Somehow, no matter the misery I see and hear from the Middle East, Victor David Hanson always makes me feel better. He puts everything in perspective and presents a broader vision for why we are there and what we should do. I hope the DC powers-that-be are indeed reading what he says.

A new book is out, calling the development of Rock-n-roll music one of the most important events in US history. Debatable, but certainly a central cultural moment of the past 50 years. But do you judge it a positive or negative development? Read this quote from the book All Shook Up:

To a significant extent, a distinct teenage culture, with its own mores and institutions, did develop during the decade. A catchy and insistent rock 'n' roll led the way by encouraging boys and girls to resist the authority of parents, be more sexually adventurous, and learn from their peers about what to wear, watch, and listen to, when to study, and where to go on Saturday night. With the development of a separate market for teenagers, differentiation based on age became more pervasive and permanent in American culture and society. The values of young men and women were by no means fully formed, nor were they necessarily all that different from those of their parents. But in increasing numbers these young people were unwilling to be policed or patronized. As the '50s ended, the vast majority of baby boomers had not yet become teenagers: rock 'n' roll and the youth of America had history (and demography) on their side.

A concise, well-written overview of what Rock-n-roll wrought, and one that makes it clear to me that its influence has been profoundly negative. Why? (1.) it "encouraged" kids to resist the authority of parents, and once that was achieved, the power of most authority figures and institutions in the 60s and 70s -- a manifestly disasterous development the effects of which can still be seen today in tattered family life, crime, education, and public suspicion of institutional life; (2.) it encouraged, not sexual freedom, but sexual license, a silly and destructive sexual hyper-individuality with miserable effects on health, family, and children; (3.) it created the concept of generational differences, that tense pack mentality standoff between age-groups -- and how Orwellian, the contradictory combination of "be yourself" but act like those of your own generation; (4.) it spurred pernicious marketing to kids (ever notice how stupid parents are in commercials trying to sell to kids?) and the notion that kids should "learn from their peers about what to wear, watch, and listen to, when to study, and where to go on Saturday night" -- what began as rebellion against the authority of parents, ended as stifling peer pressure to conform to what the cool kids did.

Am I ranting? But there is so much to dislike! And I am only using their own conclusions!