Emasculating America

Gary Wolf has an interesting think piece in the American Thinker today entitled Freedom of the Mind and the Emasculated Society. It is definitely worth reading, and considering often. Here is a quote to give you a taste:

Our contemporary culture has sunk into a morass of lies, hypocrisy, effeminacy, treason, and abandonment that would be worthy of a passage in the Bible. Perhaps, like me, you remember reading about those societies of the Fertile Crescent that passed, almost in the blink of an eye, from a virtuous, honorable, and vigorous lifestyle to idolatry, decadence, and treachery. Could it really occur so fast?

But I wish to take my thoughts on this topic in a slightly different direction. I have generally pondered what I call the "feminization" of society for a long time.
I have debated back and forth with my wife, who generally takes the side that is trying to make everyone more feminized, and I have to say that some of it has been positive. Women have had grievances in the past over equal pay for (truly) equal work. Women have been denied work in some fields based on prejudices that they just couldn't understand certain things as well as a man. But most of these issues have vanished, or are doing so rapidly. On the other hand, the strident "feminists" who have worked so hard to convince us that little boys and little girls are the same, that it is culture that causes us to be different, that if little boys just played with dolls instead of playing cops and robbers, everything would return to "normal," have done great harm to half the population.

One of the problems facing America today is gang violence. Of course part of the problem is the drug war itself, which gives criminal gangs fuel, much as Prohibition gave the mafia fuel during its time. Born largely of xenophobic fears and racism, the drug prohibition has been no more successful than the alcohol Prohibition was before it. Another part of the problem is the welfare state, that encourages women to have children, while not requiring that these women have a husband to provide stability and a role model of what being a man is all about. Of course, in urban America, there is too little to do that is socially constructive. When my father was growing up in Depression era Tennessee, boys had the whole outdoors to get involved in, but their means were incredibly meager, and required imagination. When I was a kid, we had to do chores, weed the garden, and engaged in sports, Boy Scouts, and the Indian Guides.

Boys have a natural assertiveness, which when improperly trained can become aggression, as with criminal gangs. When properly channelized in socially constructive ways, however, this natural assertiveness makes a man protective of the weaker of his clan, and breeds the kind of inventiveness that formerly was the hallmark of the American Spirit. "I did it My Way" may be the ultimate expression of the male, while nanny state government may be the ultimate expression of the feminist desire for security. but it's hard to do things "my way" if a government bureaucrat is always there telling me to do it his way.

Hunting is a natural part of this assertiveness. The stigmatizing of hunting as "killing Bambi!" has not been constructive. Neither have leftist feminists harridans who have done everything in their power to turn little boys into phallic copies of girls. Boys have a natural need to hunt and play war games, and if they don't satisfy the need somewhere, they will turn it on the society around them. Some may find satisfaction in sports, which are at their root, skills needed in war. But turning an entire generation into mock rock stars, and street dancers, does not send the correct message. Neither do sports programs that emphasize winning at all costs on the one hand, or giving a trophy to everyone on the other. Now, let me explain before you reach for your key board and send a flaming comment.

Music requires great discipline and much practice to perform well. Even rock stars must practice often to perform as they do. But guitar hero and air guitar contests don't encourage discipline and practice. Similarly, professional dancers usually have spent a great deal of their young lives practicing ballet, and their moves in modern dance are highly choreographed and practiced until they appear effortless. It is the discipline and practice that teach valuable lessons, lessons that seem absent from many modern substitutes for hunting. Finally, sports programs that either emphasize winning, to the exclusion of sportsmanship, or that abandon the notion of winning all together and give everyone a trophy, undermine the essence of sports. There must be some stakes to any sport, a winner and a loser. Children must compete, and feel the sting on occasion of defeat. They must also learn the lesson that how they play the game is as important, if not more so, than that they won or lost. Boys, in particular, can see through these shabby excuses for sports. They want structure, and winners. Without that, a boy grows up either believing that nothing is worth striving for, or that winning at all costs is socially acceptable. We have seen how an attitude that the only rule is there are no rules works in the recent ObamaCare debates.

Hunting is a good way to teach a boy about these various life lessons. The animals will not easily be brought down if they can help it. They will avoid becoming your dinner, and they have millions of years of evolution backing them up. In order to do it, a boy must learn to track his prey. He must learn patience and safe weapon handling. He must learn trigger control, and to react quickly and perfectly when the prey presents itself. Importantly, he will not learn these things on his own, but with the help of a father or mentor. And if he doesn't do everything just right? Well, no meat for the table, or course. And it doesn't hurt if you teach your daughters similar lessons, though the importance for society in channeling natural male assertiveness into acceptable channels is not nearly as important.