This article reminded me of a question I heard someone ask recently 'Where are the Christians?'. That would be a discussion for another day. I don't think any of us would deny that those traditional traits defining manhood are on the wane in our society. The fact that we are members of this site speak to our desire to find or cultivate manliness back into our culture. What do you think of this article? I got a kick out of reading it, and know a few boys who could use a couple kicks back to reality..

---------

So, what are the traditional elements of the masculine spirit? Well Dinky, there are three primary traits that men, if properly raised and allowed to express their biology, will and should naturally exhibit.
They are the following:

· Competition
· Independence
· Responsibility

Having covered competition in my last column I will turn my guns to the second classic characteristic men will naturally exhibit … if they escape the aggressive societal softening of the metrosexual emasculators, namely … independence.

Traditionally, men have prized their autonomy more than Justin Bieber does his gale-force-wind-proof hair gel and diamond stud earrings.   Men, at least those who have not been morphed into obedient stooges of contemporary society, do not like to be confined, corralled, curbed, interfered with, or domesticated by anyone.

Y’know it is right for a man while he is a boy to be dependent upon mummy, petted and cajoled, flattered and fattened, by mother’s you-can-do-no-wrong-honey loving touch.  But come on, America, somehow we have developed today a race of Nancy-boys, absolute caricatures of the classic male image, who have extended their mommy’s breast feeding, culture’s coddling and government’s hand holding into their 30′s and beyond!

At the hub of man’s constituent make up is the natural and spiritual resistance to hanging on to any mortal or institution too long for subsistence.  By natural command, man is to be independent and is hard wired to go and get a life apart from the nurturing and supportive arms of anyone, and that includes the government.

In ancient cultures, the young male was made to be sovereign, separated from the safe arms of the feminine touch usually at the ripe old age of … twelve.  Young men were expected to separate, never to return to a codependent existence.

Traditionally, young men fled from getting in touch with their supposed “feminine side” and instead they tapped into the gritty and grubby competitive “real world” where you thrive or die.  (By the way, if I want to get in touch with my feminine side, I’ll grab my wife.)

Unfortunately, in the home, in the church, and with our government, thanks to the societal deconstructionists, we have created an extended womb with an umbilical cord of enormous proportions that can sucker and baby men all the way up until their mid-life crises.  Historically, this co-dependent wet womb which is presently afforded chronologically mature males past adolescence has utterly weakened whatever society in which it has been allowed to fester.

Lastly, the most distinctive trait of the tri-fold traditional masculine make up is the way men are to take care of those under their watch i.e., being responsible and accountable for the well being of family and society.

Naturally, men were the pillars of the public, being responsible to God, to family, to church and to their culture as providers and protectors of family and friends.  It was the man who steered the family unit and civilization with firmness, directing them with rules and principles, being dependable, loving and just.  In ancient times the father was not a mere sperm donor who lived at Hooters, but a community elder, a moderator and a servant leader who created edicts and ordered kingdoms.

One bigger-than-Dallas-sized sign that America could be headed down the toilet is how today’s puss man avoids responsibility and accountability and is allowed to blame low blood sugar, his inner child, the environment or the freaky yellow wall paper on his delivery room wall as the reason why he hasn’t “gotten with it.”

If we want to improve our nation, then we have got to resist the current culture of man hatred, wherever and whenever we find it, whether that means not going to movies with an emasculating message, or shouting “that’s bullshit” when we hear and see this stuff on TV or in the classroom, or, more positively, developing old school ways of creating environments conducive to raising warriors and wild men. Whatever peaceful form this resistance takes, it is a must that we verbally wail our disapproval of this incessant dissing of men.

Look, our times demand strong men.  It is up to us middle-aged old boys to preserve and perpetuate the grand testosterone fog God created us to live in for the next generation of young warriors.

Get Giles’ latest book, Raising Boys Feminists Will Hate.