On Monday, Amanda Prestigiacomo wrote a piece for The Daily Wire highlighting the fact that the vast majority of mass shooters and school shooters come from fatherless homes. The trend is undeniable. And, sadly, it's just the tip of the iceberg. The problem runs much, much deeper.
Over 60% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. Over 80% of youths in prison are from fatherless homes. Over 70% of high school dropouts are from fatherless homes. Over 70% of kids in drug abuse treatment centers are from fatherless homes. The fatherless home epidemic is a verified national emergency, and should be treated as such.
But the fatherless factor is just one part of the equation. The other part is that nearly all of the kids who fall into these statistics are boys. Pretty much every mass shooter in American history, with very rare exception, has been male. 93% of the inmates in federal prison are men. 90% of murders are committed by men. The vast majority of rapists and child molesters are male. Men are three times more likely to kill themselves.
Our culture looks at the picture as I've painted it and concludes that masculinity is a blight on the Earth. It then proceeds to fix the Boy Problem the way you fix a dog. It sees that boys are inclined to be aggressive, so it forces them to be mild. It sees that boys are likely to take dangerous risks, so it encourages them to take no risks at all. It sees that boys are wild, so it tames them. It sees that boys are boys, so it turns them into girls. The strategy has been a disaster. As we work to feminize boys, all of the problems listed above have only gotten worse. They are indeed enlightened problems for an enlightened age.
So, what can we do about it?
The solution brings us back to the beginning: fathers. Boys need to be taught how to be boys, and they need fathers to do the teaching. A mother can't teach her son how to be a man any more than I can teach my daughter how to be a woman. I can teach her how a woman ought to be treated, but I cannot shape her in her femininity the way my wife can. Likewise, my wife cannot form and harness our sons' masculinity the way that I can. Neither can we rely on TV or pop culture or the schools to do the job. They will not mold your son; they will simply obliterate him. Everywhere he turns, if he cannot turn to his father, he will find powerful forces trying desperately to drag him into despair, confusion, and self-loathing.
Young American males are losing touch with a critical element of true masculinity.
If you're the average Millennial male, your dad is stronger than you are. In fact, you may not be stronger than the average Millennial female. You're exactly the kind of person who in generations past had your milk money confiscated every day - who got swirlied in the middle-school bathroom. The very idea of manual labor is alien to you, and even if you were asked to help, say, build a back porch, the task would exhaust you to the point of uselessness. Welcome to the new, post-masculine reality.
This morning, the Washington Posthighlighted a study showing that the grip strength of a sample of college men had declined significantly between 1985 and 2016. Indeed, the grip strength of the sample of college men had declined so much - from 117 pounds of force to 98 - that it now matched that of older Millennial women. In other words, the average college male had no more hand strength than a 30-year-old mom.
I look back to my own childhood. In 1985, I was 16 years old, and I was a nerd's nerd. I toted graph paper and 20-sided dice to school to play Dungeons & Dragons at lunch. (I like to think I was the finest dungeon master Scott County, Ky., had ever seen.) When I wasn't playing D&D, my nose was buried in Lord of the Rings, or the Shannara books by Terry Brooks, or the Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. I played sports, sure, but let's just say that my varsity tennis exploits didn't make the cheerleaders' hearts flutter.
But none of my nerdiness relieved me of the responsibility of learning how to be a man - a protector, builder, and fixer. So that meant spending my Saturdays hauling out the ramps to change the oil and oil filters on all our cars. That meant helping my dad build a new back porch or constantly wrestling with immense piles of firewood. (We heated our house with a wood stove.) I made extra money working in neighborhood yards. Being a guy meant doing manual labor. That was just part of growing up - no matter your social class.
A man's primary role is to provide for, protect, and be in relationship with his family. That role requires a man to develop character. But you may have been involved with men who did not live up to their primary roles, and consequently your son may not have had an ideal role model. So here's my list (compiled with help from single moms) detailing many of the qualities that make a good man. Instill these qualities in your boy to help him become a good man.
Perseverance
Greatness is born by perseverance in the face of adversity. Few things worth doing are ever easy.
Boys must learn to persevere in the face of adversity now if they are to succeed later during even tougher seasons of life. Perseverance is probably one of the toughest things for moms to teach their boys. It requires them to resist the urge to rescue their sons when they are struggling.
