Wimps and Barbarians (on being a Man)

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BenW

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Of late I have found myself contemplating the seeming demise of men in the vein of those who were brought up to, "Ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth" (especially living in a college town and seeing the manner of "man" generally being spit out of the system). One of the proudest moments in my life happened a few years ago when my dad (who usually keeps his emotions bottled up like a well shaken can of Coke), while introducing me to a friend, told him he was most proud of me because I always tried so hard to be honorable and tell the truth. I mentioned that once to some "men" at work when the topic of family came up and I was talking about how well I got along with my dad. They laughed at me. I came across this article today which helps explain why so many guys nowadays think that's a dumb sentiment:

http://www.claremont.org/writings/crb/winter2003/moore.html
 
Well, to make this gun-related, so many fewer men are exposed to guns at all that to talk about "shooting straight" as being part of "manhood" is losing any traction it ever had.
 
Great essay. I've passed it around.

The question arises: How does one get there from here? No easy task submerged as we are in the age of MTV and "the player" and the gangsta and Oprah.

Iron John waved his spear but how many were listening?
 
Put another way, guns are no longer what every boy is brought up with, but rather either objects of abject fear and loathing (wimps) or props of thuggish machismo (barbarians).

Not all traditional masculine viewpoints are valid. The presumption of female inability to cope with the wider world unaided, for instance, deserved to get thrown into the ashcan. But it seems as though there has been a general trend over the last 30 years or so to denigrate EVERYTHING traditionally associated with "manhood."
 
Not all traditional masculine viewpoints are valid. The presumption of female inability to cope with the wider world unaided, for instance, deserved to get thrown into the ashcan. But it seems as though there has been a general trend over the last 30 years or so to denigrate EVERYTHING traditionally associated with "manhood."

___________________________

Very true but it appears that most of the "protest" movements of the past forty or so years have ended in overshooting their targets, going from the legitimate of equal rights under the law and respect for individuality to mythologized demands for special privileges sanctioned by governmental programs.
 
Wimps make worthless watchdogs. But their failure as watchdogs or guardians has nothing to do with size or physique. My father used to tell me when I was growing up, "It is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog" that matters. Many of today's young men seem to have no fight in them at all. Not for them to rescue damsels in distress from the barbarians. Furthermore, wimps vote. As Aristotle pointed out, to the cowardly, bravery will seem more like rashness and foolhardiness than what it really is. Hence political and social issues that require bravery for their solution elicit only hand-wringing and half-measures from the wimps. Wimps are always looking for the easy way out.
Click to expand...
This one paragraph sums up the anti self defence crowd PERFECTLY.

Thanks for sharing this, it's quite thought provoking.
 
Funny coincidence, I think this post ties in with the term, Metrosexual. A term that appropriately describes what I have been witnessing and griping about during the past few years down here in Arizona. I've often observed that "men" these days are acting and looking much like women. :barf:

The definition (if you don't already know, much as I didn't until last week)

METROSEXUAL: (noun) Of or pertaining to a straight, urban male who is eager to embrace and even show off his feminine side, especially when it comes to expensive haircuts, designer suits, and $40 face cream. :scrutiny:


Prior to seeing this year's banish words list (you know, the list of trite, mis-used or generally useless words) I had never heard the term Metrosexual. The list of banished words may be found at: http://www.lssu.edu/banished/archive/2004.php


Just in case any of us is wondering whether we are "Metros." take the quiz. I scored 6 out of 50 points.

http://www.rooshlog.com/quiz/quiz.cgi?quiz=metro
 
Yep, the idea of controlled, meted strength is going out the window.

People seem to either be in denial about boys' natural aggression and don't teach them to control it (getting barbarians) or see it as an evil to be driven utterly out of their spirits (getting wimps).

Worse, the concept of honor isn't simply disdained, it is alien at best, if not unknown.
 
2 outta 50. Wonder if the 1911A1 on my hip had anything to do with it. Full-size 1911 of course; commanders and micros are for those metrosexual guys who are trying to accessorize :neener:
 
I didn't take the test. I figured it was too scaaaary. (Okay, just kidding.)

