The death of the grown-up : how America's arrested development is bringing down Western civilization

Diana West sees a US filled with middle-age guys playing air guitar and thinks "No wonder we can't stop Islamic terrorism." She sees Moms Who Mosh and wonders "Is there a single adult left anywhere?" But, the grown-ups are all gone. The disease that killed them was incubated in the sixties to a rock-and-roll score, took hold in the seventies with the help of multicultralism and left us with a nation of eternal adolescents who can't decide between "good" and "bad", a generation who can't say "no". From the inability to nix a sixteen year-old's request for Marilyn Manson concert tickets to offering adolescents parentally-funded motel rooms on prom night to rationalizing murderous acts of Islamic suicide bombers with platitudes of cultural equivalence, West sees us on a slippery slope that's lead to a time when America has forgotten its place in the world. In The Death of the Grown-Up Diana West serves up a provocative critique of our dangerously indecisive world leavened with humor and shot through with insight. Where Have All The Grown-ups Gone? That Is The Provocative Question Washington Times Syndicated Columnist Diana West Asks As She Looks At America Today. Sadly, Here's What She Finds: It's Difficult To Tell The Grown-ups From The Children In A Landscape Littered With Baby Britneys, Moms Who Mosh, And Dads Too Young To Call Themselves Mister. Surveying This Sorry Scene, West Makes A Much Larger Statement About Our Place In The World: No Wonder We Can't Stop Islamic Terrorism. We Haven't Put Away Our Toys! As Far As West Is Concerned, Grown-ups Are Extinct. The Disease That Killed Them Emerged In The Fifties, Was Incubated In The Sixties, And Became An Epidemic In The Seventies, Leaving Behind A Nation Of Eternal Adolescents Who Can't Say No, A Politically Correct Population That Doesn't Know Right From Wrong. The Result Of Such Indecisiveness Is, Ultimately, The End Of Western Civilization As We Know It. This Is Because The Inability To Take On The Grown-up Role Of Gatekeeper Influences More Than Whether A Sixteen-year-old Should Attend A Marilyn Manson Concert. It Also Fosters The Dithering Cultural Relativism That Arose From The Culture Wars In The Eighties And Which Now Undermines Our Efforts In The Real Culture War Of The 21st Century--the War On Terror. With Insightful Wit, Diana West Takes Readers On An Odyssey Through Culture And Politics, From The Rise Of Rock 'n' Roll To The Rise Of Multiculturalism, From The Loss Of Identity To The Discovery Of Diversity, From The Emasculation Of The Heroic Ideal To The Pc--ing Of Mary Poppins, All The While Building A Compelling Case Against The Childishness That Is Subverting The Struggle Against Jihadist Islam In A Mixed-up, Post-9/11 World. The Death Of The Grown-up, Is A Bracing Read From One Of The Most Original Voices On The American Cultural Scene. --publisher's Description. Rise Of The Teen Age -- The Twist -- Clash -- Parents Who Need Parents -- Sophisticated Babies -- Boundaries -- Identity -- The Real Culture War -- Men, Women... Or Children? Or, The Fate Of The Western World -- Epilogue. Diana West. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [219]-238) And Index. Examines the dangerous repercussions of America's nation of perpetual adolescents who refuse to grow up, cannot decide between right and wrong, rationalize murderous acts of violence, and cannot give up their toys, even as they reach middle age.