Trustworthiness
To trust someone is to know that he will stand beside you - that he won't cut and run when the going gets tough. One of the ways I determine a man's character is whether I would trust him to cover my back in battle.
Talk to your son about what being able to trust someone means to you. If you have trouble trusting due to past experiences, discuss it with him so he can understand how important trustworthiness is and how damaging it can be when violated.
Courage
Teach your son to lead courageously, to stand by his convictions even when they may result in pain, sorrow or negative consequences. Someday he will lead his own family. Fathers are faced with tough decisions every day. The question is, do you want him to lead with courage or cowardice?
A man should defend those who cannot defend themselves. Teach your boy early in life the nobility of protecting the weak and helpless.
Self-discipline and self-control
Self-discipline and self-control are different yet inexplicably interwoven. Self-discipline is doing something we don't want to do but should. Self-control is not doing something we want to but shouldn't. The lack of one or both of these character traits sinks more men and destroys more lives than any other character deficit. The absence of either of these traits leads men into addictions to drugs, gambling, pornography, drinking and adultery - all of which are family destroyers and soul killers.
Self-discipline and self-control keep a man from doing things in private that he would never do in public. They are inner strengths a man develops over time with exercise, like a muscle. Typically, if a man lacks self-discipline in one area of his life, he lacks self-control in other areas as well.
How does a boy develop self-discipline and self-control? He develops them by being held accountable for his actions.
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Tucker Carlson debuted a new series, "Men in America," on his Fox News program Wednesday night, saying, "American men are in crisis."
Carlson, a Daily Caller co-founder, will feature a new segment in the series every Wednesday in March, and the first featured Canadian professor Dr. Jordan Peterson.
Carlson opened by highlighting society's attempts to demonize and ostracize masculinity before pointing out the serious problems prevalent among American males.
"This is a crisis. Yet our leaders pretend it's not happening," he stated. "Ignoring the decline of men does not help anyone. Men and women need each other. One cannot exist without the other. That is elemental biology, but it's also the reality each one of us has lived, with our parents and siblings and friends. When men fail, all of us suffer." WATCH HERE
Boy Scouts Will Admit Girls, Allow Them to Earn Eagle Scout Rank
by PETE WILLIAMS
he Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday that girls will soon be allowed to become Cub Scouts and to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization's highest honor.
"We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children," said Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts.
The scouting board of directors voted unanimously to make the historic change in an organization that has been primarily for boys since its founding more than 100 years ago.
Starting next year, young girls can join Cub Scout units, known as dens. Local scouting organizations can choose to have dens for girls and dens for boys. "Cub Scout dens will be single-gender - all boys or all girls," the organization said in a statement.
A separate program for older girls will be available in 2019, the Boy Scouts said, enabling them to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.
The Boy Scouts said the moves reflect the changing nature of American life, adding to the appeal of a scouting program that can serve the entire family.
BSA said it commissioned two nationwide surveys that showed parents not involved in scouting had high interest in getting their daughters signed up for both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.
Girls are now part of four scouting programs - Venturing and Sea Scouting, geared toward outdoor activities; Exploring, a career-oriented mentoring program; and STEM, focusing on science and math. But those programs have not offered a path to Eagle Scout for girls.
Earlier this year, the National Organization for Women urged the Boy Scouts to admit girls to the entire program, supporting the efforts of a New York teenager, Sydney Ireland, to attain the rank of Eagle Scout, as her older brother did.
The Feminist Delusion of Toxic Masculinity
February 20, 2018
Just as the phrase "climate change" fails to capture the fundamental nature of a theory that was originally labeled "global warming," the commonly heard phrase "toxic masculinity" substitutes similarly imprecise language for the more explicit notion that the biologically ordained striving by men to achieve dominance is bad. Many women nowadays wish to bury the fact that their female ancestors sought protection by attaching themselves to dominant males; they suffer under the illusion that the cave man days are over and that as a result, men must now change their biology.
These women presume that civilization protects them sufficiently that they no longer need seek out protection by a loyal male. They are delusional. They think themselves capable of achieving the sort of competitive dominance needed to maintain their own autonomy because they view the abstract concept of society - or civilization - as an imperishable item largely immune from destruction.
In fact, both society in general and civilization in particular are fragile things that have in the past collapsed with surprising suddenness. One could look to ancient times for examples (e.g., the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the face of invasion by Germanic barbarians or the sudden disintegration of Mayan culture due to unknown causes), but modern examples might be more convincing.
