Public schools have lead the way in raising boys to be hollow men. When I was in elementary school, we played dodgeball, baseball, football and a few different varieties of smear the Q**er. We also played a lot of tag. Boys were not suspended for fighting. After a fight, we were taken to the office to cool off then shake hands. Then there was a discussion of better ways to solve the problem. If one was obviously the instigator, that person got a week of lunch time clean-up.
When my son was in 1st grade, I got a call saying I had to come to the school because he had been playing a violent game. I get there and find out he and his friends were playing freeze tag. It was the same school I attended back in the day. I proceeded to tell the principal of all the games I played with my friends and where on the playground we played them. Of course they have taken away the two baseball diamonds, the handball wall, the dodgeball circles, and the playground equipment. I told her that boys will find something to do to run off their energy. Stop that and they will be restless in class and that is when they cause the teacher issues.
The principal was not impressed. I told my son that the teachers and principal just wanted them to not do any of the fun things. I and a few other parents got together and a couple of times a week we took a group of boys to the local park to play tag or whatever other physical game they wanted. Yep, they fell, got bruised, scraped, and everything else and they laughed about it. Fortunately, the mothers had no problems letting their boys be boys. I and another dad would always join in.
The principal was not happy that we were doing this, but hey, the parents were the ones supervising and it was not on school grounds.
When I was in high school, I ran cross-country. I live in the Central Valley of CA and the summer temperatures get above 100 and occasionally above 110. We ran no matter how hot it was. I remember one day when it was 114 when we went on a 7 mile run. We were all acclimated to the heat and did not have any problems. When we got thirsty, we drank out of a hose at the house we happened to be in front of. We sprayed each other with water and took off again. Schools were not air conditioned and we survived.
Today, if the temperature gets above 92, all practices and games are suspended or delayed until the temps drop below 92.
To this day, I still work outside in the summer. I drink lots of water and hose off now and again. My wife and I still visit the desert in spring or later and have taken hikes when temps are 100 or above. We bring extra water. We are in our 60s and have no problem taking off on a 10 mile hike when it is hot. They younger people will not venture out, they are in air conditioning playing on their cell phones complaining how the heat has ruined their vacation.
We raised our son to be a man. I told him many times hard work never killed anyone. Yep, he had to help me. I told him it was practice for the day he would be a dad.
In graduate school he met a woman. She was tired of dating the soy boys. After a few dates she told my son that he was different. He treated her the way we raised him to treat women. They eventually married and had their first child last week. My son has told me more than once that I prepared him to be a husband and dad. It is not easy, but it is very worthwhile.
He works for the USDA as a meat inspector and he loves that it is a physically demanding job. He could not sit in an air conditioned office all day.
Compare that to my 5 nephews. My brother and sister raised soy boys. Only two are working and they have no desire to better themselves. They are still working entry level jobs after going to college and earning degrees in the feel good majors that do not lead to any sort of career. One is married, but they are not going to have children (my sister is devastated). My sister's other son lives at home at the age of 40. He works in a movie theater part time and plays video games the rest of the time.
The other three nephews just have no desire to do anything other than video games. They have not even learned to drive. Driving is too scary.
I cannot believe we were raised in the same family.
My current students show a continuing downward trend for boys. The most popular sport is E-games (fancy name for video games). I give out a consequence for something, and they run out of the room. They call their mothers who then come on down to the school and want to meet with me now. How dare I tell her precious son to put away his cell phone or to not user inappropriate language in school. Back in the day, if I was reprimanded, I certainly did not want to tell my parents because they would give me even worse consequences that I got at school.
One of my chores growing up was mowing the lawn. The outside temperature did not matter. I have a slight allergy to grass a that did not matter. My mother was an RN and an asthmatic. A runny nose, watery eyes, and sneezing was nothing. I could always take an allergy pill. To this day I still mow the lawn. I know have asthma but I bring my inhaler with me and use it once or twice. I am healthier because I still get things done that have to be done in spite of how I feel.
