One of my favorite think tanks, the Claremont Institute in California, has published two of the most important essays you can read concerning young men and women in American today.
‘Wimps and Barbarians: The Sons of Murphy Brown,’ follows the growing up of the fictional boy, “Avery, son of Murphy Brown,” and uses him as a springboard to warn against the two dangers for young men in America. You may recall, “Television’s Murphy Brown, played by Candice Bergen, was a successful news commentator who, after an unsuccessful relationship with a man that left her alone and pregnant, bore a son out of wedlock. The event, popular enough in its own right, became the center of political controversy when then Vice President Dan Quayle in a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California lamented that the show was ‘mocking the importance of a father.’”
The sister piece is entitled simply, ‘Heathers Compromise.’ It begins, “If we imagine that the decline of boys
into wimps and barbarians has led inversely and categorically to the rise of girls, we would be gravely mistaken.”
Each piece does a superb job of showing what type of child, after years of rearing, you would not want to produce. Further, it points up the need for knowing what type of boy or girl you would like to raise, the golden mean between the extremes. In this writer’s case, that golden mean would be Christian Ladies and Gentlemen. That goal is easier said than done, but it is nice to at least have the goal.
Further suggested reading: ‘Dan Quayle Was Right‘ by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead.
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