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<\/a><\/p>\nI give you two rather different pieces,<\/strong> both sharing a common thread: the full-rein head we have given to all of our adolescent leanings.<\/p>\n If the society has been dumbed-down \u2014 and it has been \u2014 it has also developed a case of arrested development, and both issues appear to stem from a generational and cultural mindset that has embraced the sensibilities and reason of 14 year-olds.<\/p>\n Think about being 14, for a moment.<\/strong> When you are 14, you know everything, and you resent anyone saying you don\u2019t. You don\u2019t want to be told what to do; you don\u2019t want to hear about rules or accountability. Perfectly reasonable explanations or boundaries are dismissed as \u201cunfair\u201d or \u201ctyrannical.\u201d You\u2019ll do anything to be accepted by the \u201ccool\u201d kids, and to avoid being tagged as a geek, or a nerd or a \u201cfaggot\u201d<\/em> (in the parlance of my generation, that had nothing to do with homosexuality. You were a \u201cfaggot\u201d if you actually followed the rules, or didn\u2019t sneer at the teacher, or hadn\u2019t yet embraced cynicism, or thought hippies wearing $150 fringe leather jackets while pretending to rail against \u201cthe greed, man\u2026\u201d<\/em> were asinine. I<\/em> was a \u201cfaggot.\u201d)<\/p>\n When you are 14 years old, you didn\u2019t ask to be born, so everything is owed you. And the word \u201cno\u201d cannot be tolerated; it reacts upon the adolescent like too-rich milk on the immature digestive system of an infant \u2013 the projectile vomiting covers everything.<\/p>\n And when you are 14 years old, you want solutions to be based on feelings<\/em>. You feel<\/em> a certain way, and those feelings are to be considered as legitimate as anything as cold as brute reason. Feelings are not just equal to reason, they\u2019re superior to reason, because feelings are \u201creal\u201d and that makes them noble and unconditionally good.<\/p>\n Feelings are not bad. In fact, feelings can spur us on<\/strong> to greatness \u2013 a woman like Maggie Gobran<\/strong><\/a> does great things because her heart was touched. Throughout history we\u2019ve seen people who do great things because something awoke a fire in the breast, and motivated them to give up a part of themselves, for something greater than themselves. But feelings alone do nothing; feelings that are assuaged when someone else \u201cdoes something\u201d or that seek solutions in bureaucracies and can therefore remain detached \u2013 they do not bring us out of adolescence. They do not bring maturity. They do not help us to grow, or to become great.<\/p>\n And we\u2019ve lost sight of what greatness is, and how it is forged through difficulty, or how it is usually sparked by one person, daring to act<\/strong><\/a>, even if it means social rejection.<\/p>\n