Last spring, we were visiting our son and his wife in Montana. The teen on the end of their block was supposed to have mowed the lawn when his parents were working. He failed to do it 3 days in a row, video games were more important. Saturday morning, his parents woke him early and kicked him outside until he mowed the lawn. He sat on the sidewalk moaning about how unfair his parents are. I walked by and ys engaged him in conversation. I finally told him what my mom always told me, I could waste my time complaining and moaning about it but I still have to do the job. Or I could get right on it and then do something I want to do afterwards. It saves a lot of time. By the time I was a teen, I got my chores done early because I had other things to do. I always had a job. I had a girlfriend and a car to take care of. If it needed repairs, I bought the parts and did it myself. I wanted money so I could take my girlfriend out. The girl I dated when I was 16 became my wife and we have been married for 41 years now. She was drawn to my working and making a better life for us. She told me years later that she was looking for a man to marry that would take care of her and be a provider when the children came. She has worked during our marriage but she wanted me to step up so she could care for our son the first couple of years. She always appreciated that I put our son and her ahead of me. Well, I am a Christian and that is what God has called me to do. I have never regretted one moment. I also provided a good example for our son and now he tells me he hopes he can live up to what I did.
My wife told her brother about what women are looking for just after his girlfriend dumped him and started dating another man whom she married 6 months later.
His mother has always protected him. His father did his best to get his son to get a job and get out of the house. His wife always sabotaged his efforts. He is now 58, living at home without a job, and spends his days on social media complaining about how the right wingers have ruined his life. He believes he is entitled to government aid and free healthcare. He cannot get either because he has never worked and his mother is paying for everything. My father-in-law passed away a few years ago and in his will told his son he got nothing because he has done nothing his entire life. His share went to his only grandson because he is making a life for himself. That was not taken well. He and his mother think this was so wrong.
Now that she is almost 90, she is tired of supporting her son and has complained to us. We told her she made him what he is today so deal with it. She still hands him money so he can buy the latest tech gear or go camping with his friends.
My son's FIL thinks he is fantastic for his daughter. Two of his other daughters have married boys that still do not have jobs and play video games. These two daughters married because they loved him and are willing to work full time to take care of him. That is not going to last very long.
That shows the problem, women need to stop dating Hollow men. They need to raise their expectations like most women when I was dating. That won't happen with the current form of feminism that push for men to be nothing more than sperm donors if they decide they want a baby.
I needed to read this on this fine Saturday morning as I sit at the computer doing business work at at age 65. Thank you.
I am currently in a FB conversation with my 32 year old nephew... a super smart young man who is a vegan in the image of Jesus who is one of these hollow men... although on the cusp of breaking free as he is using the GI bill (yes, he spent 4 years in the Air Force, and even though he hated it, he did it) to achieve a Masters in some psychotherapy discipline... he is still struggling to understand... to see the light... to get it. No doubt his college education experience is making a strong current against these things.
My diagnosis of all this, other than the big picture related to that "hard times creates strong men that create good times; and good times create weak men that create hard times" principle... is that the primary missing component is work.
Come on man, the public schools have been a Karen matriarchy for centuries. Boys are harmed by it except for sports and playground time. They generally don't recover until they launch to the working world. It is there they learn how to break free from the mom's breast and become a man.
We fucked that up in five massive ways.
1. We chased globalism for the benefit of Wall Street and exported industry and manufacturing to other countries for the cheaper labor, and we drove down the supply of remaining jobs and wages, especially in the trades, with massive immigration.
2. We pushed the lie of college education and white-collar paper-pushing jobs as being higher status and cooler.
3. We flooded the job market with over-educated females that created even MORE competition for college acceptance and the remaining jobs.
4. We implemented hate crime laws... and they have been used as a weapon to punch down males even more (you cannot even banter among males without being thrown in PC jail.)
5. Title-IX.... the only outlet boys have to get out from under the Karen matriarchy at the public schools... sports... that too taken away from them, so females get even more of the pie.
And lastly all of this has ended up putting mothers as the heads of household and it has cut out the father's tough love component and thus made us a bunch of little girly-men that don't know how a real man should behave. It has also impacted the girl child not understanding real gender relationships as her mother is some evolutionary-incorrect version of female that she models.
We are blowing it because we have allowed all these things to take place, and even today half of the county, including many of these young men, are fighting against the very movement to correct it. That is what I am trying to do with my nephew. He rails against the wrong "man". He is in fact programmed by his campus experience and his media feeds to support the very master responsible for his misery, and to violently oppose that which has his best interests in mind.
