FAIR WARNING

A member of Generation X assesses contemporary America in this mix of memoir and cultural criticism.

In 1997, Chavez published the first edition of Fair Warning to undermine the prevailing notion that members of his generation were “lazy, difficult, disinterested, and likely on the road to nowhere special.” Today, he writes, America suffers from “a crisis of character,” and there is “a correlation between detrimental social behavior and the breakdown of family leadership.” The author follows his claim with two pages of quantitative data on adolescent crime, sexual assault, alcohol and drug abuse, single-parent households, and declining religious affiliation. But by basing its argument on circumscribed notions of family and on a Christian-centric worldview, this book limits its ability to fairly assess cultural issues. For example, in one chapter, the author uncritically quotes the Washington Times’ Paula Hunker’s comparison of an episode from an unnamed 1957 TV show with a 1990s episode of what is clearly The Simpsons; in the first, the father encourages his son to never give up while in the second, the dad advises his son, Bart, never to try anything. In this comparison, Chavez seems to miss the fact that The Simpsons is a clear satire of romanticized 1950s family television. In Chapter 10, Chavez claims that “80% of men and 88% of women” look forward to marriage and children; he then tells a story about a friend who helped to conceive two children with two different women—both while unmarried. He then goes on to advocate abstinence—noting his belief that sex should be“reserved until the right time and place, with the right person, and with a lot more maturity”—but he fails to address alternative discourses involving safe sex. A third edition of Fair Warning would benefit from a broader perspective and draw on more source material from outside the conservative movement.

An earnest but slanted look at the youth of today.