''.. strive to be like them...''

''Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.''

The above lines may be familiar to some of you, especially if you are a baby-boomer or a peruser of pop-"spirituality'' as popularized in the sappy sixties and seventies. The words are those of poet and ''philosopher' Kahlil Gibran, who was one of the early beneficiaries of the current infatuation with ''diversity'' and multiculturalism.

Lots of baby-boomers and those of the successive generations who followed in their sandal-prints since, have lived by the philosophy in that quote, and have adopted the 'children as peers' or 'children as gurus' approach to parenthood. It all sounded so cool back around 1970, and probably many children have been reared by parents who 'strive to be like them'', instead of the other way around, the time-honored way.

Karen De Coster at TakiMag writes about some of the deplorable fashion trends of today that owe at least some of their popularity to this philosophy of parenting:

...On a few occasions I have seen one of the fashion crimes of the decade: adults wearing Hollister clothes when they are with their children. That is a part of the “let’s be pals” mentality that parents want to convey to their children. They listen to the same music and wear the same genre of inane clothing, and thus give the impression of being juveniles on steroids.''

Now, I am undoubtedly out of the loop, but I had never heard of the ''Hollister'' trend. Of course I have witnessed the other fashion misdemeanors of which she writes, which are probably ubiquitous around the country, such as the 'Crocs' shoes, the 'skinny jeans', which I agree are unflattering to everybody and especially so on women of mature years. All these things, and the growing tendency of the older generations to model themselves on the younger, are part of the ''let's be pals'' school of childrearing, which in turn is part of this cult of the perennial adolescent which prevails now. Diana West's book The Death of the Grown-Up is subtitled How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization.

That may sound like hyperbole, but I think it's close to the truth.
West talks about how adults today seem reluctant to be 'grown-ups', and continue in the kinds of adolescent concerns and preoccupations that we expect to find among the very young, even when they are well into middle age and senior-hood.

Whereas in the past, following the natural order of things, children longed to become adults and prided themselves on every step toward that goal, now it seems perpetual youth is the longing of most adults, even when they are pathetically and obviously past any semblance of youth.

Ever since the 1950s, when the whole idea of 'teenagers' as a distinct groups was developed fully, our popular culture has put youth and the popular 'youth culture' on a pedestal, making it the epitome of all that is au courant and desirable. During the 1950s and 1960s, the unprecedented number of young people made them a desirable demographic for advertisers to court, hoping to sell some fad or trend or gadget which would appeal to the young and their sense of distinctiveness, their specialness. So advertising and popular entertainment began to focus excessively on youth trends and fads, and to magnify their importance beyond all reason.

The popular culture of the time expressed this obsession with youth and the disdain for 'getting old'', and the term ''old' began to be applied to anyone over 30, rather than to people with wrinkled skin and graying hair. Think of popular songs, like The Who's My Generation: ''hope I die before I get old", and its dismissive, disrespectful attitude toward adults: 'why don't you all fade away?'

There was the famous saying 'never trust anyone over thirty', and the movie, Wild in the Streets, 'oldsters' over 30 are placed in concentration camps and forced to take LSD, while 14-year-olds were given the vote.

The movie wasn't exactly accurate as prophecy, although now we have plenty of over-30s dressing, acting, and talking like 14-year-olds and taking drugs willingly, which was not the case back in 1968 when the movie was made. So in a sense, the teens have won, with many adults emulating them and apparently trying to camouflage their ''over-the-hill'' status, and hoping to pass as teenagers.

And it goes far beyond just wearing silly clothes like the 'skinny jeans' or Hollister clothes; I thought of this recently in connection with some people I know.

We've all heard of kids from conservative and/or Christian homes who have gone away to college and become radicalized, being transformed into raving leftists after sitting under the teaching of the politically correct academics who dominate the campuses these days. But have you ever heard of adults 'catching' this leftism second-hand from their brainwashed children? It happens.

I have one acquaintance who is a baby-boomer, a parent of two ''children'' who are perpetual students who have spent the last dozen or so years in college or graduate school, sometimes drifting from one course of study to another, eventually earning degrees, working sporadically. This mother, despite in the past having had conservative attitudes, has now become as an indoctrinated a liberal as one can be, simply by osmosis, via her children. I'm convinced that this mother, and one other of my acquaintance, has so thoroughly identified with her children that not only is she trying to emulate them in clothing, hairstyles, slang, and entertainment, but she has become a rabid leftist and feminist as well.

I know of one other case of a mother who, similarly following Kahlil Gibran's advice to 'strive to become like' her children, has followed their politics as well as their fads and fashions in clothes.

Is this not sad? This is not the correct order of things in the world. Adults have in too many cases abdicated authority in their own families, refusing to exercise the offices of a parent, choosing to try to be peers to their children, and to follow the children's confused paths, instead of setting the example. It's no wonder that our society is in such disarray, since the adults have mostly walked off the job and joined the children.

And I have to wonder how many such deluded 'parents' voted in the recent election, and how many of them contributed to the eventual outcome of the election? I know that the two mothers in question did vote for the 'Change' which now looms ahead of us.

With so many adolescents of all ages in our country, it is no wonder that so many people are absorbed in narcissistic and shallow pursuits while America figuratively burns, refusing to take adult responsibilities, willing to let 'big daddy government' fix things for us. The adolescent attitude allows an authoritarian government free rein.

And with a nation of people which has far too many adults who choose to act like children, it is no wonder that we cannot deal decisively against the threats to our way of life and our very existence. The grownups are missing in action, while many superannuated teenagers are off contemplating their navels, or shopping, or playing video games, while the lights fail in the West.