Looking at this as a problem that needs a solution, it is clear that the seeds of evil that need to be eliminated is the corruption in the education industry and the media. Without fixing that, we are doomed to a looming massive explosion in violence from these hollow men.
Frank, I have had a similar experience with my nephew and some other close family friends' sons. It's a bit puzzling to see their responses to my discussion because they just don't get why they should want to "waste" their time, effort and money into pursuing both a relationship with Christ, or women to start a family. They don't see a relationship with Jesus as critical, rather it's too out of date and/or restrictive. They find dating to be exasperating and frustrating and just plain not worth it. It's a low-T world amongst young guys I believe, and it's not like I felt I had a choice- back in the day-, because I was biologically driven. Having a girlfriend was number one most of the time; I couldn't ignore the need even if I wanted to(!). I think all the things you've listed are true and major factors in these modern problems, and I don't know what the result will be except a collapse as these hollow men just plain fail to "answer the call," (unless it's a Call of Duty 'X' video game...)
I have copied the Presbyterian Catechism's questions 146 through 148 which deal with the 10th Commandment.
I was forced as a child to memorize the entire Catechsim. My name appeared in The Christian Observer" newspaper as a Catechsim child.
Today, it's possible I could call 911, turn my parents in and put them in jail for such mistreatment.
But I'm glad I learned the Catechism. They call the Catechism "The Grand Summary of Bible Knowledge" and I think it is better than the Bible.
Lest anyone think I am some kind of fanatic, hectoring Christian, I assure you that I - who wobbles between mild agnosticism and mild faith - am not.
I'm just posting the questions and answers below to show how wildly modern Christianity is at variance with what the Church used to teach.
If someone quoted these materials today in a Presbyterian Church (which I now describe as "a socially upscale cell of the Communist Party), he would be at risk of severe bodily injury from the socialist fanatics who now run that Church.
READ THE TRUE TEACHING BELOW:
Q. 146. Which is the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.
Q. 147. What are the duties required in the tenth commandment?
A. The duties required in the tenth commandment are, such a full contentment with our own condition, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our neighbor, as that all our inward motions and affections touching him, tend unto, and further all that good which is his.
Q. 148. What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment are, discontentment with our own estate; envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor, together with all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.
I yield to no one in my poor opinion of the typical modern American and especially the self-identified "liberal" American.
Mr. Hawkins puts his finger on an important point:
A major factor in the unhappiness that motivates many of our political, cultural and racial opponents is ENVY. They RESENT those who are better than they are.
The 10th Commandment says "Thou shallt not covet."
But covetting (envy) is the SOP in today's world...and this is especially true of the contemporary Churches. The Churches of virtually all denominations nowadays are in the business of stirring up resentment, envy and covetousness.
I used to say that I have spent much of my life being dragged into Churches where I have heard a standard sermon fare about racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, lookism, etc. But, I used to point out, "I have never heard a sermon on the 10th Commandment."
Several years ago I went to a church with relatives in S.C. To my irritation what did the clergyman preach on?
Damn it! The 10th Commandment!
That bastard of a clergyman RUINED one of my favorite talking points and I told him so, when the congregation left the church and I spoke with the minister. Because of his damned sermon I can no longer say that I have been to church services thousands of times and never heard a sermon on the 10th Commandment.
Now I've heard one. ONE!
I was blessed in life with my fabulous Grandmother. I only knew one of my grandparents because the others had died when I - the youngest grandchild by far on either side of my family - was born.
But Grandmother pulled the weight of 4. She was wise, firm, stern but loving and she also was learned and wise.
When I would gripe about some other kid out of envy, Grandmother would remind me of the lesson of the Tenth Commandment and tell me that if I spent my life envying some other guy because he was smarter than me, taller than me, better looking than me, a better athlete than me, etc., I would have a miserable life because there always would be other people superior to me in some way or the other.
And, lest we forget, we should always recognize that while superior people suffer real consequences from the resentment of their inferiors, the people most badly impacted by violating the Tenth Commandment are the ones who do the envying.
They make themselves guests at The Pity Party. They ruin their lives (and befoul our society at large) by filling themselves with resentment, unhappiness and powerlessness.
