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My views on boys and young men today
I'm just going to ramble about something that's been on my mind for years. I don't know what the past was like, but young men today, including teens, seem to be wandering aimlessly with no direction and a lack of discipline. Obviously I'm talking about a general trend, and not about all men. I feel as if they lack a father figure and a "higher calling," as cheesy as that may sound. I've seen the stark difference between a mature man and one who still doesn't have things together. I see how these boys think about and treat women and minorities. Most of them are white and suburban and come from decent homes. They have little sense of empathy for other people, and that disturbs me very much.
It's something that I have seen little interest in except when a troubled boy goes out and shoots a dozen people. Unfortunately, the media tends to blame it on a single factor such as violent video games or music. This problem in our society needs to be addressed. I don't believe that boys in the past were so confused as they are today. They were forced to conform to standards set by others with little leeway. I've read accounts of problems with Japanese society, such as the hikikomori, and usually it is attributed to rapid changes in the economy, society, and how young men are no longer promised a stable job as they were in the past. Could perhaps Westerners be experiencing the same problems?
My biggest issue is with the lack of empathy among boys today. Most dislike, seemingly vehemently hate, other people who are not like them. It's not something they notice outright about themselves, and sometimes they brush it off as nothing but "Internet humor." But this type of behavior online is not healthy or normal: a truly healthy person would not find much of this misogynist, homophobic, racist, hateful humor "funny" or even have it cross their mind. There's one example that pops up in my mind of a guy who fits into this age bracket... he used to hate me, but we're now friends. He hated me for a long time, but I always treated him kindly and fairly. Eventually, I think he came to notice this and warm up to me. He told me that he used to hate me, and for no particular reason at all. This wasn't the only time I've met men who experienced that kind of odd and unwarranted hatred. Perhaps they don't believe that kindness truly exists, or that not everyone has ulterior motives.
Anyway... I hope that my message gets across decently here. I left out things that I feel should be obvious to the reader of an Internet forum geared towards young men, such as what type of behavior I was referring to. This wasn't well-written, but I guess my mind is kind of in a cloud right now.
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