In 1890, the U.S. Census Department officially proclaimed the American Frontier was closed. Frederick Jackson Turner, a prominent historian of the time, was the first to question what this would mean to future generations. What would happen to our boys?
In her book, The Last American Man, Elizabeth Gilbert expresses Turner's concerns by questioning, "Without the wilderness proving grounds, what would become of our boys? Why, they might become effete, pampered, decadent. Lord help us, they might become Europeans."
Over four generations later, those concerns seem to be validated each night in the news. Working as a cop, I don't simply watch the news, I live it. Like Elmer Keith said, "Hell, I was there." Through my experiences, I'm coming to see a common denominator ripping apart the fabric of society; a lack of men. Not a lack of males, mind you, but a lack of men. There is a difference.
I do not set myself up as an authority on what it means to be a man. I feel like I'm trying to figure that out each day of my life. I came across this talk by Joe Ehrmann (the video above) and in 14 minutes he lays out the false concepts of manhood plaguing society and what we need to do to fix the problem. I highly recommend watching the video.
As I said above, it seems like I'm continually seeing problems with young men, and men of all ages, expressing themselves through misconceived ideas of manhood. The true ideals of manhood, like personal accountability, service to others and a cause greater than yourself, and protecting home and family have been lost. American males have in fact become "effete, pampered, and decadent".
A 20 year old young man was recently being questioned regarding his involvement in a crime. Detectives asked him about his life and what he wanted out of it. He replied that he didn't want to work or go to school and "just wanted to play video games, have sex and smoke weed".
Because women seem to be replacing men in nearly every field of endeavor, society has come to question if men are even needed any more. They ask this because society doesn't need "effete, pampered, and decadent" men. Those type of men have no place in society because they have nothing to offer. They are a parasite to society so as more and more males follow this path, society rightfully questions if they have any real place or role to fulfill.
This needs to change as we are reaching the tipping point (some days I think we have passed that tipping point) which will lead to the catastrophic collapse of society. As males, we must recommit ourselves to rising up and being men. What does that mean?
I think Ehrmann gives us a great starting point when he says masculinity is about relationships (who do we love and who do we allow to love us) and being dedicated to a cause. We must teach it to our sons and other young men within our sphere of influence - and the only way to do this is by living it ourselves. The problems young men are facing today come as a direct result of not having a positive example of manhood to follow. In my job it's common to have a young man's bad behavior blamed on friends, the media, popular culture, and anything else anyone can dream up that doesn't involve parental responsibility - especially on the part of dad.... if dad is even present in the young man's life.
To many of us are MIA (Missing in Action) when it comes to raising our sons. I include myself in this indictment as well. It's time to step up, be men and build a strong generation of men to follow us. We need to do this by rooting out our own false concepts of masculinity (the ball field, the bedroom, and the billfold, as mentioned by Ehrmann in the video) and replacing them with God's teachings on being a man. The fabric of society is hanging by a thread.
Genesis 1:27 records, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." God created men AND women, not men OR women. He created both genders for a purpose - and it's time for males to fulfill that purpose by being men.
No comments:
Post a Comment