Signing up for the Pity Party is guaranteed to make for a miserable life but the majority of modern Americans do so.
I hear constant complaints. "My daddy didn't come to watch my soccer games when I was in high school and this ruined my life." "I can't succeed because my great, great, great, great, great grandparents were enslaved persons." On and on and on. (The first of these statements was literally told me by a friend in his 60s who owned a house in the richest neighborhood in my city, was married to a beautiful woman and owned a successstul business. He never spoke to me again when I, hoping to help him, told him that this idea was so rediculous that he should not tell other people about it because they would laugh at him.)
BUT:
Mr. Hawkins is not infallible. And he does make some mistakes here.
He describes people as "hollow men" and explains that they are listless, lack energy and so on.
Maybe this is true in some cases but it is contrary to one observation that is striking and is in urgent need of diagnosis.
Liberals are blessed (or cursed) with an abnormal energy level. They are not listless. They do not lack energy.
The weekly paper in my city features several pages of "happenings" (group meanings) at the back of the paper.
There are about 3 pages of such meetings most of which seem to be liberal advocacy groups:
"Gays Against Racism."
"Feminists Against Trump."
"Vegans for War with Russia."
There must be hundreds of such organizations.
About the only "consersvative" organization mentioned will be the City of Atlanta Young Republican Club." But thie paper's slender pickings on conservative groups is not due to liberal bias. It's due to the fact that self-identified "conservatives" are comatose. They are inactive, lazy, tired, couch potatoes and so on.
Now I am not a "conservative." I am a liberal on more of the litmus test issues than I am a "consersvative."
So, I'm not saying these things out of conservative grouchiness. I'm saying them because they are facts staring you right in the face.
Liberals are NOT hollow men if by that we mean people who are listless and inactive.
I agree that envy is one of the seven deadly sins for a reason. It really will ruin you as a person.
Second, I would 100% agree with you that liberals are far from listless, but a lot of the 2nd half of the column covered that. Because although they aren't lazy, what skill does it take to hold a sign at a protest or yell at someone or stand around all day getting pictures of yourself at a protest? The people who do those things are mediocrities by definitions because people with real dreams, goals and work ethics don't have time to wander around Portland looking for trouble.
It reminds me of one of my favorite moments from the Occupy protests. A bunch of left-wing hollow men were standing protesting outside of the Chicago Board of Trade and they dumped McDonald's applications on them. It was meant to be mocking, but I always thought of it as, "You think we have it easy? You think we get paid too much? Then stop wasting your time with these protests, start working your way up the ladder and become one of us."
Last but not least, because of the way I wrote the article, I probably gave people that these "Hollow men" were only male and leftists, but I think there are plenty of women that fit this definition and also there are people on the Right cut from the same cloth. A lot of them are Groypers or railing about Jews, because it's easier than doing something with their life.
There is a lot of truth to this and all the important parts are there but I think the final diagnosis is slightly off.
What we have isn't so much "men without chests", what we have is more like delusions of granduer.
Decades of self esteem education has failed us. Spectacularly. We have instilled narcissism at a civilizational scale.
Everyone thinks they are Elon Musk. And because they are the smartest and hardest working person to grace the Earth, society's failure to recognize that is a failure in society. Certainly not themselves. "Capitalism has failed". THEY certainly haven't failed, capitalism has.
Most of the time they haven't even failed. They're doing quite well and just feel like, as the greatest human of all time, they should surely have more money/power/fame.
Dating and relationships too. How many marriages have been destroyed by narcissistic ego? How many divorces by people convinced they can do better? How many marriages never formed because every 5 or 6 thinks they are a 10 and can do better? "These are my minimums" they say without regard to fact that (depending on their minimum) less than 5% of the population meets them.
Everyone has main character syndrome and there is very little gratitude.
Delighted to have just discovered your work. FWIW I have written a novel that might as well be subtitled, 'The Hollow Men versus the Free World', and thought you might be interested. It's thinly disguised as a fast, easy-to-read thriller and is aimed primarily at young-ish males, as they are the key demographic we need to win over for the fight that is to come.
