy.” Andy was a clueless but loveable boy, always ready to listen to and learn from the wise advice of his father, a judge. Rooney’s character was a great role model for boys in the 1940s.
But if pop culture was an effective driver of human actions, wouldn’t the movies have rubbed off on their star? Instead, Mickey Rooney made a hash of his life -- married eight times, addicted to gambling and drugs, etc.
So there has to be a bigger reason that our view of manhood changed, and that change has allowed Hollywood to change what it offers us. It’s a reason Cross doesn’t choose to delve into. It’s that, starting in the 1960s with the Great Society, government got steadily more involved in our lives.
For most of human history, men have been expected to take care of their families. There have always been exceptions, of course. Cross spends many pages describing Hugh Hefner and the Beat Generation poets as examples of men who opted out of generally accepted adult roles.
Still, the overwhelming majority of American men saw themselves as providers. If a man impregnated a woman, he usually married her. A man went to work and provided for his children. A man didn’t want to take any handouts. That was true in the 1950s, it was true during the Depression, it was true before our country was founded.
But the modern welfare state wrecked all that. Federal programs set out to remove stigmas, and ended up encouraging all kinds of bad behavior.
To cite one example, in 1950, only about 4 percent of births were to unwed mothers. That statistic topped 10 percent in the early 1970s, and keeps on climbing. Last year, it hit 40 percent for the first time. A generation of children that grew up without a father in the house raised another generation, which is now raising a third. Small wonder many boys never learn how to be a man.
Bill Cosby writes about growing up in Philadelphia amid working class black families. His parents remained married. Meanwhile, others around the neighborhood kept an eye on things and reported any misbehavior.
Those neighborhoods were replaced in the 60s and 70s with massive federal housing projects, where nobody could keep an eye on anything. The stairwells became drug havens, and most residents cowered in their homes rather than maintaining a watch on the children.
Meanwhile, federal welfare policy changed to encourage out-of-wedlock births. Men no longer needed to support their children; the government would do that. So they didn’t.
Fatherless children are so common that we read about them without even batting an eye.
A recent Sports Illustrated profile, for example, says that University of Texas basketball player Damion James, “didn’t learn the identity of his father until he was 17, when [his mother] pointed out a man named Jerry Bell, whose five other sons Damion had known growing up without realizing they were his half-brothers.” Even the father was clueless. “My father was never there for me, and I had promised myself I would be there for my kids,” Bell told the magazine. “I just didn’t know Damion was mine.”
It would be a sad story if it was a rare one. The fact that it’s a common story makes it tragic.
This matters, because President Obama and liberals in Congress are working hard to pass a health insurance reform package that would increase our dependence on government. They may have the best of intentions. But as with welfare “reform” and housing “reform,” reform that makes people more reliant on government usually backfires.
Real reform would involve changing the tax treatment of health insurance to create a true market for coverage. People would be expected to behave responsibly and obtain the coverage they wanted.
It’s time for our government to trust us. Don’t worry. We’ll behave like men (and women), even if we don’t always dress the part.
I cannot speak for the author, but it seems to me that a tuxedo would not be appropriate on-the-job attire for you.
The point is to dress appropriately for the occasion.
For example, my grandfather was a farmer. He wore bib overalls, boots, and a straw hat six days a week. On Sunday, however, he wore his best suit to church.
I’d rather have a beer with you than a latte with him.
This guy is a capital C Conservative.
for later
I don’t own any baseball caps, but I sure do wear my Wranglers and boots - don’t see how that makes me immature? They’re comfortable and practical.
You can keep your tsk tsks to yourself. I read the article and, like the first sentence, found it to be disjointed and out of touch. For example: “But pop culture doesn’t drive our lives so much as it reflects our lives. “ Really? Put together with the first paragraph, and that statement clearly shows the writer is not aware of what true Americans are like. Pop culture doesn’t reflect the life a good hard working American - it reflects the lives of gimme mentality, broken and angry white henpecked men, and outrageous, loud, ill-spoken black “foke”.
“It’s time for our government to trust us. “ Trust? He spends the whole article outlining the governments role in ruining society, then boils it all down to “cuz they don’t trust us.” How simplistic minded is that?
I agree with that. The old timers who went around in their jeans and caps during the work week, would have put on a suit for church, or even to go out to eat. Now, “come as you are” is the idea for almost every occasion. I’ve seen people at weddings who looked like they had just come off the tennis court or finished working in their gardens.
I think Hollywood believes men are shorter than women in real life because all the tall model type females move to La-La-Land.
It’s one of the oddities of humanity. Short men suffering from Napoleon complexes seek fame; and tall women who already stick out from the crowd often figure they might as well make money at it. And then set builders and camera men get to have a lot of fun making 5’2” men look taller than 6’ women.
For everyone else who is complaining, buy/borrow the books and read them - they are eye-openers.
Baby boomers threw thousands of years of history away to be "friends" with their children instead of disciplining them. Seeing grown men in public with shirts untucked, hats on backwards (indoors!), thinking it's cool; or mothers letting their daughters out in public dressed as slatterns (yes, both mothers and daughters), thinking they're cool mothers, indicates a rejection of the role of adult (IMHO). Not to say that you should wear a suit to bed at night; just that being neat, clean, and presentable indicates a respect for yourself and a respect for others. (again, IMHO). West's book in particular highlights the adage that the socialist state seeks to destroy the innocense of youth as early ass possible, then maintain its citizens in a state of perpetual adolescence, all rights and limited responsibilities.
That's what I was thinking. I don't wear baseball caps but I do wear jeans. For lots of men they are work clothes...does that make them less of a man? Farmers everywhere will be shocked to learn they should be wearing slacks out on the north 40.
Remember the days:
6’ 1½” Cary Grant
6’ 4” John Wayne
6’ 2” Charlton Heston
6’ 3” Gregory Peck
6’ 1” Henry Fonda
6’ 1” Clark Gable
6’ 3” James Stewart
This I do. It seems to me, that for a professional "wordsmith" the author is unable to communicate a point with any true clarity. This is a failing of what has been correctly termed "the chattering class", across the political spectrum...
the infowarrior
I appreciate the sentiment!
the infowarrior
I’m still trying to figure out what that has to do with anything either. Seriously, when have jeans and a T-shirt caused anyone to stop learning or cause disruption in normal daily discourse?
Back in the 60’s I wasn’t even born, and in the 70’s Bill Cosby was still wearing sweaters. What’s that got to do with the price of tea in China? I could really care less what happened in the 60’s and what people were or weren’t “allowed” to wear in public screwels. The article is about the here and now, or at least the past decade or so, not 50 years ago! How are the 60’s relevant to anything other than drug culture, hippies and war protests? I’m only partly kidding on that last note (I know a lot of consequential and meaningful things occurred during the 60’s; however, it’s hardly a good example to bolster the author’s choice of things to rail against.
The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
- C. S. Lewis
BUMP what you said.
No, they do not have good intentions. Their objective remains, as always, to get as many people as possible addicted to government. And, just as drug addicts keep going back to their dealers for a fix, government addicts likewise keep going back to THEIR dealers. That would be Democrat politicians.
How stupid do you have to be to imagine that the rats may be doing something with "good intentions"?
Might be that Hollywood is more willing to work with shorties these days. There’ve always been tall actors, but there’s also always been shorties like Mickey Rooney, and Peter Lorre (both 5’3”).
It might be that Hollywood really believes that women are taller than men and/or Hollywood likes effeminate men for some reason, LOL.
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