Since Lt. Moore (so titled on the hypothesis that there’s no such thing as an “ex-Marine”) to this point has not defined what he means by the phrase “the men their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were”, I point out that this could be either good or bad.

In the barbarian universe, Buckleyesque vocabularies are not required.

Ah, well, now that he’s gone and invoked one of the neocons’ Most Holy Names, I must respond: Eschew Obfuscation.

What feminism has done, in conjunction with political correctness, is deprive overly non-offensive, modern parents of the language traditionally used to bring up young boys: “Be a man.” “Stick up for your sister.” “Quit throwing the ball like a sissy.” “Quit crying like a girl.”

Such “language traditionally used to bring up young boys” should have been nuked very thoroughly, by simply asking: “WTF is THAT supposed to mean?!?”

Instead, we have a lot of lukewarm, androgynous talk about “being a good person” and “showing respect to people.” A naturally rambunctious and irascible boy, though, is not too interested in being a good person. For if he achieves that status, what will distinguish him from his prim and proper sister?

Is that a rhetorical question, or does he really want an answer?

The parents have no language to answer their son’s deepest and most natural needs.

This sentence should read: “The parents still have no language to answer their son’s deepest and most natural needs.”

“Big boys don’t cry” on one hand, and political correctness OTOH, are not our only two choices!

All-male colleges, where young men used to compete against each other in the lecture halls and on the playing field, can now be counted on the fingers of one hand.

“Thank you, sir, may I have another?”

In short, modern America lacks what virtually every society in the past has established and governed with great effort and concern: a proving ground for male youth seeking some legitimate expression of their erratic and as yet undisciplined spiritedness.

And so, your fellow neocons want to bring back the draft. How very convenient.

Nor can they fight for grades, for a girl, for God, or for country (though September 11 has altered this last).

Has it, now? Has it indeed? As a Claremontista (or at any rate, as one who writes under the ægis of the Claremont Institute), it’s quite understandable that you would want to help divert attention from the reality (fighting for the state) by falsely labeling it “fighting for country”.

Even the saints of old would find the 21st century an inhospitable place, for how could they “fight the good fight” against their own fallen nature in a world supposedly without sin?

Hey, I know what — instead of fighting your perpetual “War on Terror” for you as janissaries, we’ll just “fight the good fight” against you neocons and your fallen nature! How’d that be?

Boys have trouble becoming men. That’s not a new thing, an American phenomena, or the fault of feminism or absent fathers. Our society has a disconnect between sex and gender that hasn’t been seen in any historical era I’ve ever heard about. Today, both men and women can do masculine things, but men are expected to avoid feminine things (wimp behavior). So what’s a boy to do? Emphasize the masculine (be a barbarian), submit to femininity (wimp), or seek a third way and focus on the self (something that can be disastrous or wonderful, depending on the individual choices).

The choices available to boys and girls today will probably make the sex/gender disconnect even greater in the future. Dissatisfaction with potential mates will remain high (as it should be: why should finding a life partner be easy?). Traditional roles will be chosen consciously rather than by rote, which should keep the world from going to hell.

As a father of two boys, I don’t see smooth waters ahead for them. Nor do I see an easy time for my daughter. If there is one difference between my sons and my daughter, it is that my sons would have more trouble entering a traditionally female profession than my daughter would in pursuing a tradionally male profession. That’s the big injustice facing boys in the future, but don’t expect it to be a major issue for the media.

The biggest problem with the essay is the fixation on just wimpiness and barbarity. Sure it’s fun to look at the extremes as points to argue against, but the middle way is the way I’d wish for all my children: be nice, not a pushover; bold, but not reckless. But then, us moderates are always called wimps, so maybe I’m just a coward who needs to have my children sent to military school.

I think this is a good example of why society is seeing more cases of destructive or lethal behavior from maladjusted males. To paraphrase the commenter’s putative solution, ‘If you teenage males want to be men, go find out what’s involved and then do it. Oh, and it helps if you have good character.’

Sterling as this recommendation is, the author of the original article points out that *there are damn few socially-positive role models for boys*. Boys who lack great fathers will almost always be socialized by their peers.

Remember “Lord of the Flies”?

There are thousands of role models for barbaric, cut-your-throat male behavior; perhaps ten percent as many for academic/professional types; and a fraction of a percent for the educated, thinking man who can also face down barbarians when the crunch comes. And putting all the burden on teenage boys to “just do it” isn’t likely to help one bit.

Don’t you ever feel guilty about those other 25 kids sitting there scratching their butts while you’re burning THEIR time screwing around with Jim or Bob who just won’t get with the program? The old joke about getting the mule’s attention with a two-by-four is very true with a lot of boys. You in the schools (and society as a whole) nibble around the edges when hard-nosed in-your-face action is needed. Boys are a lot harder to deal with than girls and they (and society) are suffering from the current one-size fits all paradigm.

There is a growing chorus that contemporary culture gives boys the choice to be wimps or thugs. The manly virtues are ridiculed or condemned. What do Terrence O. Moore, Robert Shaw, and Bill Whittle have in common? The surety that

I teach 10th Grade English in an affluent school district. All my principals are men, as is half my department. I’ve had a male student cry in my presence once, but certainly not over school work. And I’ve dealt with some goofy dads, let me tell you.

The problem with arguing from anecdotal evidence is that anybody with an opposing anecdote can easily refute your point.

When I encounter rule-breaking, the process is not long and muddled. The child is told what he or she did wrong, receives the detention or whatever, and that’s the end of it. I suppose I could whack them with a ruler, too. Is that what the article is advocating for when it says “the old form of discipline”? Having teachers spank and beat children in school? Is that what you want “the government schools” to do? Or do you just want us to spank the boys and not the girls?

“In what way was frontier life, or life on the seas, a ‘formal’ right of passage, considering most men of the time didn’t go to the frontier (that’s part of the essence of being a frontier).” Steven V., you’ve said a mouthful. Most people, male and female, are pretty much engaged in just trying to get by.

My family’s paradigm was that every kid ought to be a competent adult — i.e., could cook, at least rudimentarily; could fix the plumbing; could tell the guy where and probably, how to repair the roof, even if she couldn’t do it herself; usually could treat the kids and the pets, based mostly on empirical evidence, and certianly knew wehn it was necessary to call in a real professional; and a lot more.

I still can. So can my kids. When they run into, say, a practical problem with the house that they can’t solve, they call me. And they still are learning. And they laugh at the incompetents who weren’t raised the same way. For the record, my kids are 32 and 29; both are married, are college graduates, and are competent adults, and both are doing just fine.