Public schools have lead the way in raising boys to be hollow men. When I was in elementary school, we played dodgeball, baseball, football and a few different varieties of smear the Q**er. We also played a lot of tag. Boys were not suspended for fighting. After a fight, we were taken to the office to cool off then shake hands. Then there was a discussion of better ways to solve the problem. If one was obviously the instigator, that person got a week of lunch time clean-up.
When my son was in 1st grade, I got a call saying I had to come to the school because he had been playing a violent game. I get there and find out he and his friends were playing freeze tag. It was the same school I attended back in the day. I proceeded to tell the principal of all the games I played with my friends and where on the playground we played them. Of course they have taken away the two baseball diamonds, the handball wall, the dodgeball circles, and the playground equipment. I told her that boys will find something to do to run off their energy. Stop that and they will be restless in class and that is when they cause the teacher issues.
The principal was not impressed. I told my son that the teachers and principal just wanted them to not do any of the fun things. I and a few other parents got together and a couple of times a week we took a group of boys to the local park to play tag or whatever other physical game they wanted. Yep, they fell, got bruised, scraped, and everything else and they laughed about it. Fortunately, the mothers had no problems letting their boys be boys. I and another dad would always join in.
The principal was not happy that we were doing this, but hey, the parents were the ones supervising and it was not on school grounds.
When I was in high school, I ran cross-country. I live in the Central Valley of CA and the summer temperatures get above 100 and occasionally above 110. We ran no matter how hot it was. I remember one day when it was 114 when we went on a 7 mile run. We were all acclimated to the heat and did not have any problems. When we got thirsty, we drank out of a hose at the house we happened to be in front of. We sprayed each other with water and took off again. Schools were not air conditioned and we survived.
Today, if the temperature gets above 92, all practices and games are suspended or delayed until the temps drop below 92.
To this day, I still work outside in the summer. I drink lots of water and hose off now and again. My wife and I still visit the desert in spring or later and have taken hikes when temps are 100 or above. We bring extra water. We are in our 60s and have no problem taking off on a 10 mile hike when it is hot. They younger people will not venture out, they are in air conditioning playing on their cell phones complaining how the heat has ruined their vacation.
We raised our son to be a man. I told him many times hard work never killed anyone. Yep, he had to help me. I told him it was practice for the day he would be a dad.
In graduate school he met a woman. She was tired of dating the soy boys. After a few dates she told my son that he was different. He treated her the way we raised him to treat women. They eventually married and had their first child last week. My son has told me more than once that I prepared him to be a husband and dad. It is not easy, but it is very worthwhile.
He works for the USDA as a meat inspector and he loves that it is a physically demanding job. He could not sit in an air conditioned office all day.
Compare that to my 5 nephews. My brother and sister raised soy boys. Only two are working and they have no desire to better themselves. They are still working entry level jobs after going to college and earning degrees in the feel good majors that do not lead to any sort of career. One is married, but they are not going to have children (my sister is devastated). My sister's other son lives at home at the age of 40. He works in a movie theater part time and plays video games the rest of the time.
The other three nephews just have no desire to do anything other than video games. They have not even learned to drive. Driving is too scary.
I cannot believe we were raised in the same family.
My current students show a continuing downward trend for boys. The most popular sport is E-games (fancy name for video games). I give out a consequence for something, and they run out of the room. They call their mothers who then come on down to the school and want to meet with me now. How dare I tell her precious son to put away his cell phone or to not user inappropriate language in school. Back in the day, if I was reprimanded, I certainly did not want to tell my parents because they would give me even worse consequences that I got at school.
One of my chores growing up was mowing the lawn. The outside temperature did not matter. I have a slight allergy to grass a that did not matter. My mother was an RN and an asthmatic. A runny nose, watery eyes, and sneezing was nothing. I could always take an allergy pill. To this day I still mow the lawn. I know have asthma but I bring my inhaler with me and use it once or twice. I am healthier because I still get things done that have to be done in spite of how I feel.
