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Posted on 11/18/2011 8:33:27 AM PST by Kaslin
These are difficult and perilous times for boys. A distorted culture has robbed them of virtue to measure themselves against. The good once associated with masculinity in a patriarchal society has been tossed out with the bad. This, alas, is the era of feminist ascendency.
Manhood is more easily mocked, satirized and derided, or exposed for its villainy, exploitation and criminality, than held up as an ideal for boys to aspire to. We've always had rogues, rascals and villains, but until now we've also had a baseline, a common denominator, of what it means to be a man. Male-female cultural distinctions, once blurred, now are disappearing.
That was a touching moment when Gloria Cain, in defense of her husband, told Greta van Susteren of Fox News that the harassment accusations couldn't be true because he was a man of "old-school manners," like walking next to the curb when he strolled down the sidewalk with her. Such considerations never made the man, but they were reminders that men cheerfully expected to protect women.
In the previous century, a man didn't have to be a John Wayne hero to be appreciated. His identity was less about the kind of work he did than by the fact that he worked. That single fact has been repealed by the accumulation of cultural changes that do not serve men -- or women -- well. Fewer men than women are finishing high school and obtaining undergraduate or professional degrees. They're entering the workforce much later. They're often dependent on government or family for sustenance. The recession makes things worse.
This confuses children. In a world dominated by media images, the flashy figures of sport and entertainment exert a disproportionate influence on the ambitions and aspirations of the young. The rich and famous become shallow idols, worshipped for their shortcuts in the pursuit of happiness that usually lead only to the illusion of a pot of gold at the end of a vanishing rainbow.
This bothers Bill Bennett, former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, secretary of education in the Reagan administration and drug czar for George H.W. Bush. He's a prophet exiled from the Old Testament, marking the decline of civilization. His first book, "The Book of Virtues," a collection of moral tales, was an overnight best-seller to readers hungry for the literary gems that had once been a staple of the culture. His new book, "The Book of Man," is an anthology of literary forces riding to the rescue of a culture in a "crisis of manliness."
In the 1950s, he reminds us, 96 percent of boys and men between 15 and 54 worked at real jobs. That number has dropped to 80 percent today. The New Yorker magazine captured the essence of the "Boomerang Generation" with a cover depicting a young man hanging his Ph.D on the wall of his childhood bedroom, to dismay on the faces of his parents stuck with an unwanted roomer.
There are fewer entry-level jobs in an information-based society, which delays the assumption of responsibility. The result for men from deprived backgrounds is catastrophic. Statistics reflect the woe of young black women who are substantially more educated and economically well-off than young black men, which makes their marriage prospects slim. (In one study, one in five black men born between 1975 and 1979 had been in prison before they reached the age of 34.)
What boys -- and men -- do better than girls and women is playing video games. It's hardly surprising that the most popular first-person shooter games that once drew on heroics from World War II now depict violent fantasies set in the immediate future without an authentic historical context. One of the games appeals to the "soldier in all of us." But the conflicts depicted require neither conceptual nor moral thinking about real conflicts. It's forever playtime.
"Why are there so many boys and men who are irresponsible, unmotivated, unchivalrous, selfish, lazy?" asks Bill Bennett. "Why do so many boys and men spend so much time in pointless and soulless activities inconsiderate of others, absorbed in self or mindless technology?"
He doesn't answer the question, but he gives cause for reflection in one volume with examples of man at work and play, governing, soldiering, praying, demonstrating being responsible for families. The men in the stories are not merely slouching toward technology. Times have changed, he argues, but the need for virtue and character in man has not. That's a tough sell.
Have you ever read the Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk? The movie's good, but the book is profound. In the book, the villain wasn't really Captain Queeg -- it was, instead, "the author" of the Mutiny (played by Fred MacMurray) who fomented it.
