Longing to be Childish

One of my favorite parts from Robert Bly's "The Sibling Society":

There is little in the sibling society to prevent a slide into primitivism, and into those regressions that fascism is so fond of. Eric Hoffer remarked: 'Drastic change [has produced] this social primitivism ... [the] mass movement absorbs and assimilates the individual ... [who] is thereby reduced to an infantile state, for this is what a new birth really means: to become like a child. And children are primitive beings -- they are credulous, follow a leader, and readily become members of a pack....Finally, primitivism also follows when people seek a new identity by plunging into ceaseless action and hustling. It takes leisure to mature. People in a hurry can neither grow nor decay; they are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.' "[pg.ix, The Sibling Society]

I looked up puerility after reading this quote again. It simply means to act childish and silly.