1 I think it's the logical outcome of a culture that puts so much emphasis on celebrities.  People are famous not for their abilities (lets face it, Britney Spears isn't really that great at singing, there are far better actors than Hilary Duff out there, and what on earth is it that Paris Hilton DOES anyway?) but for their looks and their antics.  And their antics aren't anything to be proud of, but consist of pushing the envelope more and more and more. 

It trickles down.  And a bunch of people who are not aging well (mentally) are desperately trying to recapture their own youth, or refusing to give it up.  They are idolizing those younger and "new" instead of gracefully entering the next stage in a life that they have earned. 

It really kind of grosses me out.  I would not want to repeat my twenties.  And I don't want to go anywhere NEAR my teens again.  I don't get this cultural Uncle Rico phenomenon.  Seriously.

2 Heh, Uncle Rico.  Niiice.

3 It's like 1968's Wild in the Streets, maaaan! Saw it when I was 17 in 1988. Might see it for real when I'm 47 in 2018. I'll be too old to vote by then. Eventually Logan's Run will become a reality.

4 The excessive emphasis on formal education and specifically on educational credentials is very useful for inter-generational warfare, as it tends to level the playing field between the relatively recent grad and the person with years of experience.

Also, certain economic climates tend to negate the value of age and experience. I'm currrently re-reading Sebastian Haffner's book about growing up and living in Germany during WWI and between the wars. In his view, the great inflation of 1923 utterly shredded the existing relationship between generations--"safe," conservative investors, such as older people tended to be, were destroyed, while youthful speculators thrived.