That Warhol-esque prophecy is inspired by Meredith Jessup’s post about Sarah Palin yesterday at The Blaze:
There’s no doubt that Palin has become a political rock star/powerhouse, but conservatives recognize that the best place for her to make a difference is using her voice as an advocate, not a politician.
This is where I play the “I’ve got ties older than you, kid” card against Jessup, who was still pooping in Pampers when I began my journalism career in 1986. What is it with these know-it-all kids nowadays, huh?
Nothing against Jessup personally, you understand, but rather to reiterate my long-held view that it is a major symptom of the decline of Western Civilization when 20-somethings consider themselves qualified to lecture their elders on How It Ought to Be.
Perhaps others are less sensible of the insulting disrespect involved in being lectured in this manner by callow youth. Perhaps there are some conservatives who are amused by the impudent precocity whereby a kid four years out of college (yeah, I checked) presumes to tell the former governor of Alaska what “the best place for her” is. And even dares do so ex cathedra, as though authorized to speak on behalf of conservatives!
Part of what’s going on here, of course, is the democratizing effect of the Internet, where everyone with a WiFi connection imagines himself the Second Coming of Bill Buckley.
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog,” and in the blogosphere, nobody is supposed to care about seniority or credentials. All onlne opinions are created equal, and we are expected to pretend it doesn’t matter whether the person offering a political opinion is the chairman of the Republican National Committee or a sales clerk at Old Navy.
That is only part of what’s going on here, however. The other part is the rancid aftermath of the Sixties “youth movement,” when Jerry Rubin declared that kids shouldn’t trust anyone over 30. More than four decades later, that once-radical attitude of automatic disrespect toward one’s elders has diffused itself throughout society so that we find it even among young Republicans who don’t think twice before telling Sarah Palin what her “place” should be.
Younger readers will have to forgive my excursion into grizzled curmudgeon mode. When I was 27 years old, I was earning $250 a week as a small-town sports editor and wouldn’t have dreamed of telling a high-school football coach who he should start at tailback or what play he should call on third down.
But that was before All Gore invented the Internet, back in the Dark Ages when precocious geniuses were exceedingly rare, and few of them were paid to lecture their foolish elders for a living. Nowadays it seems these brilliant young lecturers are everywhere, and us old folks must learn to respect their superior wisdom.
