So...where exactly is our leadership?

[pbrower2a]

(11-13-2022, 01:36 AM)JasonBlack Wrote:

(11-12-2022, 05:44 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Toxic masculinity ("he has balls") that societies once tolerated may have made sense when kings were leading armies in the field, but that is over. Victories often involve logistics and military technology. It is arguable that the British and Americans fared better than their German, Italian, and Japanese enemies because they fought in ways to reduce losses in the field. Much wartime death has been from communicable diseases and septic conditions; the British and Americans used antibiotics and field sanitation to reduce those. The human wave attacks of the sorts used by most armies in WWI or in the Iran-Iraq war are one way of ensuring that nearly all the soldiers at the front are green. The British and Americans had plenty of experienced, battle-hardened NCO's who made battlefield decisions that a junior officer in the German, Italian, or Japanese armies got stuck with because there were few NCO's.  

Say what you will about "toxic masculinity", but, while I am on board with being cautious about war and impulsive aggression, strength is necessary in every age. Just as development of synthetic vitamins did not make eating obsolete, modern technology and civil rights history have not made strength obsolete.

Brute force is no longer as effective as it used to be. If some enemy uses human-wave techniques against a country that chooses to not counter such except by mowing those human waves down, then a few human waves that fail except to kill a large mass  of young men is likely to lead to a collapse of the social order.   Running out of soldiers is one way to lose a war. 

Quote:Right now, we do not have that. As a culture, we...are...weak. The main stream of American culture has become defeatist, guilt-ridden, and even self-hating. Personally I blame MTV and the neotonization or popular culture. When the ideal is to look and sound 16-25, it's no wonder people have become so depressed, narcissistic and self-destructive. None of our culture icons have any sense of dignity, of authority, of fortitude, and because of that, things are falling apart. 

I had to check the word neotonization. Do you mean neotenization? That is the tendency to preserve juvenile traits in a creature. Humans have gone as far as they can (elephants, also very smart creatures) can extend the time of intellectual growth to roughly age 20. Few creatures attain even that age. Humans and elephants are long-lived creatures. 

I do not consider ages 16-25 the peak years of life for quality. Maybe people can have some fun, but those are harsh years on the job (usually raw or servile toil). The middle class has been extending its expectations for college attainment in part because ages 16 to 22 are mostly a black hole for earnings. Yes, the typical centerfold is in that age group, and much of the appeal of the centerfold (I am a straight male, so I can't really say the same about young men) that girls of a certain age if physically fit often look better without clothes than with clothes*. Sex sells when competence is not so obvious, even in commerce not overtly sexual. To get a job as a retail salesclerk or as a barista if a woman, it helps to be pretty and shapely. Sex sells. Not so pretty? Then the factory awaits you as a start.  

The peak time of life is when one has a stake in the economic order, when one has specialized skills, when one has social connections, when one's income is outpacing mortgage payments and one no longer has the high cost of  buying household furnishings, and when one actually has vacation time. Of course if one never gets into such a position, then all that one can do is to buy schlock to replace older short-lived schlock that has worn out 
 

Quote:Idealists (used in the colloquial sense, even though it does include many boomers) want to do away with all these "patriarchal" influences which hold society together, but other countries laugh at us for attempting to do this, because they know that, without the steady hand of older conservative men, they would have starved or been taken over long ago.

As they begin to have a stake in the system beyond a meager paycheck  they often continue their narcissism or ramp it up. To be sure, the Idealist who does genuinely hard or servile work gets humbled early and gets little opportunity to express narcissism. Even schoolteachers must constrain themselves from acting out any narcissistic fantasies. Donald Trump exposed much about himself as well as the entertainment business when he said to the effect that "when you are a star you can get away with anything". Humility is a survival skill for working as a retail salesclerk or waitperson, typically two of the most common  jobs that people hold at some time in their lives. In commerce, managers above a certain level can develop narcissistic behavior because such is a tool of oppression that keeps workers scared and poor and themselves rich. 

Their narcissism can be so severe that they fit a pattern that American Heritage Magazine once discussed in an article on the mental world of the slave-owning planter. This sort had no qualms about the savage world of harsh exploitation that underpinned his grandiose way of life. The slave-owning planters saw themselves as benefactors to "their" slaves and would never let anyone forget that they were the best thing possible for their enslaved human property.   Exploiters seeing themselves as benefactors to their slaves, some of the worst-treated people in the world, they could never understand how hated they could be. As people began to find slavery odious they could only double down on efforts to tighten their grips on the political process As one can expect of narcissistic exploiters, they went too far. 
 
* I have seen the pattern on Playboy centerfolds. Their lifespans are shorter than the US average despite seeming healthier and fitter when they become Playmates of the Month. Drugs play a role, as do abusive relationships. Few find their way into successful careers in entertainment of any kind.  You might be surprised how many of them become born-again Christians (which might be good for survival as well as a potential reaction to an excessively sexualized world. When the very short-lived activity comes to an end, such a past may be unwelcome for someone in a professional career or some not-so-professional career in high contact with the public. That's not something to put on a resume  for applying for a job as a bank teller or legal secretary. Big business likes things sexy, but not too blatantly sexual.