Every American parent should be required by law to see this film, preferably alone. Admittedly, the story presents a somewhat stereotypical example of the problem, because in both cases the moms are no more mature than their daughters and equally messed up in their thinking. Indeed, thanks to their emerging adolescence and pathological peer identification, the girls are merely more extreme in their acting out than their moms. Because they have imprinted the dysfunctional thinking of their parents--the absentee fathers are no better, more responsible parents might erroneously conclude that this sort of material is not for them. Yet it is, and for one very important reason: peer bonding.
Parents get to raise their children, instill what they imagine to be good values, and so forth, for about the first dozen years. After that, it is from their age-dependent peers that they take their direction, and not their parents. It is most unfortunate that our culture has devolved to the point where it promotes age-relatedness above all else, but while it continues to wreak havoc on the crucial developmental years of adolescence, as a culture we refuse to give it up. As a result, upon entering adolescence they will not listen to the opinions of anyone except those of their own age. Even those raised by the most responsible parents rebel and react to parental authority, often by falling in with what their parents consider the `wrong' crowd, thus obtaining their lessons in life the hard way.
Our society is culturally bankrupt. Our young take their lessons from each other. When they look for direction they find it in the likes of Britney Spears. We have so `sexualized' our culture that even the children look to sex as a rite of passage. Being an `adult' means having gratuitous, unloving sex, preferably with drugs involved. Sex for the sake of sex is promoted everywhere in our culture, and no one finds anything wrong with that until some child gets raped and murdered by a psycho. Even then we blame the psycho and not our perverted cultural values. Well, sit back and enjoy a view of where our blindness is leading us, and if you think it will never touch your kids, have a look next door.
Parents get to raise their children, instill what they imagine to be good values, and so forth, for about the first dozen years. After that, it is from their age-dependent peers that they take their direction, and not their parents. It is most unfortunate that our culture has devolved to the point where it promotes age-relatedness above all else, but while it continues to wreak havoc on the crucial developmental years of adolescence, as a culture we refuse to give it up. As a result, upon entering adolescence they will not listen to the opinions of anyone except those of their own age. Even those raised by the most responsible parents rebel and react to parental authority, often by falling in with what their parents consider the `wrong' crowd, thus obtaining their lessons in life the hard way.
Our society is culturally bankrupt. Our young take their lessons from each other. When they look for direction they find it in the likes of Britney Spears. We have so `sexualized' our culture that even the children look to sex as a rite of passage. Being an `adult' means having gratuitous, unloving sex, preferably with drugs involved. Sex for the sake of sex is promoted everywhere in our culture, and no one finds anything wrong with that until some child gets raped and murdered by a psycho. Even then we blame the psycho and not our perverted cultural values. Well, sit back and enjoy a view of where our blindness is leading us, and if you think it will never touch your kids, have a look next door.