WE ARE A BUNCH OF BABIES book review by James Grainger

[applegrove]

WE ARE A BUNCH OF BABIES

SOCIAL AFFAIRS | A British culture watcher says we've created the most infantile, spoiled, self-indulgent adults in human history. The analysis may be weak but the attack sure is one terrific rant, concludes James Grainger

January 21, 2007
James Grainger
The Toronto Star


Book Review of :

"Big Babies"

Or:

Why Can't We Just Grow Up?
by Michael Bywater
Granta Books,
264 pages, $33.95

British columnist and author Michael Bywater's thesis is simple and compelling: the sexual and cultural revolutions of the 1960s, coupled with a three-decade golden age of prosperity and upward mobility after World War II, produced the most useless, self-indulgent, immature generation the world has ever seen.

We all know who they are: the Baby Boomers, the Woodstock Generation, the Yuppies. Bywater, a boomer himself, is out to deflate whatever helium is left in his generation's Zeppelinesque self-regard, and he does so by attacking his fellow boomers' inability to grow up and behave like proper adults.

What is a proper adult, according to Bywater? The short answer is everything that boomers aren't: responsible, autonomous, well mannered, politically and culturally engaged, distrustful but not disrespectful of authority – and able to delay gratification to achieve short- and long-term goals. Bywater locates this ideal adult in the figures of his parents and grandparents and the other adults – teachers, tradesmen, housewives, shopkeepers, cops – he modelled himself after as a child.

Boomers, on the other hand, are self-absorbed, narcissistic, celebrity-obsessed moral relativists perpetually engaged with actualizing their true selves, a process that former generations put aside after the soul-searching years of adolescence. Generations X, Y and beyond – the inheritors of Boomer World – are even more hopelessly adrift.

..........SNIP"

http://www.thestar.com/article/173193

[Kerrytravelers]

1. Sounds like the daily rant in our house.

I'd be interested in what the author has to say.

[Deja Q]

2. And we should all pay $33.95 because...

he deserves to get rich?

Also, this 'three decade golden age of prosperity' - what's he talking about? Worker wages have been stagnant (inflation increases aside) since 1973. It's well documented. Who is prospering?

And not all boomers are bad and fit that writer's stereotype.

He's not entirely wrong, but he sure isn't entirely right either.

[DBoon]

20. golden age of prosperity?

You mean like waiting in line to get gasoline on odd/even days?

When the prices of basic goods tripled in a few years (food items, housing, etc.) in the 1970s?

When we had the worst economic slump since the great depression in the early 1980s? When entire industries with well-paid blue collar jobs completely disappeared?

When pensions have entirely vanished?

When you have to pay back, oh $50,000 in loans to attend a *public* university?

When a "good steady job" lasts 5 years maybe?

This is a "golden age of prosperity"????

What planet does this guy live on?

[applegrove]

33. I think the olders today ... 50 to 80 years old are the wealthiest generation

ever. But with the wealth distribution in the USA..you would never know it.

[DBoon]

34. Yes, the beneficiaries of the New Deal

Investment in public infrastructure, available higher education, high wage unionized blue collar jobs, and real pensions make all the difference.

[tularetom]

3. Not me! I ain't a big baby! No sir!

And I'll hold my breath until I turn blue if you don't shut up about that!

[applegrove]

4. The idea that if Bob and Mark down the street get married... that debases your

own marriage...is juvenile. That part of the book I buy. Though the reviewer doesn't get so specific. Wedges are sometimes serious issues and sometimes nothing important at all..but the GOP uses them and people fall for it. The way the word "liberal" has been debased is childlike too. Name calling.

I cannot afford the book but I would be curious to see how far the author goes.

[InvisibleTouch]

8. The library is a wonderful thing. :)

I often check out books on subjects or by authors that I'd never pay money for, or just don't need them taking up space on my bookshelf, but I'm curious to read them just out of interest. Sometimes they're topics I totally disagree with, but it can be entertaining to see how other people's minds work - or don't work, as the case may be.

[applegrove]

11. I agree. Sometimes you have to read about what your enemies are

thinking. Often very informative.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. What a crock of shit.

How about those self-indulgent brats who took a stand against racial prejudice, and continue to do so today? And don't forget the ones who are fighting to clean up the environment, reverse global warming, and eliminate national debt so their kids won't end up paying for Dumbyass' illegal war.

Selfishness has never limited itself to one generation. And I doubt there has ever been a human being who has not exhibited selfishness at one time or another.

[applegrove]

6. He does mention religion going nuts over one issue or the other.

He is talking about consumerism too. I don't think he means to include environmentalists and other leaders in important fields. He talks about corporations creating "needs". Sounds reasonable to me.

"He comes down hardest on the unholy union between the media, corporations and government, which have all benefited the most from our infantilization. If all of us are babies who can't be trusted to look after themselves, the people in charge reason, then why shouldn't they order their lives for us? "

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. Still, I don't see the point of blaming these things on a "generation"...

