Posted on 06/21/2007 10:19:46 AM PDT by fgoodwin
Many academics would consider my lack of manliness a good thing. They regard boys as thugs-in-training, caught up in a patriarchal society that demeans women.
But I can't shake the sense that boys are supposed to become manly. Rather than neutering their aggression, confidence and desire for danger, we should channel these instincts into honor, gentlemanliness and courage. Instead of inculcating timidity in our sons, it seems wiser to train them to face down bullies, which by necessity means teaching them how to throw a good uppercut. You can't build a civilization and defend it against barbarians, fascists and playground bullies, in other words, with a nation of Phil Donahues.
Maybe the problem isn't that boys are aggressive, but that we've neglected their moral education. As Teddy Roosevelt wrote to one of his sons: "I would rather have a boy of mine stand high in his studies than high in athletics, but I would a great deal rather have him show true manliness of character than show either intellectual or physical prowess." Manliness, then, is not the ability to survive in the wilderness, or wield a rifle. But having such skills increases the odds that one's manly actions--which Roosevelt and others believed flow from a moral quality--will be successful.
The good father, then, needs to nurture his son's moral and spiritual core, and equip him with the skills he'll need to act on the moral impulse that we call courage. A real man, in other words, is someone who doesn't run from an Osama bin Laden. But he may also need the ability to hit a target from three miles out with a .50 caliber M88 if he wants to finish the job.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
The elite discovering the obvious.
The history of the past 200 years (and the next 50) will be summarized as follows: highly educated elites learning through their own failures what the rest of society knew all along.
Oh,
For a second there I thought this thread was about Boys2Men.
Its so haaaaaaard
To say goodbyyyyyyyyeee
To yesterdaaaaaaaaayyyyy
Whoa you do took HottieBoy back....
Was it you that said you liked them???? Way back when...
ok, so mr manly man likes boygroups now?
LOL! yeah, it was me. Should I be embarrassed?
Incidentally, I also have 3 boys. ;-)
One thing I love is watching my sons be “Daddy” to their children. It’s so much fun!
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