Interesting timing. I had a good rant going on with my inner self about perpetuated adolescence. This thought that your teens can be stretched in to your 20's in order to rehash the 60's failed mantra of trying to "find myself" as an excuse for not facing the reality of having to grow up.
It went something like this...
It's time to grow up and be a man. Comb your hair. Pull up your pants. Stop drinking to get drunk. Stop smoking/vaping to escape your responsibilities. Stop wearing women's pants. Stop wearing women's hairstyles. Your beard does not make you manly. Acting like a man makes you manly. Get a real job that contributes to society by making use of your God given talents and skills. Stop perpetuating this idea that someone owes you something. The gov't doesn't owe you anything so stop the dependence machine. Your parents don't owe you anything other than to raise you to be a productive member of society. If they've failed in that it is incumbent upon you to do it for your self. It's your college professors job. It's not your employers job. It's yours. Don't automatically find people who support your opinions. Look at what the opposition has to say and filter it not through your own biases but through true truth. True truth can be hard to swallow. Just because you don't like who says it doesn't make the truth any less true. Some days you will be the windshield. Some days you will be the bug. Roll with it. Learn from it. Use it to make you a better man.
Amen. People whine because men are such babies, playing video games in their parents' basement at the age of 33 and all. But what the heck has society offered them otherwise? There is a segment of young adult males who are "bad boys". They're into guns and UFC and NASCAR and hunting and enjoy that it ticks people off. These are things that testosterone-laden males do. When you try to push them into skinny jeans and soy lattes and teach them how to cry, some guys just say "*&*%$ that!" and head off the other direction. They rebel. And if there is no one there to lead them to healthy, constructive rebellion and positive ways to focus that pent up energy, they're going to do it in unhealthy ways.
Public schools tell boys to sit still and listen. They've close wood shop and automotive classes. Football is under attack because it is too agressive and people get hurt(!). We need these things so that boys and grow into men. So they can learn how to focus that creative, destructive, powerful energy they have in ways that contribute. Let's do that instead of handing out Ritalin. Let's let these guys loose on the playground where they can chase each other, see who can jump the farthest off the swings, play dodgeball and go home with a bloody nose, and occasionally get into fights.
The lesson we should have learned was NOT to turn boys into girls but to turn boys into men. Men don't bully the weaker kid, they defend him. Men don't try to "nail" girls, they honor them. Men don't throw rocks through windows, they build tree houses. Men don't shoot guns into crowds to kill someone who "dissed" them, they use guns to defend themselves, their family and their country.
Any man that allows his masculinity to be broken down by society was never masculine in the first place. The only thing that's happening lately is a thinning of the heard.....which is a good thing. No worries.
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elancaster65 8 years ago
Interesting timing. I had a good rant going on with my inner self about perpetuated adolescence. This thought that your teens can be stretched in to your 20's in order to rehash the 60's failed mantra of trying to "find myself" as an excuse for not facing the reality of having to grow up.
It went something like this...
It's time to grow up and be a man. Comb your hair. Pull up your pants. Stop drinking to get drunk. Stop smoking/vaping to escape your responsibilities. Stop wearing women's pants. Stop wearing women's hairstyles. Your beard does not make you manly. Acting like a man makes you manly. Get a real job that contributes to society by making use of your God given talents and skills. Stop perpetuating this idea that someone owes you something. The gov't doesn't owe you anything so stop the dependence machine. Your parents don't owe you anything other than to raise you to be a productive member of society. If they've failed in that it is incumbent upon you to do it for your self. It's your college professors job. It's not your employers job. It's yours. Don't automatically find people who support your opinions. Look at what the opposition has to say and filter it not through your own biases but through true truth. True truth can be hard to swallow. Just because you don't like who says it doesn't make the truth any less true. Some days you will be the windshield. Some days you will be the bug. Roll with it. Learn from it. Use it to make you a better man.
My rant...you're welcome to it.
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elancaster65 8 years ago
EDIT....It's NOT your college professors job.
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ahnyerkeester 8 years ago
Amen. People whine because men are such babies, playing video games in their parents' basement at the age of 33 and all. But what the heck has society offered them otherwise? There is a segment of young adult males who are "bad boys". They're into guns and UFC and NASCAR and hunting and enjoy that it ticks people off. These are things that testosterone-laden males do. When you try to push them into skinny jeans and soy lattes and teach them how to cry, some guys just say "*&*%$ that!" and head off the other direction. They rebel. And if there is no one there to lead them to healthy, constructive rebellion and positive ways to focus that pent up energy, they're going to do it in unhealthy ways.
Public schools tell boys to sit still and listen. They've close wood shop and automotive classes. Football is under attack because it is too agressive and people get hurt(!). We need these things so that boys and grow into men. So they can learn how to focus that creative, destructive, powerful energy they have in ways that contribute. Let's do that instead of handing out Ritalin. Let's let these guys loose on the playground where they can chase each other, see who can jump the farthest off the swings, play dodgeball and go home with a bloody nose, and occasionally get into fights.
The lesson we should have learned was NOT to turn boys into girls but to turn boys into men. Men don't bully the weaker kid, they defend him. Men don't try to "nail" girls, they honor them. Men don't throw rocks through windows, they build tree houses. Men don't shoot guns into crowds to kill someone who "dissed" them, they use guns to defend themselves, their family and their country.
Gosh, we have screwed this up badly.
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Chet_Manly 8 years ago
+1
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elancaster65 8 years ago
Well said sir, well said.
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Nickolas 8 years ago
+1
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OperationBrandon 8 years ago
I'm with Grayson
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elancaster65 8 years ago
And to quote Men In Black 2...."Move your bum ass outta your Momma's house!"
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LSUTigersFan 8 years ago
Men are no longer taught to take sole responsibility for their actions. Problem number one...
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rsktkr 8 years ago
Any man that allows his masculinity to be broken down by society was never masculine in the first place. The only thing that's happening lately is a thinning of the heard.....which is a good thing. No worries.
Reply