John Hawkins at RWN interviews Jonah Goldberg on his new book The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas. I thought this excerpt from the interview was interesting:
In terms of the youth, we have a popular culture that exalts young people simply because they’re young and I have a deep and abiding contempt for youth politics, certainly as it’s practiced on the Left. I like and work with a lot of young Conservative organizations, but you know one of the things that the Young America’s Foundation does is actually teach kids why they should have a healthy respect for the past. The assumption that we have to cater to young people because they’re young and they’re the future and all that kind of stuff is just a naked form of power worship. It assumes that since they’re going to run everything one day, we might as well cave into them now. This completely turns the idea of civilization on its head. Hannah Arendt once said, “Every generation, Western civilization is invaded by barbarians – we call them ‘children.’”
I do agree that our culture worships youth and it never made sense to me. As Goldberg points out, just because they look better than older people (though honestly, not always), that is no reason to defer to young people just because they know less. My own opinion is that the media defers to youth because they tend to vote (if they vote) for liberals until they get older and smarter.
The younger the crowd, the easier it is to work their emotions instead of their reason. Basic Politics 101.
Unfortunately the cult of youth worship seems to result in a great many people simply refusing to grow up.
It is probably because they are so gullible. Those ’60s radicals going to bring down the man became quite good Reaganite capitalists in the 1980s and 90s even if they continued to keep up their radical marketing. Now as they head off into “retirement” they are working hard to ensure pay more to keep up those over 30 even as they didn’t trust anyone over 30.
I believe it was Robert Frost who once reportedly quipped something to the effect of, “I hesitated to be a radical in my youth for fear of being called a conservative in my old age.” Has a certain ring of truth to it.
the media defers to youth because old people don’t respond to ads, and media runs on selling effective ads.
I thought it was all about baby boom demographics and post-WWII prosperity – at least in the States. Suddenly you had a LOT more kids running around, their parents were doing well, the economy was doing well. Companies recognized that the boomers represented a huge new market. Parents were willing to spend money to give their kids the good life they didn’t have during the Depression. Politicians saw the boomers as a vast pool of potential voters. Catering to the youth in every way made economic and political sense – at the time. I suppose those were the external factors. Internally, I don’t know what made the youth of this generation think they had to “rebel” or why they supposed they were going to change the world to suit themselves. Was it the special status given to them by the grownups? Or was the adult world of the time really so distasteful that they actively tried to avoid it?
‘Boomers went to college in unprecented numbers and from much more middle class backgrounds than had earlier been the case when college was the province of the wealthy elite, the only exception being the returning WWII and Korea soldiers who went on the GI Bill ten to twenty years earlier.
Those 18 year olds walked into collegs already filled with radicals and marxist professors. The Berzerkley Free Speech “movement” was in ’64, in which year the oldest ‘Boomers turned 18. Most of the radical leaders of that period were born in the late ’30s and the war years, not ‘Boomers. Frankly, though many love to lay all things bad on ‘Boomers, they were not the leaders nor trendsetters of the ’60s; they were followers of an older cohort in politics, tastes, music, etc. Abby Hoffman was born in ’36, ten years older than the oldest ‘boomers. Jerry Rubin was born in ’38. In fact, none of the infamous Chicago Seven, or eight if you include Seale, was a ‘Boomer, all having been born in the ’30s except Dellinger who was born in ’15. Even the guy in the neighborhood of Comrade Obama, Bill Ayers of Weatherment infamy isn’t a ‘Boomer having been born in ’44.
Wait. Does Goldberg have children?
Because he has recently written about the benefits of violence and unless I’m mistaken, Goldberg has never served in our military or as a law enforcement officer.
Get my drift?
I am neither a parentt nor a policeman . Does that disqualify me from supporting the use oflegitimate violence in either law enforcement or defensive war? I think not.You probably have never run a gulag, or shot political prisoners, but that doesn’t disqualify you from being a liberal(ie a closet stalinist).
– the Children’s Crusade?
That’s a loaded money-shot question. The advertising: who has disposable income? And who is remarkably foolish? It’s a way of praising Boomers. There are now sex comedies featuring Meryl Streep, as if she were 18 and lived in a dorm.
The generation of people born in the late sixties, early seventies, were not catered to. Not politically, not creatively, not financially, not morally. Compounding the injury of the most abortions was the insult of all the “evil child” movies, all the books about children being shits for not accomodating their parents’ destructive divorce whims, etc. The seventies were the absolute nadir of American culture, possibly until now.
They might have catered to the Boomers, and they might cater to the Millenials, but Gen X got no love.
Apparently the man has a daughter. Oh, and a dog. I guess that makes him the expert du jour.
And what do you have bargebrain? tertiary syphillis?
The exaltation of youth is part of the obnoxious narcissism of the 60′s degeneration, which fears death,refuses to grow up,and thinks that youth worship will keep them young forever.It will be great watching the boomers die in despair!
I heartily agree. I suggest that we replace this whole youth worshipping culture with one that favors Jewish American Middle aged Men with Gotees (JMAGs). Jonah and I share membership in this club and I am counting on the non-JMAG community for support.
Thank you very much.
The reason why the ‘utes should only be given basic respect is that rarely can they do anything as well as those more experienced. As a general rule. The difference between a good man and a great one is that the great one will be on the lookout for those who can disprove that rule.
If rookies could do things as well as the veterans, there wouldn’t be a rookie of the year award. The rookie would just win the overall title.
I was in college and law school in the late sixties and early seventies, and even then I never understood why inexperience and ignorance were considered qualifications to pronounce on topics about which the young knew little.
Has it occurred to anyone else that much leftism is really a sign of an adolescent mindset? Most of us get over the shock of learning that Daddy doesn’t know everything, Mommy can’t fix everything, people sometimes act other than as they should and have other interests than we do, and that stuff happens, the world is an imperfect place.
But leftists (many, not all) don’t seem to have reached that point. That’s why they embrace utopian politics and believe their opponents are evil rather than just misguided. You combine that with the adolescent arrogance and self-absorption combined with a lack of introspection and you have…well, liberalism.