At one time, corsets were all the rage. Any woman who was a real LADY had to have one. This, of course, occurred well before the generation that raised the generation that raised the generation that raised the baby boomers.

P.T. Barnum knew how to appeal to the self-indulgent baby in each of us. Evangelicals and Pentecostals have their roots in "Camp Meeting" types who wandered in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; and I suspect these nomads got their inspiration from some other group that I'm not aware of.

I have a feeling Bywater is well aware of the fact that books which blame someone for current problems, tend to be big sellers. :-)

[applegrove]

10. I have no doubt he wrote a book that would sell. Not many people do

write books they think will not sell. I know someone who does write about what she thinks is important and what she has to say before all else. But that is rare. I liked his point of infantalization cause that is so *Bush*. The way he talks to the population and the dumbing down by the media. When I see anyone trying to look a little deeper into the issue..I am interested.
Not that I can afford or will buy the book. But I would pick it up at the library. People are lost and searching for answers. So it is timely - yes you are right about that. You do have to wonder how much marketing is involved in how authors write today. Do they go to their publisher and get advice on what to write about before they start? Cause even politics is about "not rolling out your product at the end of August". Why wouldn't the publishing industry be the same.

I think issues of personal responsibility and adulthood go right against how the neocons want the world to develop. And I welcome any talk on that issues.

:hi:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. I agree that the neocons, including Dumbyass, are selfish to the point of being infantile;

but neocons come from several generations, including the so-called "greatest". And if people could live 200 years; I'm certain neocons could count on members from the 100 and up set...like those who were involved in the TeapotDome scandal, the railroad magnates, and steel tycoons.

[MindPilot]

13. It's all because god got kicked out of public life...

The reviewer completely ignores the fact that it never happened, but nonetheless opines:

"For instance, Bywater can't resist repeatedly citing the religious beliefs of contemporary Christians as proof of our culture's intellectual and emotional retardation, positing Jesus and God as the ultimate metaphysical pacifiers. There may be some truth in this observation, but Bywater doesn't stop to ponder the irony that the very process of infantilization that began in the 1960s coincided with the end of religious belief as a guiding principal in the lives of most Westerners.

Couldn't this hedonistic orgy of selfism that Bywater so meticulously catalogues have something to do with the disappearance of an objective transcendent morality that governed the lives of his parents and grandparents? What is a church service but a public proclamation of a shared set of moral tenets and objectives?"

[applegrove]

14. Maybe he means "the real god". Not the one dreamed up by the GOP

to highlight wedge issues that would keep liberals and activist churches from coming together for a 5th time to change the USA into a more compassionate place. The first being the child labour issues and birth of unions, the second being temperance (some poor men got on the drink as soon as they had access to wages (even if it was just a few coins) and stopped being farmer boys (no two cents to rub together those farm boys) and starved their kids. The third being the New Deal and government's role in keeping the economy going for all. The 4th being the civil rights movement. You have to agree that religion has changed quite a bit from the 1950s.

[MindPilot]

18. Doubt it. I grew up in a very religious home.

There was nothing liberal about it. My dad made Archie Bunker look downright progressive.

That whole thing about the 60's generation rejecting religion and today's problems resulting from that is just another grossly inaccurate stereotype like the dirty lazy hippie.

First of all most did not. Those of us who did, did so because we suddenly noticed that science class answered a boatload more questions than a church service ever could.

It's that same tired old cliche that you can't think for yourself or make ethical decisions without some mythological deity or spokesperson thereof to tell you.

[applegrove]

19. I don't think religion is for everyone. Some people are just not built

for it. I would however be interested is seeing where he takes the discussion.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

25. Also, it doesn't take into account those who are religious, but not Christian

[shrike]

30. The Founding Fathers, for example, weren't religious in the way we think of it

But I do think there used to be some sense of the common good, "morality" if you will, a sense of responsibility to others that is lacking in many people today.

I think you can have such a sense without being overtly religious. I also think that whatever may have existed before doesn't exist now. But I also think the reasons for it are very complex.

[MindPilot]

9. more blame-the boomers-for-everything drivel by some dweeb

who's probably just discovered the whole sexual revolution passed him by.

And the reviewer sounds like he's no prize either: "James Grainger is the author of The Long Slide (ECW Press), a story collection about men who can't grow up."

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[applegrove]

12. But, but, but he blames the government/media/corporation trio

for spoon-feeding the populous. That is true. Even the media will agree on that. The * WH calls out "nanny government" whenever people talk about social programs but treats the population like babies who cannot understand serious issues so must be fed propaganda. I'll read anything that goes more deeply into the issue. Cause it is just one more example of * & neocon hypocrisy. But I cannot afford it.

[MindPilot]

15. You are correct, but that wasn't a boomer invention.

The unholy alliance of the defense industry, advertising media, politics, and corporate governance was in place long before the boomers started popping out. The "sixties generation" in large part was a retaliation against the materialism and the unquestioning submission to corporate authority that was the hallmark of our parents.

[applegrove]

16. I didn't think the 60s was about consumerism. I thought it was about

war. And about free love and civil rights and feminism.

