[I]t is no longer clear which way is up even if one wants to rise. - David Riesman

Today the future occupation of all moppets is to be skilled consumers.

A spurious democracy has influenced both our research methods (I am sometimes tempted to define “validity” as part of the context of an experiment demanding so little in the way of esoteric gift that any number can play at it, provided they have taken a certain number of courses) and our research subjects (it would be deemed snobbish to investigate only the best people).

Parents today are the stage managers for the meetings of three- and four-year-olds, just as, in earlier eras, the adults managed marriages.