I have been noticing a difference from when I was young. As a young man I was desperate to get my driver’s license. I obtained my learner’s permit when I was 15 ½ and took my driving test on my 16th birthday. I was a driver. It was part of being a man. Not so any more. As I sat watching cars turn in front of me the other day I noticed that most young drivers were women and the men were riding shotgun. I have seen this in parking lots as a couple would walk toward the car and the girl would get behind the wheel. I don’t think this is just equality being practiced, I think we are seeing another result of the castration of males in our society. It seems to be a castration that these boys are embracing willingly.
Being a man no longer seems to mean being a provider and protector. Now it seems to mean finding a woman who will keep you. We used to call them gigolos. Now they are players. Obviously you cannot apply this in every case but I am listening to the boys talk in my classes at school. They have no plans to get jobs. They expect their parents to care for them as long as they want to sleep in. It is okay for girls to be good students but not real men. I understand that the enrollment in college is also showing a majority of women now. There is a growing lack of initiative and independence in our culture and the charge is being led by the “men.”
The younger generation don’t have jobs and are not anxious to get out to work. I notice the difference in two young men in our church. One can’t find work. He has never held a regular job. He has graduated from college with a degree in a fun topic and had his hand out the entire time, literally. The other is just entering college and had a job within a few weeks. He refused some financial help offered until he had earned it
The current generation complains there are no jobs. I understand that the economy is in the tank. I don’t know what I would do if I were laid off. I see plenty of jobs, that isn’t the problem. The problem is they are low level, low pay. For older men with problems this is a real hurdle. But what about the younger men and women? Why is minimum wage a problem for a big child living at home? The stumbling block for today’s youth is that they are expecting to start at the top. They see how there parents live after a life time of work and think that is the place to start.
We need to remember how Andrew Carnegie started. He was a part of the child labor problem before he got his first messenger job and began to work his way to success. He started at the bottom as a poor immigrant. The moguls started at the grunt labor level. Today we expect to party through law school and start at six figures.
In previous generations the guys were anxious to get out and get a job so they could get a car. Now they seem to be competing for a girlfriend who has a car and a debit card.
That is quite a castle to build from watching cars turn left.
homo unius libri
I've got a cousin who thought he'd start at the top. It didn't work, I guess, since he's now in prison for life.
ReplyDeleteNo, it doesn't sound like it worked. But as they say, who am I to judge.
ReplyDeleteGrace and peace.