While I hate to give more attention to these despicable and maniacal criminals, there is an important pattern to take note of here. And no it is not the commonality of the weapon at hand, for the hundredth time our country has had lawful ownership of semi-automatic weapons for over a hundred years now.
Gun control is not the solution, the solution is indicating the root behind the recent trajectory of individuals in their early twenties hating themselves enough to commit such atrocities in the first place.
It’s difficult to fathom that there have been over 300 mass shootings this year alone. And whether we are discussing the brutal supermarket shooting in Buffalo, NY on May 14, the school shooting only ten days later in Uvalde, TX or the more recent nightmare at a parade in Highland Parks during July 4th only four days ago -
all of these shooters share a set of core values.
They are all alienated young men on heavy psychotropic substances who have a toxic relationship with their father.
Every single one of these men did not experience a traditional rite of passage in any sense of the word, they never had the opportunity towards understanding their masculinity. And to paraphrase Aristotle, one of the great sources of societal turmoil comes from un-channelled male aggression. Masculine aggression is a double edged sword that takes shape as bitter resentment or benevolent provider, it is to be utilized however is tragically impossible to yield without a credible mentor.
Because boys our born, but men are built.
Look at the faces below, low value women would never give an ounce of breathe towards them, rightfully so.
These are the faces of men who have never participated in a combat sport let alone stepped inside a gym. These are the faces of involuntary celibates that never had a positive example of how a man is suppose to channel their testosterone towards hard work and discipline. These are the faces of men who have been mollycoddled their entire lives by the household matriarch they still call “mommy”, no father to instill the basic teenage boy mantra of goals over girls.
We all agree that bullying is disgusting.
But ultimately watch out for the losers - they are the dangerous ones.
As Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote in Esquire on November 1, 1958 - what we have here is The Crisis of American Masculinity. Even as far back as three generations we reveal the vilification of men embracing their maleness as more of a problem than a natural right. While they do not use disparaging terminology we hear today like “toxic masculinity” or the patriarchy, the language of the article exhibits a generation of men who feel self conscious about their own conception of masculinity.
And in 2022 as we accelerate the radical gender bending trans craze in government schools, the glorifying of pornographic actresses on major podcasts across the country and the worshipping of extremely decadent musical artists that repeatedly preach against familial values upheld by the responsibilities in traditional fatherhood. No one should have been surprised by the phenomena of the 45th President six years ago - actually it was never about illegal immigration, draining the swamp or the death of mainstream media. Those were all critical monuments constructed on the ground of his primary appeal - an unapologetically masculine leader in a climate that is starving for manliness.
Once again I am not offering an iota of sympathy, I’m simply diagnosing what is very transparent to me. It’s no coincidence that Robert Crimo is a failed rapper that went under the alias Awake the Rapper. I’ve stated on stages across the country a dozen times that the very phenomena of Hip-Hop’s appeal is rooted in the egregious single motherhood rate especially in the black community, the freedom to be hyper-masculine in the absence of a balanced example at home is the allure young men have to the thick gold chains, prostitutes and face tattoos.
Competitive video games, Donald Trump and gangster rap all share the desire to swing the pendulum as far as possible in the other direction in a culture that penalizes any semblance of masculinity is the public square.
The bottom line here is that we need loving fathers, they are the bedrock of Western civilization.
So for the love of all things Good and Holy, I pray that you fathers stay in your children’s live’s as a positive influence because these words are more than my personal stance as a romanticist. You are literally saving the lives of others by raising healthy and masculine men who can conscientiously stand up for what’s right in this world.
This is the solution to mass shootings.
Anything shoved underground festers, and these repetitive shooting are some of the most repulsive manifestations we’ve unconsciously conjured by forcing the animus into the shadows of civil society.
Your masculinity is not meant to be hidden, its not mansplaining or to use a NYC slang I’ve been publicly shamed on the subway for - “manspreading”.
It is self mastery and the overcoming of adversity, it is catharsis and it is liberation.
Get yourself armed, be an example, be masculine.
Arthur Kwon Lee
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