Not available to order
Publication date:
26 April 2017Length of book:
278 pagesPublisher
Hamilton BooksISBN-13: 9780761869122
A Generation Abandoned explores the disruptive cultural events especially of the past half century as these have undermined the confidence of the young in themselves and in civil society, and finally in our place in the universe. The overall theme is the contrast between this sense of abandonment and our inborn and neglected orientation toward personal worth and the common good (the natural law). Much of what is peddled as “social evolution” today is shown to be a throwback to darker times.
The analysis submits to a refreshingly conversational tone, but also draws incisively from a very broad pallet of history, literature, theater, theology, and simplifying and illuminating anecdotes (some of them first hand). An early chapter outlines the “perfect storm” of the 1960s. Later chapters expose the word games of the cultural elite, the saga of the family through history and now its abrupt erosion, and the difference between any meandering “arc of history” and a more grounded arc of relations—our rationalized “culture of death” versus a flourishing “human ecology.”
The analysis submits to a refreshingly conversational tone, but also draws incisively from a very broad pallet of history, literature, theater, theology, and simplifying and illuminating anecdotes (some of them first hand). An early chapter outlines the “perfect storm” of the 1960s. Later chapters expose the word games of the cultural elite, the saga of the family through history and now its abrupt erosion, and the difference between any meandering “arc of history” and a more grounded arc of relations—our rationalized “culture of death” versus a flourishing “human ecology.”
Beaulieu’s concern for our “abandoned” younger generations is wide-ranging and documented, but not pedantic. It does not water down, and does not talk down. It beckons. One illuminating device is the pairing of ideas, e.g., the progress and regression of culture, or our wonder at the science of Galileo’s telescope but our failure to embrace the reality of ultrasound. The author places into clear relief many modern-day mind traps that too often are accepted without thought. This work is recommended for all audiences, but especially millennials interested in an imaginative critique of current personal and cultural confusion.