H.S. Key complains about Americans who need to grow up.

We want to discover our inner child. We wear shirts that say “Runs with scissors” and “Eats glue.” We sit in great big Starbucks chairs with our shoes off and our legs Indian-style, like Kindergartners on growth hormone. I can’t stand it. Those kinds of things are the subjects of this book, called The Death of the Grown-Up by Diana West.

I’m sympathetic to a point. I would love to heard someone say, “Vulgarity is to common people. That’s what they word means. We aren’t common people.” Or better, “My dad is my hero. When he bought me my first hat, I knew I was becoming a man.” But I don’t know that the hand-wringing in this book (or post for that matter) is all that it could be. As some of the commenters mention, there will always be extremists among us–weird parents with no morality. Because we hear about them doesn’t mean they represent most of us.

But all of that is beside the point. The real point is that more people should read BwB and The Art of Manliness for maturity and health. Can anyone question that?