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West, Diana. The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization. New York: St. Martin's, 2007. 256pp. $23.95
"Stop, before you hurt yourself! Why? Because I said so"-a common diktat from a caring parent to child, about setting limits on behavior. The historical role of grown-ups has been to nurture, protect, and teach fledglings about self-destructive behavior. So how, then, is raising children the unifying theme of a book about the decline of Western civilization?
The answer, as Diana West argues convincingly, is a direct correlation between decades of moribund moral norms, owing to vanishing societal maturity, and America's inability to grasp the seriousness of emerging global dangers. Like a child that keeps playing, unwilling to obey the call for bedtime, America is simply not paying attention to a world of growing challenges. Worse yet, the author contends, there are no adults around to take away the toys.
Of course West, an esteemed syndicated columnist and writer, is not the first to observe the decline of adult influence or the erosion...