WHITE, Terry, ed., <b>THE SIBLING SOCIETY: Papers Presented at the Robert Bly Colloquium</b>

WHITE, Terry, ed., THE SIBLING SOCIETY: Papers Presented at the Robert Bly Colloquium. Lanham. MD: University Press of America. 2000, 216pp., $36.00 hardcover.Nearly a decade ago poet Robert Ely's The Sibling Society (1996) offered a critique of contemporary adulthood informed by a somewhat idiosyncratic reading of recent social history and a thoughtful critique of society's social ills. Similar critiques have been made by others but few with the depth and bite of Bly's writing. The sixteen essays presented in The Sibling Society: Papers Presented at the Robert Bly Colloquium, each nicely written, interesting and well researched, reflect the reasons his thesis remains compelling.In The Sibling Society (1996) Bly argued that adults of the late post-war generation had come to be ruled by consumerism, professional and personal self interest, and narcissism. Nor had the rest of their emotional development faired well. The end result was that emotionally stunted or half-grown adults, intent on their own agendas, were incapable of fulfilling their parental, nurturing, and leadership obligations, to the next generation. Whether in Toronto, Vancouver, or New York, this generation was not inclined to look up to past generations for leadership, guidance, and tradition, nor would they look down to the next generation seeking direction, encouragement, and approval. To Bly, this is a generation dominated by horizontal rather than vertical thinkers, concerned most about themselves. They have left a leadership and parenting vacuum in North American culture, Bly would argue.Papers Presented at the Robert Bly Colloquium is divided into four sections, each reflecting a different perspective on Bly's thesis. The first four essays examine Sibling Society itself, important for those less familiar with Bly's work. We are asked to consider whether Sibling Society is fully capable of transmitting culture across generations, whether parents casting themselves as friends and confidants can take the place of authoritative parents, and whether the adultification of the young through relentless media programming, negative and contemptuous of adults and parents, encourages the young to aspire to adult roles. A forth essay points to the growing numbers of impoverished and developmentally challenged children as an indication of the profound ambivalence of adults toward children. The three remaining sections address the psychological impact, the self, and metaphors and myths, of Sibling Society. These essays indicate the richness of Bly's ideas, both in exemplifying North America's cultural ills, as well as in offering readers ways to positively address troubling issues.If Bly's original thesis is in some respects flawed, he has gone well beyond William F. Ogburn's (1986-1959) decline of the family thesis, first presented in 1933.* Ogburn's still influential view was that modernity, technology, and urbanization, left the family increasingly bereft of its cohesive functions. …

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