(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Related to this previous conversation, George Will weighs in on the modern “living in Mom’s basement” Peter Man American male.
Oi vey
Jay P. Greene's Blog
With Help From Some Friends
(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Related to this previous conversation, George Will weighs in on the modern “living in Mom’s basement” Peter Man American male.
Oi vey
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
I recently heard a lecture from the head of Psychology at a university in California on “Overcoming Adolescence” wherein he discussed this very trend among American males. It was absolutely fascinating and connected to so many recent historical events – feminism, education reform, etc. Really interesting stuff that should also tell us a lot about how to parent!
All this means to me is that as we get wealthier and have more free time we just want to have fun and enjoy life. What is wrong with that?
We don’t “have more free time.” Time spent on leisure is relatively stable the U.S. Not that I want to perpetuate the myth that time spent on leisure is inherently preferable to time spent on work – people’s real life decisions demonstrate that their values are otherwise.
More directly to the point, the issue here is not the desire to enjoy yourself but the absence of a desire to have some personal dignity – e.g. by fully supporting yourself instead of sponging off the ‘rents.
Then we certainly have more wealth to improve our leisure time just as we have more capital to improve our work-time.
Problem is, Will doesn’t address men living at home. He addresses men drinking beer and playing video games, something he doesn’t seem to like. I wonder if George Will is going back to his old game about using government power to influence conservative morality.
Frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with Dave and Busters – it is a private company serving a want – beer and video games. If Mr. Will doesn’t like it, he can go to Olive Garden. Also, Hugh Grant is so 1990s…
I missed his sentence about the 18-24 year olds living at home – those are the boomerang kids. See below.
PS, the boomerang kids “problem” may have something to do with 1) housing prices 2) economic struggles and 3) a lack of value for college education (or kids getting duped into majoring in subjects of questionable value and then struggling to find jobs that pay enough to survive on ones own.
I think there is too many variables in play to just say men are adolescence just because half of 18-24 year olds (a portion of those called men to begin with) live at home for a short period.
Were men less manly 150 years ago when you had 3 generation homes?
I just wonder what the culture warriors will say about youth and adolescence once scientists figure out a cure for aging…
Rand-
I think we have seen a preview:
I wonder how immortality and Vegas will mix?
Strauss and Howe provide a rather insightful historical analysis (admittedly half-plagiarized from Plato) of the four generational archetypes that recycle every century or so http://www.fourthturning.com/my_html/body_generations_in_history.html
Last time around, the slot “Millennials” occupy in the cycle was filled with the Hero Generation who shined during WWII — a fitting name for that particular incarnation. Of course, Strauss and Howe emphatically remind the reader that there is no guarantee that this pivotal generational slot won’t morph instead into something less savory, as happened with its utterly dependent and therefore statist youth counterparts in Germany or the former USSR.
Frank Luntz confirms much of this in his recent research but while showing more nuanced details of the shape this key generation is assuming this time around. Bottom line: we’re likely in very deep trouble.
This is a growing problem, and can cause parents huge amounts of stress — financial and emotional.