A conventional person; someone who follows rules, dresses traditionally, takes things too seriously, and lacks hip insight. "Don't be such a square." Boomer counterculture weaponized the word against their parents' generation.
The Boomer counterculture's disdain for "squares" was essentially disdain for the Greatest Generation's virtues: rule-following, duty, traditional dress, institutional loyalty, sexual restraint, religious practice. Scripture often calls exactly these virtues righteous. "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov 22:6). "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as ye have" (Heb 13:5). The so-called square was often the faithful husband, the present father, the church-attending citizen — virtues the counterculture mocked and whose absence has since produced measurable cultural catastrophe. Christians are frequently going to look like squares. Be happy to be one.
The counterculture's mockery of "squares" tore down virtues — rule-following, duty, restraint — that Scripture commends. Reclaim the square.
Boomers spent a decade ridiculing their parents for being dull and conventional. Fifty years later the culture is wrestling with the consequences of the alternative: skyrocketing divorce, fatherlessness, depression, drug addiction, and social atomization. Meanwhile the "square" grandfather who went to work, loved his wife, raised his kids, paid his mortgage, and went to church every Sunday looks, in hindsight, like the sage the counterculture mocked. Christians should honor the square virtues: faithfulness, duty, restraint, institutional loyalty, genuine manhood and womanhood. Be squares. The counterculture's heirs (Gen-Z) are rediscovering that "squareness" was actually functional life.
Proverbs 22:6 — "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."
1 Timothy 5:8 — "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
Titus 2:11-12 — "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age."
Ephesians 6:1-3 — "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."
"Square" was counterculture mockery of Scripture's own virtues. Be a square — faithful, dutiful, restrained, loyal. The counterculture's heirs are now rediscovering why.
“"Don't be such a square — come on, skip class with us."”
“Let your conduct be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”