Honor, yes. And Courage is where all the rest emanate from.

I think the only thing that is likely to reverse the current cultural tide is Necessity, the threat of cultural non-survival.
 
Now days, "Ride, Shoot Straight and Tell the Truth means this:

Ride: Damn low riders thumping Bass Rap Crap so loud we're raising a generation of deaf idiots.

Shoot Straight: is no spray and pray, does't matter if you're shooting into a dwelling that may have children, just spray and pray you hit something.

Tell the truth: Klinton has taught our youth how to tell the truth, O.J. has taught them that enough money can warp the truth to your end.

Just my $.02 but it's my firm belief
 
Kipling may have said it completely...

(I REALLY like the lines about Triumph and Disaster)



IF.....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
 
I can't STAND college towns precisely because of the overabundance of slack-jawed, weepy, linguine-spined, sensitive new-age guys (SNAGs). Makes me wanna throw back my coat, point to the .45ACP pistol on my hip and shout "this stuff will turn you into a GD sexual tyrannosaurus.... just like me.":evil:

You can't tell the men from the women in Charlottesville, or Chapel Hill... they all are willowy, flatchested, weak, and wear $400 eyeglasses
:banghead: :banghead:
 
SPARTACUS! Nice quote! Note that TWO actors in that movie are now Govenors!

I took the test

5/50

53888 people have scored higher than you.
6530 people have scored lower than you.

Wow, that's sad. Very sad. I go to private school, so no metros there, but when we went to Clark to see a legion XIIII thing they put on I saw some MAJOR metros...see thru t-shirts and earrings...just not right. Very sad.

:( <-----me

I no longer distinguish between metrosexuals and homosexuals. They are one in the same. Soon they will want more rights!
 
I can see SOME good points in this article. Good behaviour and manly virtues that used to be normal seem to be disappearing nowadays.

Other than that this piece of writing is generalizing in the worst possible way. It only plays with self-constructed stereotypes and shows an extremely narrow-minded point of view.



Regards,

Trooper
 
YOUR SCORE
2.0% 1.0 points out of 50

AVG SCORE
31.0% 15.5 points out of 50

63225 have taken this test so far.
61836 people have scored higher than you.
689 people have scored lower than you.
700 people made the same grade as you.

Stud! You're a manly man! -well we already knew that. :cool:
 
Geez, 9 out of 50. I guess I'm a wimp.

I like the looks of a fine suit, and admire guys who wear them well (Bill O'Reilly, for all his warts, dresses very classy, as does Robert Novak).

Gay guys have hit on me because half of my wife's friends are gay, and their friends are gay. Sooner or later it's going to happen.

All that aside, the article was very accurate. I always hold the door for a woman, and can't tell you how many times an elderly woman has remarked that she hasn't seen that act of courtesy in a long time.
 
I'm a stud! I'm a stud! Well, that's what the test result said, and everything we read on the 'net is true, isn't it? :D

they all are willowy, flatchested, weak, and wear $400 eyeglasses
Click to expand...
Holy Crap! I'm tall and skinny (that's willowy, right?). I just paid $360 for new lenses in my eyeglasses. Ouch. Just the lenses, though, is that a bit less sissy than buying new frames?

And I did ask the cute blonde optometrist if the lenses were safe to wear while shooting or if they would brake if hit by a metal fragment. She said "do you shoot? Cool." And we talked about shooting for a while. Naturally, I asked if she wanted to come along and try. Disappointingly, she wasn't all that enthusiastic. Do you think maybe she was a lesbian? That is after all the only plausible explanation why chicks don't jump all over macho guys like us... :D
 
naw, you're not willowy unless you're "slender, pliant, flexible, pendent, or drooping." Tall and thin is OK for a manly man, so long as your posture isn't one that looks like you'd faint at the sight of ketchup :D

You made the glasses price cutoff by $40, but next time be more careful :D
 
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