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A few days ago, I received an article from a friend who occasionally sends me thought-provoking news articles and interesting snippets of prose and poetry. The article, which appeared in The Weekly Standard, was titled, "The Perpetual Adolescent." The writer, Joseph Epstein, observed that over the past 40 years or so, the youth culture has taken over the United States.

Epstine feels that this preoccupation with being forever young is detrimental. He writes the following about youth worship and its impact on our national culture: "The ideal almost everywhere (in America) is to seem young as long as possible. The Health clubs and endemic workout clothes, the enormous increase in cosmetic surgery (for women and men), the special youth-oriented television programming and movie-making, all these are merely the obvious signs of the triumph of youth culture."

I believe his assessment of the present state of our culture is a true one. The "me generation" seems to be in charge. Otherwise, why does so much contemporary entertainment come in the form of animation or comic-book cartooning? Television shows such as "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill" all seem to feel that the animated cartoon/comic-book format is very much of the moment. They are right if you think of your audience members as adolescent, or, more precisely, as unwilling to detach themselves from their adolescence.

The writer states that the today's youth endure very few of the stern tests that were the builders of adulthood in earlier generations. War, economic depression, hard work, simple, more austere lifestyles and absence of perpetual entertainment -- as undesirable as they seem -- have a tendency to cause the self-centeredness and complacency of adolescence to be shed very quickly in favor of serious adulthood and the pursuit of survival.

Quite often as a "know-it-all" teenager, I remember my mom making the exasperated request, "Would you please just grow up?" Some of those stern tests along that rocky and precarious road to maturity caused me to grow up. It wasn't at some sudden magical point that I began to make all the right decisions and choices, but my father's death in the middle of those teen years forced me to face reality. Knowing that you're going to have to make it on your own has an acutely sobering and maturing effect.

When I see children glued for hours, in rapt and glassy-eyed absorption to those mind-numbing video games, I shudder inside. Just reading some frivolous little books would at least exercise their imaginations a bit. They might even learn something. But, alas, reading books is not considered entertainment by most kids these days.

To read and comprehend you must engage your mind. I wonder what sort of sensible, solid adults they will make, or if they will ever make it beyond youth and video games to real adulthood.

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful and enduring that the world has ever seen. It became strong by adhering to strict codes of laws and moral principals. The empire's heroes were brave and selfless warrior-leaders, and older people were respected and honored.

But as the Romans became more powerful and affluent, they became decadent and self-indulgent. Immorality and moral corruption of every sort were rampant and they lost all sense of decency. Much of Roman society was like spoiled selfish children. Immersed in their puerile and evil indulgences, they lost their will to defend themselves and were eventually conquered by stronger, less "civilized" people.

Sound familiar?

Rush Button's column appears every Tuesday. He can be reached by e-mail at buttonrl@aol.com or by phone at 803-534-3724.

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