Its basic moral was that in the necessity of real war, "a lot of good people" sign up and incompetence, by necessity, gets bulldozed. Incompetence was inconsequential during peacetime and a lot of the same "good people" were above, or had contempt for, those, like Captain Queeg, who held the fort during peacetime. During war, it was quickly apparent that the incompetents among the "old guard" had to go, as the nation couldn't afford to kill perfectly promising careers (or refrain from killing careers that needed axing). I suspect it would happen again in all-out war. I like to think that in real war, the U.S. military would quickly rethink and revise it take on PC-sabotage that is weakening its front-line forces now.
And I absolutely believe that young men deserve all-male military combat ranks.
"Poverty" programs have destroyed the black family and condemned generations of black children to being raised by foolish, unwed teenage mothers with the federal government as a stand in for the missing fathers.
FRiend, you’ve used “core” and “root” in your posts, and it describes your mind...looking for basic ‘cause’, basic truth...that thing which does not change. I also look this way at things to try to understand them, so perhaps you’ll understand my thinking.
The real core is evil. Satan, if you’re inclined that way. I am. Nevertheless, evil always attempts to ‘hide’. Take the subject of this thread...
We are basically talking about ‘advertising’. At its ‘root’ (like that word!) advertising depends on DENIAL. Denial that it works.
Take a clipboard and do a street survey. The vast majority of people, when asked; “Does advertising work?” will possibly give a nod to fast food munchies once in awhile, but will say; “Heck NO!” “I mute those suckers, get a beer, etc.” Notice we’re talking about the blatherings of a lame-brain on this very thread, and what societal effect her pronouncements have had. Would any one admit to being influenced by the shriveled-up pie holes of angry feminists?
(I know, FReepers are ‘different’ but...why talk about it, if it DIDN’T have effect?)
The programs, the shows, the movies...they’re ALSO one big commercial. Think about that. Men are dimbulb, stupid scumbags...hahahaha
In ‘real life’, what do you observe with ppl who live in denial?
Craziness. Neuroses. Psychopathy. (and a host of other corroding behaviors and sentiments). Drama.
Now combine the stroke of a gubmint pen, FDR, LBJ, take your pick!...with hidden advertisers and their culturallly-memed ‘products’ and whaddya got?
Toxic soup is a FINE answer Friend.
I’d laugh a cackle if it weren’t so crazy sad. They got what they wanted, and they’re STILL pissed off. Crazy, right? Earth IS the insane asylum of the universe.
Too bad we’re not running spaceships to planet Galt.
Just wanted you to know that I agree totally with your observations and beliefs in post #9.
The feminists are doing enormous damage to men by their intrusions in the military. I am so glad that my military service was long, long ago.
Just wanted you to know that I agree totally with your observations and beliefs in post #9.
The feminists are doing enormous damage to men by their intrusions in the military. I am so glad that my military service was long, long ago.
Sorry for the double post.
This shortsighted decision, made legal by men, has had many unintended consequences for America and the world.
That reminds me of a pitifully pathetic TV commercial from some cell phone company.
The sad sack husband tells his domineering wife about this new phone he got and all of its features. The wife asks him how they were going to pay for this new phone, then under her breath says to her husband that her mother told her to marry some dude named John something.
The very weak husband ends it by saying in an effeminately weak voice, "It was free."
I just shake my head in disgust...
Or you can get raw with these strings. Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.
Do it!
I’m afraid you’re right about the “princess” thing. I think it’s sweet to teach girls a little about being a woman and a princess. Nothing wrong in that. However, what happened to the prince? Why don’t they have shows and books and games for the little boys to learn about the princes? Sure some princes were skunks, but there were brave and noble princes as well! Many were hard-working, smart, courageous, and became kings who continued to be that way. Why aren’t little boys able to have figures to look up to as well as the girls?
Little girls have their role models, princesses and queens, noblewomen who were lady-like, courteous, beautiful inside and out. Also they were very hard-working and brave when they needed to be in their own way! However many looked up to the men in their lives to do their part as they were raised to do, while the ladies did their part as they were generally raised to do.
