In today’s Guest op-ed, our Canadian Contributor Ryan Houtekamer channels his inner old man yelling at traffic. Mad Duo
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The Pussification of Man
Ryan Houtekamer
When I say man in the title of this article, I mean “mankind“. Unfortunately the human race has gone soft and it’s not looking like we’ll recover any time soon. It turns out everyone isn’t a special snowflake whose opinion matters. You know what they say: opinions are like assholes, they’re shitty and everyone has one. Here is where I think things went wrong, how I implore you to fix it, and how I wish the world was run.
It would seem to be in the late 80’s to early 90’s psychologists decided that punishing children is wrong. If I could make a Terminator I would send him back in time to stop the judgement day we are screaming towards. Homo sapiens, and our ape brethren, learned not to do dumb shit by getting hurt doing it. Touch the fire or a hot thing and you get burnt, which teaches you to stay away from hot things.
The same approach works in parenting. If a kid is acting up and creating a scene, firm pressure into the shoulder blades with your fingers lets them know you’re in charge and that they should cease immediately. Then in the pink chewing gum pile they call a brain a thought forms: “if I am a terror I will receive pain”. I’m not advocating using a switch on your child or waterboarding information from them, but a spank or crack up side the head works as an attitude adjustment now and then. The big thing is to never hit your child in anger because you will likely go too far with it. When your child is learning to walk a simple tap on the back of the hand with a firm “no” reinforces what they were about to do is wrong.
If you want a good idea of how pain=learning take a bunch of guys and put them in a shoot house with no bullets. They will move through the house and you will tell them what not to do. They can yell bang and you can say when people are hit. Chances are it will take a lot of repetitions and guys will get lazy. Now introduce pain into the learning equation through Simunitions, and I bet they learn to enter doors and clear rooms a lot faster. But somewhere along the way a person with a pseudo-science degree decided the way we have learned for centuries was wrong, and the world of coddling our children was created.
Speaking of coddling our children, why is everything so tame and safe these days. If parents could figure out how to attach a mattress to their children they would. Scraping your knee and knocking your head during an activity means we should now ban it. Darwin is rolling over in his grave at the thought. We have a generation of people who haven’t learned to adapt to their surroundings. People who can’t cope with things outside of their overly small and underdeveloped tool box. We have allowed humans with the emotional stability of children with art degrees to make the important decisions for our country. The old guard will have to pass the torch eventually, and do you really want it going to a self-entitled weenie who needs a safe space because they saw TRUMP 2016 written in chalk on the ground? In the first half of the 1900’s a safe space was a trench because it helped you not get shot.
The school system sets these kids up for failure by not allowing failure. “Being held back from your peers is a detriment to your well being and will make you grow up into a criminal“, or some new age nonsense like that. Unfortunately not everyone learns at the same pace and some people need a second kick at the can. This allows people to experience failure and lets them grow the necessary thick skin to cope with it. Teachers have actually been fired for failing kids who put no effort into school, which is only failing the child. They need to have some form of negative consequence for their actions, and being separated from their friends seems like a good one.
Another area of growth these developing beings should be forced to do is military service. Pretty much all of us on staff here started in the military and owe it for making us who we are today. It taught us that we aren’t always right, how to work as a team, or when, needed, as an individual. It also taught us problem solving, how to cope with stress, and that life has a motherfucking hierarchy and you should know your damn place.
A lot of people don’t know what an honest day’s work is, or what sweat equity is. People born in the 50’s and 60’s who worked blue collar jobs saw that if you have a degree you would make more money and by proxy you must be happier. So when they had children they told them go to school and make the big bucks. Now the scale has tipped the other way and things like trades are in demand because we need skilled labor. Mandatory military service could be “you owe us four years worth of time. You can either do it full time to get it done with fast, or if you want to attend school you will be in the reserves and work the weekends and summers to buy back your time until you complete your degree. Then you just need to work off the balance.” This would allow people to have a steady pay check to afford whatever basket-weaving college diploma or women’s studies degree they decide on. It would ensure we don’t a bunch of people with degrees and no money to pay the loans. By proxy they would also be forced to harden the fuck up and grow a pair.
I implore you to not just give in to a screaming child. Instead, teach them useful life skills like changing a tire, let them fail, take them away from the electronics, enroll them in Scouts. Actually raise your damn child and quit trying to force the rest of us to bend to your inadequacies as a disciplinarian. Life is tough and people need the tools in their personal tool box to deal with it. Otherwise we will end up making Idiocracy fortune telling documentary instead of a funny movie.
-Ryan
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About the Author: Ryan spent his youth blowing up trees 10km away in the Artillery reserves and now spends his time smashing metal into place on aircrafts. We’re not sure if he is a yeti in people clothes or just a weird cold loving Canadian.
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great article, but bad last photo of the guy wheel-cutting steel with no eye protection… he’s no pussy, but he is a dumbass…
Loved the article, and can relate. I am a father of four and my wife hates when I treat my kids they way I was raised. I am also a Platoon Sergeant in th 82nd Airborne. I have seen this affecting are training. From jumping to PT at some point we just have to man up.
Suck it up, buttercup.
I agree with many aspects of this as we are too easy on our kids at times as we have a generation of entitled people who all feel they deserve better and that someone else is holding them back. We have become a generation that blames others for our failures and are not willing to take responsibility for their own actions. I went in the military and then to college and expect no one to give me anything nor do I blame anyone for MY failures. Hell the man who a percentage voted in as the next president teaches nothing to our kids except how to lie to get what you want and blame others for what you may not have and grope women. We teach our daughter that she is responsible for how her life goes and if she is not making the amount of money she wants then go back to school and learn something new. She needs to adapt to the situation and no amount of complaining or blaming others is going to change that. We have lost the positive aspects of what the United Sates was and are now heading down a road that will doom us surely. We have lost the ability to think critically.