[MindPilot]

24. Not consumerism per se, but I recall a massive backlash against

materialism--the endless use of finite resources so we can have more stuff. At least that's what we called it. As I recall, "consumerism" was the name given not those who were compelled to consume, but to consumer advocacy--like the idea that you had a right to buy a car that didn't fall over during a lane change.

Civil rights was I think THE driving force followed closely by the war. Free love was another bit of a misnomer. Feminism, women's liberation--was about not just women's rights but also about reproductive freedom, making interracial relationships OK, and ultimately same-gender relationships, being able to live with whoever you wanted with having to get permission from the state, church, or landlord. It was the "free love" movement that made it possible for unmarried women to get birth control, and for married women to get it without their husband's permission.

Yep, we boomers sure fucked up the world. Far from infantalizing ourselves, I think the opposite is true: We dragged western society kicking and screaming into adulthood.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. "the whole sexual revolution passed him by"

:spray::rofl:
You may be on to something there...

[MindPilot]

26. Most of these anti-hippie rants are written by guys who couldn't

get laid in a whorehouse with a fistful of hundreds.

Now they're mad at those of us who look back not only on how much good we did, but how much fun we had doing it.

[teryang]

21. Sounds very scientific...

What a crock of dogshit! Goebbels used to shovel this crap.

[applegrove]

22. You haven't noticed the dumbing down of the news? I've been seeing it. So

have lots of others.

[teryang]

27. Please clarify your comment...

I don't understand your point.

[applegrove]

28. The book is about infantalization. Goebbles did it. Now * does it as does

the MSM. Why is it a crock of ****? Or perhaps I misinterpreted your post.

[teryang]

37. I don't see how corporate media images reflect...

...upon a generation, particularly mine. Corporate media is a projection not a reflection. I once heard an NBC executive with over 20 years experience say that network programming ignores those over 50 years of age, because they are not interested in the products or images that the advertisers are pushing. The target audience is 12 to 45.

Perhaps this is why, I don't feel a need to watch television. It is dumbed down, that's for sure. That doesn't mean a group is selfish or "dumbed down" although they could be.

For those who say a particular generation is soft (Goebbels was fond of the word effete), let's recognize that the increases in productivity and low wages are coming out of someone's behind. Every place where I and my family members have worked, has basically tried to work its employees beyond and/or without the "soft" standards of which the so called "greatest generation" had the benefit. Namely, 40 hour weeks, paid holidays, medical benefits, pensions, etc. Anecdotally, I have heard the same from literally hundreds of others who have described their experiences to me in person, here on DU or elsewhere.

When I hear the crap about you're too soft, too selfish or you're not mature enough, etc., i know I'm hearing pro-corporate, pro-slave, authoritarian, neo-nazi bullshit.

The corruption lies with the corporate-financial sector and their political stooges. It is their greed that is driving the society off a cliff.

The article above is a "get over it" type of drivel which fails to consider the driving policies and macro-economic forces that are destroying our social fabric. It is camouflage for the eight hundred pound gorilla in the living room - governance by corporate objectives.

[applegrove]

38. Who will vote to take control back? The boomers have to vote that

way. The greatest generation are fewer and fewer. I think this last Nov. Election was a sign that many people..boomers included..said allrighty: enough is enough.

[applegrove]

29. I just think that boomers have to take ownership for what they have

let happen. This war. MSM being taken over by corporations. Surely not everyone in the boomer generation has participated. I don't think the average lefty is what this guy is talking about. I think he is talking about those people with 3 homes who voted for * to get the tax cut they didn't need. Or a society who has let business so box them in..that they alone in the Western Democracies do not have public health care.

I wouldn't take it personally. I don't think this is directed at you who fight the good fight every day. Just my take..but someone voted for Bush - almost a majority. And then again. Who are these people who believed it when * said "I am not a divider"? Some portion of the US electorate were told they could have their cake and eat it too. Some portion of the baby boomers who want all laws to favour their time of life. When they are rich taxes go down. When they were young it was about free love and experimentation. I would not characterize most at the DU as this type of baby boomer. I could be wrong..but then one would have to actually read the whole book not just the review. So we will never know will we.

[DBoon]

35. for us Boomers, winning the lottery meant

two years in Vietnam.

Talk to me when you are facing a military draft. The you might have a standard of comparison between generations.

[applegrove]

36. Yes Vietnam. So true. But most of the proxy wars between the West and

Soviet Union were fought in other countries. Lucky for all of us Westerners that they were.

[LeftishBrit]

31. The Youth of Today are going to the dogs ... and have been doing so since ancient times

'Our youth now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love to chatter in
places of exercise. Children are tyrants, not the servants of the
household. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food
and tyrannize their teachers." -- Socrates, 44 BC.'


It's true that people nowadays reach economic independence later than in the past, and this has some social consequences. But basically it sounds like one of those rants about how Young People Aren't What They Were in My Day, that have been going on since time immemorial.

[applegrove]

32. That may be. But I've always thought the boomers ..by sheer numbers..

turn society into what they want most at that time in their lives.