Da
Boyz.
The men are not off the hook either. Just
like there is a jarring loss of authentic femininity in women today, there is also an equally
jarring loss of masculinity in men today as well. Heck, in this case, I’m even
willing to go as far as to say it was this loss of authentic masculinity that
resulted in reaction known as the feminist revolution. However, unlike women
who went wayward in a movement aimed at bettering women’s lives, men lost
themselves in a slightly more complicated fashion.
Authentic
Masculinity
To understand the heart of the problem, one
first must understand what the man is supposed to be. The very essence of man
is the need to sacrifice himself for the good of his family. In the bible,
Christ reminds the Pharisees that, in the beginning, ‘a man leave father and
mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh.’ This
very act of leaving the caregivers of his life to enter into the unknown world
is in itself a sacrifice. From then on, he will put aside his needs and desires
and physically exhaust himself in a job that he may or may not like to bring
home dough for his wife and children. In the past that would mean putting his
body on the line to go hunt, in the modern world, it is sitting at a desk all
day long.
All this can be observed through natural
law. In some tribes there are coming of age rituals, signifying the boy’s
transition from boyhood to manhood. From then on, he is expected to keep the
company of the men, where he learns to be one of them and to hunt and protect
his family. Even biology mimics this, where at the age of 4, the boy must
separate himself from his mother and join to his father, or gender identity
disorder may occur.
It is in this bond that the boy learns how
to carry out his masculine duties through imitation, how to sacrifice himself
and treat every woman as a lady, to put himself second, and give her the first
place.
To draw a parallel, it is this same path
that Christ, Himself, took. He left heaven and took on the form of man, where,
He then went and sacrificed His body through the beatings, scourging, the crown
of thorns, the carrying of the cross, and finally the crucifixion itself in
order to redeem the entire world. It is this external sacrifice that is innate
in masculinity that allows a man to become a priest and to act in persona
Christi, in the person of the most masculine, to offer up the sacrifice of the
most innocent to God the Father.
Hence the occupations that boysmost
identify with often require some form of physical sacrifice. Every boy at one
stage has wanted to be a soldier or a policeman or a fire fighter. To serve and
protect is practically innate within the male. That is why men were given such
great passions and energy, to channel it for the greater good of society. It is
in growing up that we learn to master these passions and to defeat dragons, the
first of which being ourselves. Only when we have the discipline to conquer our
passioned wants and needs will we have the ability to take on other dragons, to
be ready for battle. We were meant to be knights in shining armour. So where
did we go wrong?
Utilitarianism
The fallout of traditional philosophy
during the enlightenment period gave rise to empiricism and skeptism, which led
to the ethics of Utilitarianism. As mentioned in the previous articles,
Utilitarianism can be summed up as ‘whatever means to achieve the greatest
pleasure’. It is a relativistic course of ethics whose moral principles largely
depend on what one can get away with. Hence, the spawning of the ‘me’
generation whose effects can be largely seen in almost every aspect of society.
In economics, duty and honour between employers and employees has since been
thrown out the door, it is how much the employer can milk his employees for
profit. In healthcare, doctors have been relegated to prescription writing,
pill dispensing units thanks to the application of Prinicipalism which has
utilitarian roots. In advertising it has become developed to the point of
whatever sells the product, and of course, that is sex. One hardly comes across
an advertisement nowadays that isn’t sexed up in some way.
When applied to the man, this idea of I’ll
use whomever I want to give me pleasure, has eroded the presence of the truly
masculine in society. Once men were protectors, they have either become
predators, just going around using women for their personal gain or they never
grow up, being stuck in front of the computer screen all day long, indulging in
their fantasies. This uh mascularism, if you will, the corruption of the
masculine with utilitarian principles, is why women who desire to get married
to a good and loving husband will be hard pressed to find one.
Over-sexed
Culture
It doesn’t help that the culture has become
sex-obsessed. The gender-sociologist have turned sexual preference into an
identity, elevating it from an accidental feature of humanity into an essential
feature, and the only essential feature, hence the LGBT movement and this silly
notion that one’s gender is completely a social construct, never mind the
staggering research into the physiological and anatomical differences between
men and women. You can choose whether you want to be a boy or a girl in the
head, but not whether you’re attracted to boys or girls. It’s all rather odd if
you ask me.
What’s more, in today’s culture, boys are
expected by society to watch pornography, masturbate and be promiscuous. This
could not be more contrary to nature! Pornography addiction is particularly
prevalent and its incidence is on the rise. What’s the big deal you ask? Well,
leaving aside the obvious problems for the moment, like that it’s a grave sin, it
denigrates the marital act in its fiction and teaches men to objectify women,
what about the fact that porn stars themselves are horribly damaged and abused
individuals? That’s right, as long as you watch pornography, you are supporting
the abuse of men and women who are completely broken and damaged inside. (see
theporneffect.com)
Masturbation is also a very dangerous
habit. I won’t say much and let C.S Lewis do the talking for me, ‘For me the
real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful
use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own
personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren)
and turns it back, sends it back into the prison of himself, there to keep a
harem of imaginary brides. And this harem, once admitted, works against his
ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always
accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifices or adjustments, and can
be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can
rival.’
Read more about that here in an article by
Fr John Harvey, OSFS on the Courage website http://couragerc.net/Masturbation.html
I think I don’t need to speak as well about
how sleeping around will mess a man up completely as well.
Chivalry
is Dead
All these grave sins have lead to a huge
rusting of the shining armour that men once proudly wore because the armour of
virtue and chivalry cannot be worn by a man who is unable to lead such a life.
The armour requires a great strength of mind to put on and to sustain, a great
strength that can only come from God. When one is his natural state of
sanctifying grace, in that communion with God, how light he is, and how light
this armour will be. The opposite will of course be when he bogged down by
these sins. In essence, the modern man, shackled by the fetters of pornography
and sexual addiction, will have to overcome great obstacles in order to remain
true to his essential nature, his masculinity. These sexual sins in particular
have lead to an objectification of women, and ultimately to their degradation.
When men view women as a objects, as commodities, they will no longer see
persons to protect but things to possess, and there goes the masculine.
In addition to these woes, the feminist
movement has also put a stop to the little courtesies that men afforded women
in their external sacrifice of the self. The sacrifice of the feminine is an
internal one, a sacrifice of the ego, in her mercy, she allows the man to care
for her and look after her. It is in this act, that she allows the man to
fulfil his masculinity. However, in becoming feminists, the women have
essentially said no to masculinity and allowed men to become jerks. That said,
I will agree that it is the men’s fault that the feminist movement erupted in
the first place.
In
Brief
Boys, you have a duty to God, to society,
to women and to yourself, to be masculine men. To be the gentlemen regardless
of how you are treated and to protect always, even those whom you have never
met (but are tempted to view electronically).
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