Tea Party as a Rebellion Against Parental Authority

A while ago I discussed how the cult of immaturity in our culture has led us straight into a global economic crisis. As I observe the mind-numbing childishness of Tea Partiers who have graced this blog with their presence since my yesterday's post, I realize that their entire anti-governmental stance is a result of that very immaturity. All these people have received an e-mail from Amazon notfying them that Amazon is going to dump them from the Associates Program. Not a single one of those who came here to discuss the issue suggested addressing any questions, complaints or concerns to Amazon. The first and only target of their anger is the government.

Actually, it is always the government. Aside from being very silly, the "get the government out of my Social Security" attitude betrays a very childish worldview. The big, all-powerful parent who is imagined as much stronger than he is in reality (and don't we all remember believing our Dad was a superman when we were little?) is supposed to be responsible for absolutely everything. At the same time, every child goes through the period of resentment against everything the parents do. For a teenager, a parent literally can do nothing right. This all-powerful figure that rules supreme over your life when you are a teenager is seen as deeply flawed and unreasonably mean. "I hate you!" screams a teenager at her parents and sams the door behind her. "I hate the government!" screams a Tea Partier who hasn't been able to evolve past the teenage mentality.

Questioning the actions of Amazon would entail positioning oneself as an adult who is entitled to question the actions of equals (in this case, other private citizens who work for / own Amazon and make the company's decisions.) That, however, would require a degree of maturity many people simply do not possess. Being an adult is onerous. It entails shouldering responsibilities and accepting that no parental figure will come to the rescue or accept the blame for one's own screw-ups. As soon as there is a slightest sign of trouble, a Tea Partier starts to whine, "Bad, horrible government! Mwaaa! Where is my Mommy? Mommy bad, she left me all alone! Mwa mwa mwaaaa." Who needs to grow up when you can always blame the all-powerful government for everything that goes wrong?

Musings on Immaturity

Reading Edmund Andrews's Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown (see my review of it here), made me think about how our entire society is held hostage by the mind-numbing immaturity of a large group of people. Even if it weren't for the housing bubble and the market collapse, I am convinced that we would have experienced some sort of a profound systemic crisis anyways. If the economic collapse hadn't happened, it would have been something else. The time has come for us to bear the fruits of a profound infantilization that plagues our society.

We are all complicit in this. We look at a president who can't read and then go and elect him for a second term. We seriously consider as a vice-presidential candidate a person who is dumb as a door-nail. We keep trying to dumb down our college-level courses. Instead of asking students to read, think, analyze, and write, we make them look up information on the Internet and then regurgitate it. We accept it as normal when people proudly tell us that they never read anything or follow the news. We read articles in the leading newspapers written by people who cannot compose a sentence without making three mistakes. We watch TV shows where stupidity is celebrated and education is ridiculed.

Andrews's book is so scary because if a supposedly educated person whose job is to analyze events and report the fruits of his analysis (which is meant to be an intellectual endeavor) turns out to be as immature, irresponsible, and stupid as a 12-year-old, what can we expect from people who have not been as blessed by education and very well-paying white-collar jobs?

When an entire society turns away from intelligence and embraces a cult of stupidity, chances are there will be a systemic crisis of major proportions. This time, these immature, unintelligent, whiny jerks have led us into an economic collapse. Tomorrow, it will be something else. Unless we, as a society, embrace the idea that being stupid, irresponsible, and immature is unacceptable, we will keep being shaken by these crises on a regular basis.