By: Rosemary Dewar
The state of adolescence has been agonizingly extended by our current social structure. The Peter Pan mentality is the unavoidable outgrowth of progressivism, and the ideology of socialism has been the most difficult to disparage. However, it is becoming much clearer as to why. The idealized elements of socialism are proscribed on an extremely small scale every day when you are a child. Everyone’s priority is to make sure you survive. Additionally, if you experienced life in a religious home, mostly likely your church community is focused on making sure you survive spiritually. All resources are expected and prompted to cultivate your well-being. It becomes simple to see how socialism attempts to mimic religion and supplant family.
With the rise of the welfare state and the implementation of policies such as the Affordable Care Act, a person is made to believe that they can and will be cared for by the state in the manner their family might have. The intention may be thoughtful; however, the child that refuses to grow up will never have anything to offer. Millennials and Generation-Z are graduating and coming off their parents’ healthcare, and they are panicking. They are being forced to grow up and become independent for the first time in their life, and they don’t know what to do. Instead of instinctively following a biological determination to hunt, build, and protect something and someone who is undeniably theirs, they are being taught that all of it is a social construct that bears no meaning or value.
The philosophy of maturity has been choked-out of culture, almost as if it were a snake slowing tightening its grip on its prey. If you remember, in Disney’s 1967 animated movie The Jungle Book, a boy who is raised in the jungle journeys his way back into society. The dramas are the obstacles that attempt to keep him from becoming a man that will one day dominate them all. The panther, aware of the threat of man, knows the boy will be cared for if he rejoins mankind. The bear wants to cultivate a friendship without the boy becoming a proactive member of mankind. The snake tempts the boy with false promises of trust and understanding in order to satisfy its own hunger. The vultures proclaim they are his friends, while crafting a plan to gratify their appetite. The ape confesses it wants to be like the boy just to use a tool to protect him from the ultimate predator. The tiger has no pretense in its determination to make the boy a victim before he has the chance to become a man.
The tool that the ape wants and the tiger fears is fire, which is a symbol for both destruction and purification. The rubbish must burn so that which withstands it is revealed. At the end of the film, the boy is lured into mankind’s society by a girl. The girl carries a blissful tune conveying a picture of her home with a mother and a father, as well as a hope of a husband and girl of her own. This encounter concludes the boy’s journey from the jungle into society.
The fact that this movie came out during the sexual revolution of the 1960s is evidence of entertainment’s attempt to instill classic societal rolls. It is the exact opposite of what we see in entertainment, today.
In Judaism, a boy is to begin his development into manhood at the age of thirteen. The commemoration is called a bar mitzvah, and the boy is prepared to accept the responsibilities of manhood as proscribed under Jewish law.
So, what happens when Peter Pan grows up? The 1991 movie Hook depicts an adult Peter Pan who has lost his ability to be a hero in his son’s eyes. A vindictive Captain Hook kidnaps Peter’s son and daughter. The only way to save them is to become the hero he once was. The pivotal scene where Peter regains his power to fly is when he finds happiness in being a father. Peter’s son is seduced by Hook’s ability to pacify his every childish whim, but it is no match for Peter’s halcyon call to come home.
Anything that attempts to take the place of family or God will fall grievously short for those who are willing to substitute them with communal policy.
The demand for mankind to become beneficial contributors to society will always look differently to being faithful contributors to a family. The expectation to treat a stranger equally to a member of the family unit is a diminishment of value to all participants in a community.
Due to the counterproductive demolition of social foundations, mankind has largely lost its purpose and focus. By contrast, our insistence upon restoring that foundation is essential for the future we will leave behind for generations after us.
By: Rosemary Dewar