Last spring, we were visiting our son and his wife in Montana. The teen on the end of their block was supposed to have mowed the lawn when his parents were working. He failed to do it 3 days in a row, video games were more important. Saturday morning, his parents woke him early and kicked him outside until he mowed the lawn. He sat on the sidewalk moaning about how unfair his parents are. I walked by and ys engaged him in conversation. I finally told him what my mom always told me, I could waste my time complaining and moaning about it but I still have to do the job. Or I could get right on it and then do something I want to do afterwards. It saves a lot of time. By the time I was a teen, I got my chores done early because I had other things to do. I always had a job. I had a girlfriend and a car to take care of. If it needed repairs, I bought the parts and did it myself. I wanted money so I could take my girlfriend out. The girl I dated when I was 16 became my wife and we have been married for 41 years now. She was drawn to my working and making a better life for us. She told me years later that she was looking for a man to marry that would take care of her and be a provider when the children came. She has worked during our marriage but she wanted me to step up so she could care for our son the first couple of years. She always appreciated that I put our son and her ahead of me. Well, I am a Christian and that is what God has called me to do. I have never regretted one moment. I also provided a good example for our son and now he tells me he hopes he can live up to what I did.
My wife told her brother about what women are looking for just after his girlfriend dumped him and started dating another man whom she married 6 months later.
His mother has always protected him. His father did his best to get his son to get a job and get out of the house. His wife always sabotaged his efforts. He is now 58, living at home without a job, and spends his days on social media complaining about how the right wingers have ruined his life. He believes he is entitled to government aid and free healthcare. He cannot get either because he has never worked and his mother is paying for everything. My father-in-law passed away a few years ago and in his will told his son he got nothing because he has done nothing his entire life. His share went to his only grandson because he is making a life for himself. That was not taken well. He and his mother think this was so wrong.
Now that she is almost 90, she is tired of supporting her son and has complained to us. We told her she made him what he is today so deal with it. She still hands him money so he can buy the latest tech gear or go camping with his friends.
My son's FIL thinks he is fantastic for his daughter. Two of his other daughters have married boys that still do not have jobs and play video games. These two daughters married because they loved him and are willing to work full time to take care of him. That is not going to last very long.
That shows the problem, women need to stop dating Hollow men. They need to raise their expectations like most women when I was dating. That won't happen with the current form of feminism that push for men to be nothing more than sperm donors if they decide they want a baby.
I needed to read this on this fine Saturday morning as I sit at the computer doing business work at at age 65. Thank you.
I am currently in a FB conversation with my 32 year old nephew... a super smart young man who is a vegan in the image of Jesus who is one of these hollow men... although on the cusp of breaking free as he is using the GI bill (yes, he spent 4 years in the Air Force, and even though he hated it, he did it) to achieve a Masters in some psychotherapy discipline... he is still struggling to understand... to see the light... to get it. No doubt his college education experience is making a strong current against these things.
My diagnosis of all this, other than the big picture related to that "hard times creates strong men that create good times; and good times create weak men that create hard times" principle... is that the primary missing component is work.
Come on man, the public schools have been a Karen matriarchy for centuries. Boys are harmed by it except for sports and playground time. They generally don't recover until they launch to the working world. It is there they learn how to break free from the mom's breast and become a man.
We fucked that up in five massive ways.
1. We chased globalism for the benefit of Wall Street and exported industry and manufacturing to other countries for the cheaper labor, and we drove down the supply of remaining jobs and wages, especially in the trades, with massive immigration.
2. We pushed the lie of college education and white-collar paper-pushing jobs as being higher status and cooler.
3. We flooded the job market with over-educated females that created even MORE competition for college acceptance and the remaining jobs.
4. We implemented hate crime laws... and they have been used as a weapon to punch down males even more (you cannot even banter among males without being thrown in PC jail.)
5. Title-IX.... the only outlet boys have to get out from under the Karen matriarchy at the public schools... sports... that too taken away from them, so females get even more of the pie.
And lastly all of this has ended up putting mothers as the heads of household and it has cut out the father's tough love component and thus made us a bunch of little girly-men that don't know how a real man should behave. It has also impacted the girl child not understanding real gender relationships as her mother is some evolutionary-incorrect version of female that she models.
We are blowing it because we have allowed all these things to take place, and even today half of the county, including many of these young men, are fighting against the very movement to correct it. That is what I am trying to do with my nephew. He rails against the wrong "man". He is in fact programmed by his campus experience and his media feeds to support the very master responsible for his misery, and to violently oppose that which has his best interests in mind.
