There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink.
-- Booth Tarkington
(Are we supposed to figure out what the other thing is?)
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I'm glad I didn't have to fight in any war. I'm glad I didn't have to pick up a gun. I'm glad I didn't get killed or kill somebody. I hope my kids enjoy the same lack of manhood.
-- Tom Hanks
Well said, Tom. This idea that being a Real Man is being a good killer is insane.
I saw an actor, maybe it was Johnny Depp, on The Actor's Studio, . He said something like: "sure, war movies show the horror and so on, but still, they all have the underlying message of: this is were I became a man".
2 comments:
It's a minority of people who see a Real Man as being that way. Most people - including Tom Hanks, probably - would like to believe that they could do it if they had to, but they're glad they didn't have to.
Of course, most people like to think of World War II as being one of if not the only "good war" but of course there's no such thing.
"Woman gives life, man takes life." - (Prehistoric wisdom)
Recently read this in a very immersive (french) fiction novel about a young prehistoric man's quest to find the seashell at the end of the Earth that'll make him worthy to become the clan's chief, against despairingly stacked negative omens. As with all good quest stories, this one's much more about the journey and what one learns in it. If one's mind is ready to reconsider and learn.
And precisely, that story was about what we think we know "on life, the Universe and everything" at the dawn of times. Sort of an anti-"Quest for Fire", an INTELLIGENT and very plausible stone age epic.
Among those held beliefs, that women know things that men could not possibly hope to understand even if explained, because women's role is to bear and raise children, while men hunt and fight the wars, creatig a fundamental difference in their mutual natures. (Another form of "woman paradigm". ;-)
The story's hero learns so much, especially about the fragility of superstitious beliefs and stiff traditional attitudes, that this in itself threatens the possibility that the clan will accept him as leader, shell or no shell! His open-minded and enlightened attitude scared many of his brethren. Example: "We hunt for food, but it would be smarter to BREED the reindeers and goats. - Nonsense! We've always hunted the animals that the god made aplenty, and we mustn't change what is, for it is good."
Johnnie,
The latest post on my own blog precisely reflects upon the "good parts" of WW2 and some other wars. I bet you can't guess what it is before reading it?
On a side and very personal note, I think being a true man, or woman for that matter, is first and mostly about moral courage. One of the things that most exasperate me about the majority of the Lebanese, is that they'd rather leap in the gaping mouth of a hungry bear while covered in gravy, than wonder whether their accustomed thinking might, just might, not be entirely correct and perfect. No, seriously!
In layman's terms, a buncha boneheads. Oogah!
Why are we so terrified by the mere prospect of change, that we're ready to put up with any kind of extreme misery rather than try? "I say, my fellow brothers, it is high time for us men to dare and stop killing! Come on, who's with me? What's the matter, are you all chicken?"
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