…older men need to provide a better model for younger men.
What happened to the good old days when men ruled? When being a man was the thing? Obviously, those days are not coming back. Good thing, too. No man I know would really want to go back to the days of women feeling repressed.
But it seems like, in all the fight to make sure that women are getting their just due, we’ve lost what it is to be a man.
I may be going against the mainstream to say this, but I think that’s actually good. We are dropping the binds that held us back for centuries. We are walking away from the masculine culture that our ancestors ruled. We are saying “no” to the roles, expectations, and demands of centuries of keeping with the program…
The rebellion we are seeing around the world (the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, etc.) represents, in part, young men saying: “The consumer culture and its media tell us that being a successful man means owning the latest smartphone while driving the latest BMW. But jobs to earn the money to buy our success are no longer available. We are trapped. We believe self-worth is material success, yet we can’t achieve it. Without the means to succeed and no models or support to discover self-respect, what is left?”
In this post for The Good Man Project I go on to explore how more than ever we are letting young men down. Read about the impact the lack of men being around for boys is having on them. I also suggest a simple and inexpensive solution.