Looking at this as a problem that needs a solution, it is clear that the seeds of evil that need to be eliminated is the corruption in the education industry and the media. Without fixing that, we are doomed to a looming massive explosion in violence from these hollow men.
Frank, I have had a similar experience with my nephew and some other close family friends' sons. It's a bit puzzling to see their responses to my discussion because they just don't get why they should want to "waste" their time, effort and money into pursuing both a relationship with Christ, or women to start a family. They don't see a relationship with Jesus as critical, rather it's too out of date and/or restrictive. They find dating to be exasperating and frustrating and just plain not worth it. It's a low-T world amongst young guys I believe, and it's not like I felt I had a choice- back in the day-, because I was biologically driven. Having a girlfriend was number one most of the time; I couldn't ignore the need even if I wanted to(!). I think all the things you've listed are true and major factors in these modern problems, and I don't know what the result will be except a collapse as these hollow men just plain fail to "answer the call," (unless it's a Call of Duty 'X' video game...)
I have copied the Presbyterian Catechism's questions 146 through 148 which deal with the 10th Commandment.
I was forced as a child to memorize the entire Catechsim. My name appeared in The Christian Observer" newspaper as a Catechsim child.
Today, it's possible I could call 911, turn my parents in and put them in jail for such mistreatment.
But I'm glad I learned the Catechism. They call the Catechism "The Grand Summary of Bible Knowledge" and I think it is better than the Bible.
Lest anyone think I am some kind of fanatic, hectoring Christian, I assure you that I - who wobbles between mild agnosticism and mild faith - am not.
I'm just posting the questions and answers below to show how wildly modern Christianity is at variance with what the Church used to teach.
If someone quoted these materials today in a Presbyterian Church (which I now describe as "a socially upscale cell of the Communist Party), he would be at risk of severe bodily injury from the socialist fanatics who now run that Church.
READ THE TRUE TEACHING BELOW:
Q. 146. Which is the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.
Q. 147. What are the duties required in the tenth commandment?
A. The duties required in the tenth commandment are, such a full contentment with our own condition, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our neighbor, as that all our inward motions and affections touching him, tend unto, and further all that good which is his.
Q. 148. What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment are, discontentment with our own estate; envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor, together with all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.
I yield to no one in my poor opinion of the typical modern American and especially the self-identified "liberal" American.
Mr. Hawkins puts his finger on an important point:
A major factor in the unhappiness that motivates many of our political, cultural and racial opponents is ENVY. They RESENT those who are better than they are.
The 10th Commandment says "Thou shallt not covet."
But covetting (envy) is the SOP in today's world...and this is especially true of the contemporary Churches. The Churches of virtually all denominations nowadays are in the business of stirring up resentment, envy and covetousness.
I used to say that I have spent much of my life being dragged into Churches where I have heard a standard sermon fare about racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, lookism, etc. But, I used to point out, "I have never heard a sermon on the 10th Commandment."
Several years ago I went to a church with relatives in S.C. To my irritation what did the clergyman preach on?
Damn it! The 10th Commandment!
That bastard of a clergyman RUINED one of my favorite talking points and I told him so, when the congregation left the church and I spoke with the minister. Because of his damned sermon I can no longer say that I have been to church services thousands of times and never heard a sermon on the 10th Commandment.
Now I've heard one. ONE!
I was blessed in life with my fabulous Grandmother. I only knew one of my grandparents because the others had died when I - the youngest grandchild by far on either side of my family - was born.
But Grandmother pulled the weight of 4. She was wise, firm, stern but loving and she also was learned and wise.
When I would gripe about some other kid out of envy, Grandmother would remind me of the lesson of the Tenth Commandment and tell me that if I spent my life envying some other guy because he was smarter than me, taller than me, better looking than me, a better athlete than me, etc., I would have a miserable life because there always would be other people superior to me in some way or the other.
And, lest we forget, we should always recognize that while superior people suffer real consequences from the resentment of their inferiors, the people most badly impacted by violating the Tenth Commandment are the ones who do the envying.
They make themselves guests at The Pity Party. They ruin their lives (and befoul our society at large) by filling themselves with resentment, unhappiness and powerlessness.
Signing up for the Pity Party is guaranteed to make for a miserable life but the majority of modern Americans do so.
