Big Babies

Have you ever had the feeling that, in some hard to define way, we are throwing away two and a half millennia of Western civilization, bit by bit, as our culture becomes more and more infantile? That day by day we grow more and more focused on the quick fix, the ticking-off, the expedient lie, the jingle, the spin, the catchy slogan, the obsession with safety, the horror of risk, the terror of complexity, the preoccupation with surface, the apportioning of blame, the instant gratification? Have you ever wondered what happened to grown-ups? Michael Bywater turns his penetrating eye on the state of Western culture, from politics and the media to show business and science, and concludes we are all Big Babies now. With enormous brio, he argues that the Baby-Boom generation is now running the show, and its own commitment to perpetual infantility is reflected in its unstoppable drive to infantilize the rest of us. Ranging from the White House to Buckingham Palace, from MTV to the BBC, from mission statements to Viagra spam, Bywater examines advertising, music, politics, the health industry, education, religion, fashion, sport and publishing, and makes a fierce and often hilarious case that, in almost every area of our lives, we are inexorably becoming ...Big Babies.

ISBN 1862079528   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9781862079526 (What's this?)   Pages 256 Publisher Granta Books   Published in London Imprint Granta Books   Height (mm) 198 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 129 Publication date 02 Jul 2007   Academic level General DEWEY 306

'I suspect this book might change our world' Euan Ferguson, Observer * 'The funniest man in England' Literary Review * 'Bywater's hilarious social commentary highlights our loss of ability to manage our own lives' New Statesman

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