Customer Reviews

The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I was originally going to title this review "The Death of the Underlying Cause". It appeared to me that Ms. West had a lot to say, negatively, about the culture of the sixties, and spent a lot of time saying it while not delving in to find out the reasons why. Perhaps the sexual revolution and the drug counter-culture were really live-for-today attitudes spawned as the result of feelings of impending doom brought on by the Cold War threat of nuclear annihilation or the specter of going off to fight a hopeless war in Viet Nam. And is Rock'N Roll really all that bad? Yea, OK, some of it is, but a lot of it is insightful and well written. I tended to agree with her that our generation has produced its share of immaturity, but I was not convinced that it was any worse today than, say, 50 years ago.

Then a funny thing happened. She started hitting on several issues that were hard to deny. Like how children are more and more becoming the center of the universe these days. And how parents are doing less and less to impart our cultural values to these children. The vulgarization of language that recently popped up in the media and the soft-porn that is creeping into it as well. Stories of parents throwing wild parties for their kids that could never happen when we ourselves were children. The yearly ritual of spring break and the debauchery it spawns in our kids. Parents accompanying their kids on these 'binges' and renting hotel rooms for them instead of standing up to them as our parents would've. Rationalizing it all with an "at least they'll be safe" attitude.

Then she really gets going. The last three chapters, starting with one titled "Identity", begin talking about "moral relativism" and "multi-culturism" and how it is really the result of a lack of adult resolve and wishful thinking. She criticizes both of our last two presidents: Clinton for being a perpetual adolescent (who can deny that?) and Dubya for soft-soaping the Islamic threat and calling it a 'religion of peace'. Oh yeah, she has plenty to say about Islam but mostly our own lack of resolve in addressing the threat it poses. She also discusses modern ideas of what constitutes a 'hero'. Not too long ago a hero was someone who risked their life for family and/or country. Today we have what she calls the 'victim-hero'. Someone who suffers great indignities at the hands of some adversary, but really did not do anything that could be considered brave. Her point was not to diminish the plight of 'victims', but to delineate it from true heroism.

By the time I finished this book, I began to question my own motives. Perhaps we are all trying to hide our insecurities and avoid being adults. That would explain a lot of what appears to be happening these days. I will warn you that this book starts off sounding like your grandmother telling you to turn down that damn stereo. But if you give it a chance, you might be surprised at what you'll learn. Four stars instead of five for making us work to get to the 'good stuff'. If I was more of an adult, I'd probably give her five and thank her for the lessons learned in patience! Hey, I'm working on it.

Diana West's book deserves far greater attention than it is currently receiving. She manages to analyze several seemingly disparate cultural trends including Islamic appeasement, the devolution of our music, lack of civilizational pride and the deceits of political correctness and multiculturalism discovering the common denominator to be the infantilizing influence of the post WWII emphasis on youth with the resultant elevation of "youth" to its current cult like status. But it is much much more than that. Diana West provides the reader with that most coveted of reading experiences, the "ah-ha" moment whereby the reader is exposed to depths of insight and analysis that lead him to observations that he "felt" or "knew to be true" but left to his own devices might never have fully articulated. She's that good. I'm sure she wouldn't mind me saying that she's a bit of an anachronism in that she brings to bear pre-modern sensibilities that enable her to so successfully illuminate our current condition.

Diana West is a very bright and insightful author whose refreshing look at our culture and its decent into immaturity and callowness is long overdue. She tells us that we need to stop being afraid of being an adult, of standing for something other than self-indulgence. She castigates multiculturalism as as a childish refusal to make moral and ethical distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad. We need to stop being afraid to face the truth and speak openly about it. Instead we succumb to the childishness of relativism and nihilism rather than face the more cumbersome questions of adulthood.

According to West, many things changed as a result of the burgeoning wealth following the Second World War: "When you talk about the postwar period, the vast new affluence is a big factor in reorienting the culture to adolescent desire. You see a shift in cultural authority going to the young. Instead of kids who might take a job to be able to help with household expenses, all of a sudden that pocket money was going into the manufacture of a massive new culture. That conferred such importance to a period of adolescence that had never been there before." As a result of this elevation of the youth cult the adult authority was undermined and eventually adults abdicated their age old responsibilities.

"Where sex is more available, there are no longer the same incentives building toward married life, which once was a big motivation toward the maturing process." We have become cut off from the past by disparaging everything old as outmoded. As Mark Steyn too has pointed out, the welfare society has further contributed to the infantilization of our citizens.

Diana West's critique of our modern world is broadly based encompassing, in fact emphasizing, the extent to which contemporary music degrades our sexuality and undermines our capacity for mature monogamous relationships. Many who read this book, particularly those under 40 may be incapable of understanding much of what West writes so immersed have they been in the polluted cultural mainstream. West says, "It's not for nothing that Plato taught us to "mark the music" to understand and individual or his society. . . . . If the American popular song could idealize romantic love to a fault, rock 'n' roll degrades physical couplings to new lows - destroying not just the language of love and romance, but also the meaning of love and romance. And, I would sadly add, our capacity to experience both. . . .There are salient differences between a civilization that sings of romantic love and marriage ("Have You Met Miss Jones?"), and a civilization that sings of lust and one-night stands ("I Can't Get No Satisfaction")."

One other thing: Go to Diana West's web site and look over her columns. They are very very good. I've just recently discovered her since reading this book and her columns are every bit as good.

This is an excellent read which I highly recommend.

