What's Happening to Boys?

A recent article at the Washington Post titled, "What's Happening to Boys?" explores why one third of young men between the ages of 22 and 34 live at home with their parents. http://tinyurl.com/pnrx9 I suggest the reason for this behavior is, it simply makes sense. People will do what is in their best interest.

Generations ago young boys were taught how important they were. Today our feminized culture demeans and ridicules boys. Boys are taught they are of lesser value than girls, therefore boys withdraw.

Boys without a family lineage to be proud of will find an excuse to fail. Boys who have fathers and grandparents with an honorable past will have a desire to live up to their honor, therefore making it more difficult for the boys to drop out.

This paragraph was in the article at the Washington Post. It is a metaphor of what young men in our feminized society are doing. --In Ayn Rand's humorless apocalyptic novel "Atlas Shrugged," the central characters ask: What would happen if someone turned off the motor that drives the world? We may be living in such a time, a time when the motor that drives the world is running down or stuck in neutral -- but only for boys.---

I believe young men are withdrawing from the traditional roles men played in the past because they know those roles of the past are no longer important. As recent as the 1930s in America, most women did not drive because of poor roads and unreliable autos that did not have power steering, reliable batteries for electric starters, or automatic transmissions. There was no birth control pill. Most people lived in a rural setting with no telephones. Men were needed as providers and protectors of women and children. The men felt important.

Boys used to have positive role models. Their fathers, movie stars, radio characters, and comic book characters were positive role models for boys. Today's TV roles are of men who are abusive, violent, nerds, or buffoons. The female roles models are all prescient, strong, and virtuous.

Today the State is the provider and protector of women and children. If a woman needs protection today all she has to do is call 911 and the State garners all its resources to her defense. Men and women used to voluntarily give power to each other in a marriage. Power given away voluntarily can be taken back. It was difficult to take back this power because of culture mores, but it could be done. Today young men are refusing to give away their power in a marriage because they know this power, once given, cannot be taken back. This power given to their wives and children will be retained, by force if necessary, by the State. This power the State retains by force is what creates conflicts.

The "war between the sexes" has been going on for centuries. You can read about this in the ancient Greek writings. I believe if we went back to the technology of 1900, men and women would be working in a synergistic relationship for their survival and the survival of the species. Technology that lies ahead, cloning and the creation of life outside the womb, will strain the relationship between men and women like never before.

Parents who can select their gender now prefer girls 2 to 1 over boys. With cloning, men will become unnecessary. When there is only one gender, the world will finally know peace, or, women will still possess the Seven Deadly Sins and will fight each other. Either way, in the future women will visit the zoo to see men in cages and talk about how oppressed women used to be because they had to mate with these creatures to have babies.

Bilbo Baggins, The Happy Misanthrope