The Impossibility of Adulthood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter (Nation of Rebels) characterize the 1999 film, American Beauty, as \u201ca completely uncompromising recitation of '60s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Impossibility of Adulthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter (Nation of Rebels) characterize the 1999 film, American Beauty, as \u201ca completely uncompromising recitation of '60s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-20T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/\",\"name\":\"The Impossibility of Adulthood\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-20T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-20T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter (Nation of Rebels) characterize the 1999 film, American Beauty, as \u201ca completely uncompromising recitation of '60s\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Impossibility of Adulthood\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Impossibility of Adulthood","description":"Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter (Nation of Rebels) characterize the 1999 film, American Beauty, as \u201ca completely uncompromising recitation of '60s","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Impossibility of Adulthood","og_description":"Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter (Nation of Rebels) characterize the 1999 film, American Beauty, as \u201ca completely uncompromising recitation of '60s","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2017-01-20T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/","name":"The Impossibility of Adulthood","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-01-20T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-20T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter (Nation of Rebels) characterize the 1999 film, American Beauty, as \u201ca completely uncompromising recitation of '60s","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Impossibility of Adulthood"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":18634,"date":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T00:00:00","slug":"the-impossibility-of-adulthood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-impossibility-of-adulthood\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impossibility of Adulthood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

J<\/span>oseph Heath and Andrew Potter (Nation of Rebels<\/em><\/a>) characterize the 1999 film, American Beauty<\/em>, as \u201ca completely uncompromising recitation of \u201960s countercultural ideology. It\u2019s the hippies versus the fascists, still slugging it out three decades after Woodstock.\u201d<\/p>\n

The characters split neatly into two groups: \u201cthe countercultural rebels: the narrator, Lester Burnham; his daughter, Jane; and the neighbor kid, Ricky Fitts.\u201d They are the good guys because \u201cthey all smoke dope, behave in nonconformist ways (and are thus ostracized by the community) and have a deep appreciation of the \u2018beauty\u2019 that surrounds them.\u201d The fascists include \u201cLester\u2019s wife, Carolyn; Ricky\u2019s father, Colonel Frank Fitts; and the \u2018King of Real Estate,\u2019 Buddy Kane. You can tell they\u2019re fascists because they are all neurotic, sexually repressed, obsessed with what others think of them, and they like to play with handguns. Just to drive the point home, Colonel Fitts is shown beating his son while screaming about his need for order and discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film follows Lester\u2019s awakening from his suburban slumber. He frees himself when he writes \u201ca job description that says he spends most of his day masking his contempt for [those] in charge.\u201d He takes a leap forward when he starts getting marijuana from Ricky. From there \u201cLester stages a complete juvenile regression. He becomes the walking, talking id<\/em>. He blurts out all the things that we are constantly thinking but never have the courage to say.\u201d He quits his job and fantasizes about his daughter\u2019s cheerleader friend. <\/p>\n

The fascists try to force him back into middle class conformity, and they finally succeed when Col. Fitts shoots Lester to prevent Lester from revealing that he\u2019s a homosexual. Heath and Potter commend the film for hanging \u201con to the essential bleakness of the original Freudian vision. In the view of the world articulated by American Beauty<\/em>, it is simply not possible to be a well-adjusted adult in our society.\u201d You are either forced into fascist conformity or regress into infantile adolescence. The best one can hope for in this tragic Freudian world is a kind of grudging adjustment to reality.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pervasive myth, powerful in part because it has some of the ring of truth (some forms of modern life can<\/em> be deadening) and in part because it appeals to our American fantasies of youth and freedom. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"