Jennifer Graham, in a witty column about the trials of a teenage superstar (Miley Ray Cyrus), mentions in passing that adolescence now runs from 13 to 30. She also recounts John Adams’s renunciation of his wayward son, Charles, reenacted in the HBO miniseries. She’s right in noting that “adolescents” today would be unmoved by those three words, or even by their meaning. Her most stunning sentence: “John Adams’s renunciation of Charles had power because the son, troubled as he may have been, admired his father, and so conviction could come in three stark words, not in court proceedings.”
The problem stems from one thing. A lot of parents have abdicated their parental responsibilities–for a long time. I say this with fear and trembling, since I know there are days when I would probably do the same apart from God’s grace. Most of my (very few) readers will automatically agree with me about this. In case you don’t, consider recent news from England about a gang of girls blowing up three houses and killing a man in a dispute over a boy. You read that correctly: they blew up three houses.
I think you’ll agree that a bomb in the mailbox is a long way from the cat-fights portrayed in such films as Heathers, Mean Girls, and Saved. I believe it suggests the rise of a very different culture, one never seen before in the history of the world. We have worshiped youth as a concept (juvenolatry?), and as a result, they (or people focused on them) direct much of what happens in our culture.
Michelle | 31-May-08 at 7:51 pm | Permalink
I was just talking to my dad recently about teenagers these days (yes, I realize how ancient that makes me sound…and no, I’m not-quite-okay with it). I was making the point that one or two generations ago, it would be nothing to expect an 18- or 19-year-old to be ready for marriage, take over the family business, or start a family of their own. Now, it seems ludicrous to hand over that much responsibility to a “child.” What has changed?
I honestly think it’s the parents. Parents don’t want their kids to grow up. Sure, they reserve the right to get upset when the kids don’t “act mature” or whatever, but deep down, they want to protect their babies from the horrors of adulthood. They want them to be living it up at places of supposed learning. They want them to explore “who they really are.”
I’m not necessarily criticizing that. I think kids - in the culture we’ve created at least - need a transitional period between childhood and adulthood. But you have to wonder where we go from here. What sort of adults will these 30-year-old children grow up to be?