Most of you remember the story of Peter Pan- the boy who would never grow up. He found himself in a world where the children played all day, outsmarted the adults, always were virtuous, and went from one grand adventure to another. When bad things befell them, other children from our world were sent to help, and that’s where our problem begins.
Children are heroes only in fiction. In today’s world, we have far too many people who are children trapped in adult bodies. They are fascinated with entertainment, spending lavishly of their time and money on elaborate entertainment systems or gaming consoles in an attempt to play all day and put off the responsibilities of adulthood. At the same time, they think they know everything, and whereas there may have been a time when they knew everything about their world, that does not mean that they know everything about ours. I am old enough already to understand why old people are annoyed by young people- the young people are unaware of anything that isn’t touching their lives directly, and they think they have all the answers.
This becomes a problem when those adults bring their childish attitudes, opinions, and experience with them into the adult realm. Politicians are too often elected at a young age, where they think they know everything. When you give them power to do anything, it reinforces their misbegotten notion that they have all the answers and that their answers will work. Some recent accidental billionaires dropped out of college and made money selling people things they were convinced they needed and became wealthy. This reinforces their own ideas of self importance, and more and more they insert themselves into the lives of everyone else, not realizing that their importance is accidental or illusion. As I wrote about ammo fleecing, I wonder how many CEOs justify fleecing people because they got away with it when they were young and felt that justified continuing to do it today on a much larger scale. You see, in order to govern something well, your life or a nation or a business or a family, it takes wisdom. Young people do not typically have wisdom quite simply because they have not had time to experience enough in order to attain to it.
Perhaps the worst sufferers of Peter Pan Syndrome are the retirees. Even as they insist that they love their children, pick candidates who will look out for them, and do things for them, they are wasting their substance. I have seen bumper stickers that pronounce the travelers as those who are “spending our children’s inheritance”. We know that even as they talk about adoption rights for homosexuals 'for the children' who otherwise have no parents, those same people deny children the opportunity to participate in the deliberative efforts that enslave them to debt for government largesse. We are making our descendents slaves to the lusts of our present focus on a continual entertainment and indulgence.
I used to think about old people as the harbingers of wisdom. I don’t typically associate youth and wisdom, but I see far too many older persons who have not put their hearts to understanding and have thus not been wise. From time to time, I am otherwise myself, but I am not so foolish as to continuously at great expense of time and specie attempt the same things expecting different results. When our elders were in school, I know they learned more about history than the rising generation does, and it surprises me to think that they know how Rome fell and insist that America is too big to fail while they follow Rome’s lead.
As for Peter Pan Syndrome, far too many of our leaders are children in the garb of adulthood. They want to act like adults but be treated like children many times in class. They want the privileges without the obligations, the freedoms without the responsibilities, and the opportunities without the costs. Those of us among them who are adults take responsibility and attempt to hold it together like Wendy did in Barry’s story while the boys go out on adventures and play games and get in trouble. Captain Hook was right to laugh when he heard that Peter Pan would save them because the Peter Pan he knew wasn’t serious about anything adult. He was vanquished because Peter Pan grew up enough to look out for those who relied on him to be their leader. I wish ours would grow up and act like men.
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