Diana West's analysis is, as I say, dead-on accurate.
I've been watching the downhill spiral of changes of our society and culture myself since high school ~40 years ago.
It's way past time to honestly, boldly speak the truth; to yell out (as in the story Ms. West refers to), "The Emperor has no clothes."
The one-star review above is sadly light-years wide of the mark in virtually every one of its aspects.
It could not be expressed better than as is clearly stated in the words of that review itself: the positions, attitudes, and statements in that review represent a major part of the problem our civilization is facing.
Also sadly, yet another example of, "If it has to be explained to you, you'll never understand."
Merely pointing out the truth.
Read Ms. West's book; and hope there's some way we can rally our culture, get the grownups back in charge, and pull our society out of the cesspool.

The only justification I need for knowing everything West writes is true is a stroll on any school campus in America. Bratty parents beget bratty kids. As a teacher, I cannot imagine a more detrimental consequence to kids today, than parents who won't grow up and teach them how to live in the real world.

Capitalism didn't do it. Reagan didn't do it. We did it. All by ourselves.

Personal responsibility, or lack thereof, can't be denied as the cause of the party-with-your-kids-parents who exist today.

Read the book. Then read it to your kids.

Diana West's book is a sobering read; she points out in very clear terms the problems our society faces today. As our society goes, so go the lives of the members of that society. Our society and we as members of that society are facing one of the greatest threats in the history of Western Civilization. One of the most dangerous aspects of that threat is our refusal to even identify the threat and acknowledge that it exists. We appear to think that if we deny that the threat is real, it may even cease to be a threat. That is truly delusional.

The threat is Islam and the Quran (and yes, I do have a copy of the Quran and have read many portions of it, but mostly use it as a reference). Islam has a clear agenda which includes the United States. Islam's goal is the conversion of all peoples and nations to a global caliphate under Sharia law. If you do not understand the implications of an Islamic society under Sharia law, you better start doing your homework; this book is an excellent place to start.

The book starts well but then bogs down a little with too many illustrations of adolescent misbehavior. Don't give up on it as it really gets interesting again later on in the book. In the chapter called "The Real Culture War" and from that point on it is a captivating page turner. In a sense, it is upsetting to read; if you are faint of heart and prefer denial it would probably be better if you passed on this book.

The book points out how a moral vacuum in the West has left an opening for a zealous Islam to step in and fill that void. It is interesting that as Western Civilization has turned its collective backs on Christianity, that it has unwittingly abandoned its best defense against Islam. By abandoning the virtues and moral certainties of Christianity for the nebulous uncertainties of multiculturalism and secular humanism; Western Civilization has left the gates wide open for the entrance of Islam.

I believe that this book has very important information and astute insights for those who prefer to be informed. I'm very glad I read it.

If you have ever wondered, "What happened to our nation or our civilized society?" then this book is for you. It covers the history of our societal and cultural change over the past 80 years and explains why adults in our society no longer act like adults. It then examines the effects of that lack of parenting on the children in our world. An excellent commentary on the decline of America.

This original, beautifully written and, at times, bitterly funny book is a fresh analysis of the phenomenon of perpetual adolescence and the associated perils. Diana West's brilliant survey asks questions that are rarely broached and fearlessly challenges the PC assumptions and truisms of both the left and right. The dangers she plumbs include our childish, PC response to the Islamic Jihad that confronts Western Civilization.

When I first saw the title of this book, I knew I would have to read it. I assumed there would be more about culture and society in general (á la the works of Theodore Dalrymple) instead of a mainly political focus. It's well researched and the arguments were pretty good, but it was tough slogging through a lot of the seemingly repetitive arguments to reach the conclusion.

I particularly liked the quote from Ibn Warraq in Chapter 9: "... The West is the source of the liberating ideas of individual liberty, political democracy, the rule of law, human rights and cultural freedom. It is the West that has raised the status of women, fought against slavery, defended freedom of inquiry, expression and conscience...". A point that needs to be conveyed to young people growing up in this post-adult age of Jihad and the US as the Great Satan.

West's thesis was brilliant and timely; I just wish the scope of the book had been broader.

While we can all smile with appreciation at the joy and freedoms expressed in a Peter Pan lifestyle, this cannot be the template on which to base a civilization or culture. There are consequences to actions and we cannot depend upon reviving Western civilization by the same means that saved Tinkerbelle. Diana West cogently documents what happened with the loss of a responsible attitude that preserves and promotes the values that provide the greatest good to the greatest number. She explains how the feel-good, non-judgmental, adolescent behaviors that took root and grew so strongly in the West brought on the variety of ills we now face and why we must again learn that maturity is to be embraced to save ourselves and the future. Written in a clear and informative style, Ms. West provides a well-reasoned narrative on the dangers we face and why adults must again take charge.

As I read, I found little if anything to disagree with. She is saying what I've been thinking for years. The value she added for me was in giving the trend a coherent paradigm and citing examples from a wide range of social institutions. Children are no longer taught how to be adults. Instead, they are taught to be what teachers, administrators, journalists etc. wish they had been: guiltless before the inquisition of the politically correct.
It will be confusing to some that West devotes so much attention to our conflict with Islam. But what difference does it make, really, if our civilization is a hollow edifice unless there is an outside force ready to take advantage of our flimsy notion of who we are? The manifestation of the trend West describes will be the cacophony of the muezzin five times daily in suburbs that long ago banned the gentle peal of church bells on Sunday mornings.
I rarely bother to acknowledge the vacuous maunderings of the liberal one-star "reviewers" but in this case, their infantile simpering lends more credence to West's thesis than her most admiring reviewers ever could. They actually agree that society is crumbling but want to lay the blame with the big meanies who expect them to work for a living and support their pathetic assertions with evidence or cogent argument. It is time to begin wearing the approbations of liberals, PC goons and Multi-Culti granola smokers with the pride they have always deserved.