Manhood and Barbarism

The recent incidences in London have sparked quite a bit of attention to the teenage angst problem within the United Kingdom. While many people do not know how to explain the happenings others are not surprised and have almost expected these occurrences for years. There is a lesson to be learned within these riots that I think most have overlooked. I believe that it was Fr. Philip Chavez that said, 'if men do not teach their sons how to be constructive they will automatically become destructive'. By our masculine nature we know that we are supposed to make a difference in this world. We instinctively know that we are meant to put our mark on this world before we are called to our heavenly reward or possible damnation. Barbarism and chaos is the ultimate prize when children are taught at a very young age that everything is relative and there is no reason to let that pesky conscience of yours have any say in your actions, he's only Jiminy Cricket after all. Only about 50 years back there was a major rebellion against all things moral because the people began asking 'Why all the morals?' and were not fed the truth, they were fed the lies of the world, but this generation doesn't care and doesn't even want to know the 'Why', they don't even know that they don't know.

Throughout history men have decided to go the route of a barbarian. Genghis Khan, King Xerxes, Billy the Kid, and many of our more recent dictators were all men that decided barbarism is a better route than gentlemanly debate. Many men back in the wild west days of this great nation would terrorize towns and take over farmland just for fun. Many Mafiosos would take advantage of or harm their own people all in the name of power or money. There is no purpose or reason behind the indecent behavior of men. These boys and young men that are terrorizing the streets of London have been given a choice, the same choice that every man is given, we can either decide to live by objective truth and therefore submit to a moral code, or we can deny that truth exists and allow our own skewed emotions or feelings guide our lives. Unfortunately, these young men play the blame game and do not hold themselves responsible for their own decisions, something that is much easier to accomplish than holding your actions to a higher code.

Going back to the stories of the wild west of our great nation there were men who decided that it would be better to join a gang then to work hard and raise a family. (The old saying, 'The more things change, the more things stay the same' is very relevant here.) Typically the decision was based off of what the person was taught by their own fathers. The men that decided to join the gangs were either ignored by or wanted to rebel against their fathers. All boys and men have a need to receive validation from their fathers, if they do not receive it from them they will search elsewhere, and typically that will lead them down a wrong path. While these young men are all a product of their heavily sin-laden society, in the end they are their own men. These boys are the image of the post-Christian society, they are the end result if we do not start reversing the course of our atheistic ideologies forced down our nation's throat by those that want to destroy the good within all of us. If we do not start teaching our boys and young men what it means to be a true, Catholic, man of God, barbarism is their only other choice.

Boys today are told that the video-game villains are the real heroes and that Truth and goodness are nonsense. Movies and stories today are filled with the young men that break the rules in order to achieve anything, rebellion is considered the ultimate good rather than ever listen to authority. The more a secular young man rebels, takes advantage of women, or drinks the more he is cheered on by his so-called friends, and while most men never were given the honor or validation from their fathers, this is the validation they crave and are receiving. Belief that the barbarian lifestyle is more manly than the life of a saint has permeated our young men and has shed darkness over the light of sainthood. But if these young men are shown what true honor, courage, and manliness is the world will see a change that has never been reached. Men are the heads of their families and therefore society as well, and with the men that are coming from the current young generation we might face a society that acts like the post-apocolyptic men in the movie 'Book of Eli'. If we want to see a world where life is sacred and morals are held above all else, we must teach our sons to be constructive.