I hear constant complaints. "My daddy didn't come to watch my soccer games when I was in high school and this ruined my life." "I can't succeed because my great, great, great, great, great grandparents were enslaved persons." On and on and on. (The first of these statements was literally told me by a friend in his 60s who owned a house in the richest neighborhood in my city, was married to a beautiful woman and owned a successstul business. He never spoke to me again when I, hoping to help him, told him that this idea was so rediculous that he should not tell other people about it because they would laugh at him.)
BUT:
Mr. Hawkins is not infallible. And he does make some mistakes here.
He describes people as "hollow men" and explains that they are listless, lack energy and so on.
Maybe this is true in some cases but it is contrary to one observation that is striking and is in urgent need of diagnosis.
Liberals are blessed (or cursed) with an abnormal energy level. They are not listless. They do not lack energy.
The weekly paper in my city features several pages of "happenings" (group meanings) at the back of the paper.
There are about 3 pages of such meetings most of which seem to be liberal advocacy groups:
"Gays Against Racism."
"Feminists Against Trump."
"Vegans for War with Russia."
There must be hundreds of such organizations.
About the only "consersvative" organization mentioned will be the City of Atlanta Young Republican Club." But thie paper's slender pickings on conservative groups is not due to liberal bias. It's due to the fact that self-identified "conservatives" are comatose. They are inactive, lazy, tired, couch potatoes and so on.
Now I am not a "conservative." I am a liberal on more of the litmus test issues than I am a "consersvative."
So, I'm not saying these things out of conservative grouchiness. I'm saying them because they are facts staring you right in the face.
Liberals are NOT hollow men if by that we mean people who are listless and inactive.
Liberals are MANICS.
Three things.
I agree that envy is one of the seven deadly sins for a reason. It really will ruin you as a person.
Second, I would 100% agree with you that liberals are far from listless, but a lot of the 2nd half of the column covered that. Because although they aren't lazy, what skill does it take to hold a sign at a protest or yell at someone or stand around all day getting pictures of yourself at a protest? The people who do those things are mediocrities by definitions because people with real dreams, goals and work ethics don't have time to wander around Portland looking for trouble.
It reminds me of one of my favorite moments from the Occupy protests. A bunch of left-wing hollow men were standing protesting outside of the Chicago Board of Trade and they dumped McDonald's applications on them. It was meant to be mocking, but I always thought of it as, "You think we have it easy? You think we get paid too much? Then stop wasting your time with these protests, start working your way up the ladder and become one of us."
Last but not least, because of the way I wrote the article, I probably gave people that these "Hollow men" were only male and leftists, but I think there are plenty of women that fit this definition and also there are people on the Right cut from the same cloth. A lot of them are Groypers or railing about Jews, because it's easier than doing something with their life.
There is a lot of truth to this and all the important parts are there but I think the final diagnosis is slightly off.
What we have isn't so much "men without chests", what we have is more like delusions of granduer.
Decades of self esteem education has failed us. Spectacularly. We have instilled narcissism at a civilizational scale.
Everyone thinks they are Elon Musk. And because they are the smartest and hardest working person to grace the Earth, society's failure to recognize that is a failure in society. Certainly not themselves. "Capitalism has failed". THEY certainly haven't failed, capitalism has.
Most of the time they haven't even failed. They're doing quite well and just feel like, as the greatest human of all time, they should surely have more money/power/fame.
Dating and relationships too. How many marriages have been destroyed by narcissistic ego? How many divorces by people convinced they can do better? How many marriages never formed because every 5 or 6 thinks they are a 10 and can do better? "These are my minimums" they say without regard to fact that (depending on their minimum) less than 5% of the population meets them.
Everyone has main character syndrome and there is very little gratitude.
Hi John,
Delighted to have just discovered your work. FWIW I have written a novel that might as well be subtitled, 'The Hollow Men versus the Free World', and thought you might be interested. It's thinly disguised as a fast, easy-to-read thriller and is aimed primarily at young-ish males, as they are the key demographic we need to win over for the fight that is to come.
I'm happy to send you a free copy but here's a ink to give you some idea - https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Causes-Richard-Nichols-ebook/dp/B0893M6PQF/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=lost+causes+richard+nichols&qid=1618187048&sr=8-1