{"id":736,"date":"2005-05-08T13:24:07","date_gmt":"2005-05-08T17:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theanchoressonline.com\/2005\/05\/08\/no-they-will-never-grow-up\/"},"modified":"2015-03-13T20:47:30","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:47:30","slug":"no-they-will-never-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/05\/08\/no-they-will-never-grow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"No, they will NEVER grow up"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>I\u2019m introducing a new category, called The Perpetual Adolescents, and in that catagory we will discuss the stubborn refusal of some \u2013 not all, of course \u2013 but some parts of the left to grow up.<\/p>\n<p>In the category we will include all of the <a href=\"http:\/\/theanchoressonline.com\/2005\/05\/06\/how-sadly-adolescent-how-high-school\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">aging schoolgirl<\/a> columnists (bless Mark Steyn, forever, for that description).<\/p>\n<p>And we\u2019ll also include some things like this:<\/p>\n<p><strong>WARNING:  THE FOLLOWING LINK CONTAINS THE \u201cF\u201d WORD.  DO NOT READ IF IT WILL OFFEND.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s one of those cafepress sites, where cyberfolk with ideas go to sell merchandise.  These drygoods are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafepress.com\/fuckthepope\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">tee shirts and other geegaws<\/a> proudly proclaiming the world F*** followed by Pope Benedict XVI and various other snotty remarks.<\/p>\n<p>Shrug.  You don\u2019t like the pope, that\u2019s your business.  What I am wondering about is the strange fascination the left seems to have with the F-word.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m no prude.  I\u2019ve used it in my life.  Particularly during baseball games.  Through clenched teeth.  Directed at the Boston Red Sox.  I do not get a case of the vapors if someone, in a fit of pique, uses the word in my presence, although I do mind if there are children about.<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019m so tired of the left\u2019s complete overuse of this word, and the apparent sense of empowerment that they seem to find from it.  Picture someone walking around with this tee-shirt, the F word proudly emblazoned across the pectoral muscles.  Wow.  Look at me!  I\u2019m DARING.  I have the world F*** on my chest!<\/p>\n<p>Yes.  Rather like a daring five-year old who thinks she\u2019s really getting away with something when she says \u201cpoopyhead!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I remember, in the early 1970\u2019s a Jr. High teacher of mine played the Woodstock album for the class.  He was our social studies teacher, and this was somehow meaningful instruction.  He specifically played the \u201cGimmee and \u2018F\u201d\u201d part, and we got to listen to the crowd of people, all hopeless followers of trends, all communicants in the Church of What\u2019s Happening Now, all conformists pretending feverishly that they were so, so <em>not<\/em>-conforming because they were such <em>individuals<\/em>, spell out the word and then cheer and scream as though they\u2019d done something meaningful and wise.  \u201cOhhhhhh, look at us!  We used a baaaad word!  We\u2019re SO cool!  We\u2019re SO smart!  We\u2019re SO not-uptight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They are the most uptight people in the world, because they\u2019re always so damned busy trying to prove something about themselves and what they \u201care\u201d or \u201care not\u201d and how that makes them superior to, or more noble than, everyone who came before or will come hence.<\/p>\n<p>Gad, I can\u2019t stand boomers.  I am one, technically, but I have never liked this generation.  Even back then, when I was 13, I hated this pre-occupation with \u2018self\u2019 that is so much a part of that crowd.  Even back then, at 13, I thought the Woodstock Chant was lame.<\/p>\n<p>The F-word is so done, SO overplayed.  But the boomers and their limited progeny can\u2019t let it go.  The F-word is their calling card, their banner, their meaningless creed.<\/p>\n<p>I bet if you asked the marketer of the <em>F*** Benedict XVI <\/em>shirts if he is a liberal, he would say he is, or that he is \u201cprogressive,\u201d or something.  When I was growing up, raised by classically liberal parents, I was taught that being liberal meant being open-minded, allowing others to live and let live \u2013 giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, and most of all, engaging in real, meaningful discussion, not flippant blow-offs.    By those definitions I am still \u201cclassically liberal,\u201d although I will admit that sometimes my temper gets the best of me (work-in-progress over here!) and I can be a little on the biting side.<\/p>\n<p>Some who read me would suggest that because I am lately conservative, that I could not be \u201cclassically liberal.\u201d  But since the definition of what is liberal seems to have changed over the last 30 years, I believe I could still claim it if I wanted to, because no matter how much I disagreed with someone, I would never throw a pie, or salad dressing, at someone because I didn\u2019t like their ideas or wanted to shut down their speech.  I would never wear a F*** ANYBODY shirt\u2026partly because to do so would be utterly classless, partly because it would be so LAME\u2026but mostly because it would be so unnecessary, childish, immature and eternally adolescent.<\/p>\n<p>If I were to do so\u2026I would be SUCH a poopyhead! :-)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m introducing a new category, called The Perpetual Adolescents, and in that catagory we will discuss the stubborn refusal of some \u2013 not all, of course \u2013 but some parts of the left to grow up. In the category we will include all of the aging schoolgirl columnists (bless Mark Steyn, forever, for that description). 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