Pussification of America? Hell look who the president elect is and as he none of the values my grandparents had as they were hard working, tolerant people.
In regards to the switch user, yea that is a great idea big man! Hit a kid with a stick to teach a lesson because our parents did it to us so it must be a sound idea. You understand that delaying punishment is not the best idea as these things need to be addressed quickly and they must understand why their actions are wrong. Yea when you make a mistake let me send you out back to get a stick and I will “learn You Mister” and see how much you like it as I am sure I am more than capable to take care of punishing you. lol Serious what kind of man hits a child.. fuck……. ooops wait the wife popped of she needs it as well… Ha big man… lol lol
The only thing I disagree with here is “the trades”.
That’s highly dependent on the trade you choose. I worked as a TIG stainless/hastelloy welder for a few years and the truth is you ain’t gonna get paid shit for that job right now unless you’re doing boilers and you’re not gonna get that job without 10 years experience no matter how many weld tests you pass. There are too many people out of work and everyone and their grandmother thinks they can weld or is at least willing to give it a shot.
A business will pay you rock bottom and cycle people through weld tests until they get someone who can do the work and is desperate enough to take whatever pay the company is offering. That’s what my company did and they were making $1 billion + in profit every single fiscal year.
Electricians on the other hand…
Also, Tierlieb: that’s a cutoff saw, not a grinder.
I agree with Tennessee and John L. Nothing more to say that they had not already said. I just add a quote ” to shield a man from folly is to fill the world with fools”
Pussification occurs when boys are raised by women who don’t understand men’s roles.
Corporal punishment isn’t going to teach a child anything if the lesson behind it is simply, “do what you’re told.”
I agree that helicopter parents aren’t doing their children any favors by protecting them from learning through failure.
I just don’t agree with the notion that a parent should resort to physical violence when a child is simply acting up. If you can’t teach your kid to listen and understand with simple reasoning and understanding, then perhaps you shouldn’t be having kids in the first place.
Love the whiny ones in the pic: college senior, $40k in debt, can’t spell “field”.
The author is OK with spanking, but doesn’t advocate using a switch? Bullshit. In the South, a spanking often is accomplished by means of a switch. Hell, it’s even organic & locally sourced! If the kid has to go fetch a switch themselves, even better; that makes them learn things, too. Go get a tiny 6″ twig, you’ll get sent back to choose again until you select one that satisfies the parent. Good practice for dealing with DIs.
I do agree with never punishing a child while angry. No matter how mad they may make you, turn it off, delay punishment, or delegate the duty to the other parent.
Mandatory military service is a terrible idea. We had numerous shitbags in the Army while I was in (2008-2015, still on IRR), and they volunteered. Throw in that we only have so much in the DoD budget for training, and the problems of expanding Basic Training to accept about a million recruits every year (excluding those who are too fat, too stupid, or too criminal to go), and it’s just not feasible. Even breaking it up proportionally between the forces, you’re looking at at least another hundred thousand recruits or so per force per year.
Would we stand up four line brigades per division? Plus another division or two? Where are those divisions going to go? Who will lead them? Do we want to promote a bunch of salty idiot kids just because they checked off enough boxes? Are all the BOLC courses going to accept every viable college graduate in the country? Can all the AIT and OSUT schools handle that many more people? There are too damned many variables for mandatory military service to work.
Mandatory *government* service is a better option. City, County, State, Federal, and Military service. Give them options to choose from. I bet the IRS could use a few thousand extra people to help with paperwork. Same for all the other government agencies at all those levels that need help with all the random bullshit tasks that are needed for them to keep functioning. How nice would it be if every government agency in the country had a few extra people to help with customer service?
Seems no one wacked the guy working the grinder over the head when he forgot his eye pro. Kids these days.
Cheers,
T
*allowed to ramble because he recently started wearing stretch jeans, a sure sign that he deserves a rocking chain on the front porch*
Amen Brother!
Yawn. Tell me how tough it was in the good old days, Grandpa.
in the article “Pussifican of Man”
You hit the 10 ring in this article,
Well done…
I hate whipping a dead horse… But whenever I reread “starship troopers”
The passage that refers to corporal punishment sticks out in my mind & how it would make individuals responsible for their actions…
There are a great many life lessons in “Starship Troopers” that we would do well to emulate. Service to the republic is the principal that is missing from our society, and one that is dearly needed. Mandatory service, for every American- regardless of sex, race or religious affiliation- is what the country needs. This does NOT mean that military service is for everyone. How much would a strictly U.S. citizen filled version of the Peace Corp be able to do for everyday life? Citizenship through service is a principle that dates back to Socrates, and is the basis for the movie. If people have themselves invested in the country- in this case through blood, sweat, and tears- they actually care what happens!! Not to mention driving down the cost of every government program! I’ve been saying for the last eight years- if you want free health care, do what I did. Join the military. I’m eternally grateful to the United States Army for giving me a strong foundation in life. For allowing me to be part of something bigger than myself. My wife and I butted heads constantly the first few years of or marriage, trying to come to an understanding concerning disciplining our son. She fell far to the left, whereas I was more of a traditionalist. After seeing how her way wasn’t working when I was gone, and my son’s behavior improved dramatically when I was home, she changed her tune. Now she regrets ever falling under the sway of the “liberal” element in this country, and wishes she’d been harder on him. He’s 17 now, and thank God he’s had enough tough love to turn out all right. I’m not advocating for abuse, I’m saying that if you love your child you won’t voluntarily surrender ANY (moral and ethical) tools in your kit. Hopefully it’s not too late to make it right.