Bill seldom does««
Why did you stop there and not continue with this
but he gives cause for reflection in one volume with examples of man at work and play, governing, soldiering, praying, demonstrating being responsible for families.
And THAT reminds me of a Tecate (beer) commercial, where some sexythang, dripping wet, sashays into a bar, swingin her droplets...some guy, talking with his girl, gets splattered on his back and turns around to see what happened.
When he turns back around to his girl?
She. Slaps. Him.
So, besides “buffoons, idiots and incompetents”,
men deserve physical assault.
Turn the genders around on that commercial...
A quick google search reveals how many women’s vs. men’s shelters in your area?
Good question!
I romanticize men, males ... I guess because in general, I love them. It dawned on me how great loved males intrinsically are when I saw a little boy in a laundromat wanting to "help" his mom by putting in the quarters. He truly, earnestly, wanted to be a hero for her. My heart melted! Above all other things in life, women need heroic gentlemen. Without them, it all goes to hell. Look at Islam and Sharia for examples of how women are treated when men abandon thoughts of dignity in women, where gentlemanliness is alien and rejected.
Men are princes, gentlemen, especially when they help us do or access things that are difficult or impossible for us to do alone. So women need to be princesses, gentlewomen, with their loving touches, which are beyond men's capacity. It's the one thing we can give back. Married and loved men live longer. And societies that utilize the productive capacity of 100 percent of their human resource, as opposed to 6th century approaches of utilizing only 50 percent, are proven successes when they follow the "Christian system," as it was called in the founding days of the United States.
As for prince role models, I like Sam Elliott in "Conagher" and "The Quick and the Dead." Those are both about princes. I like Tom Selleck, in "Crossfire Trail" and "Last Stand at Saber River," where he has to deal with a bitchy wife. He plays a prince in both of them.
Your mileage may vary!
What, like gambling away vast sums of money, Mr. Bennett?
Maybe he doesn't answer the question because his own example is the answer.
I feel your pain, yldstrk.
When I was a single gal, I too had difficulty finding a nice, traditional Catholic boy. In fact, I DIDN’T find one, so I married a Lutheran.
He came to Mass with me, he paid the kids’ Catholic school tuition, and he lived as a Catholic in every way. But whenever the possibilty of conversion came up, I got nowhere. How could I fight him when he’d remind me that the Catholic Masses he’d been to seemed more Protestant than the Lutheran services he used to attend? From what he observed, Mass was often loud and brash, and the congregants seemed to treat the it more like a Social Hour than a Holy Sacrifice. I resigned myself to him remaining a different faith and I bided my time.
And then, in 2007, the Latin Mass came back. I brought him to the first Mass and afterwards he said, “Now THAT was church!” The conversion began that day. There was no looking back from then on.
So...I didn’t marry a nice, traditional Catholic boy, but I ended up with one!
Regards,
PS: I agree with the author of the post — manly virtue is at a terrible crossroads and I fear for my children (boys) who will enter adulthood and go into a world fraught with such moral danger.
That is awesome
If you're a guy, I agree with you.
A lot of females in America, though, need someone to clue them in on manly virtue. A lot of we American women would like to slap upside the head the gals who roll their eyes and snigger at the stupid, men-belittling sexist ads others have mentioned on this thread. I would like to give them an earful about manly virtue. As for men who find that kind of advertising humorous ...
*shrug*
Maybe I have a double-standard, though. Any ad that made fun of my sex's propensity for shoes would get an honest laugh out of me.
Oh yeah, I agree! I’m kind of fond of Sam Elliot myself! One of my favorite characters played by him is the tough-but-tender biker in “Gar” in “Mask”. (I think that was the title!)That starred Eric Stoltz and Cher Bono. Another one was where he played Sam Huston in a t.v. costume drama about, of course, Sam Houston!
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