The Death of the Grown-Up

A provocative look at the rise of youth culture, the worship of perpetual adolescence, and the sorry spectacle of adults shirking the responsibilities of maturity. Firebrand conservative columnist Diana West looks at the mess America is in and wonders "Where did all the grown-ups go?"

Observations on a Nation of Eternal Adolescents:

• Diana West sees a US filled with middle-aged guys playing air guitar and thinks, "No wonder we can't stop Islamic terrorism."
• She observes a landscape littered with:
  • Baby Britneys,
  • Moms Who Mosh,
  • and Dads too "young" to call themselves "mister."

West asks, "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 multiculturalism, and left us with:

• A nation of eternal adolescents who can't decide between "good" and "bad."
• A generation who can't say "no."

A Cultural and Political Odyssey:

With insightful wit, Diana West takes readers on a journey through:

• The rise of rock 'n' roll to the rise of multiculturalism,
• The loss of identity to the discovery of "diversity,"
• The emasculation of the heroic ideal to the "PC"-ing of "Mary Poppins."

All the while, she builds a compelling case against the childishness that is subverting the struggle against jihadist Islam in a mixed-up, post-9/11 world.

A Slippery Slope of Indecisiveness:

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 dangerous path.

She argues that this indecisiveness has led to a time when America has forgotten its place in the world. The ultimate result? The end of Western civilization as we know it.

Diana West serves up a provocative critique of our dangerously indecisive world leavened with humour and shot through with insight.