The Death of Fraternity

I just got my Touchstone in the mail yesterday, and I was drawn to the cover article on friendship (sorry there's no link to it on their website--they just link a few teasers like this one). Anthony Esolen writes concerning the severely negative impact the sexual revolution, in particular its fruit in the homosexual movement, has had on building male identity and man to man friendships. I agree with his assesment. We see how the ACLU has attacked institutions such as the Boy Scouts and the Citadel, which were once paramount institutions which fostered male comraderie and the glories that men who weren't neutered could achieve if allowed to thrive as God has created them.

Don't get me wrong, I am not issuing a clarion call to a return to "patriarchy." There are quite a number of roles that men and women can and should equally fulfill as they demonstrate the aptitude. But men and women are different creatures, with different strengths and weaknesses for a reason--God made them different. And I, for one, believe it's time to recapture manliness from the grip of beer-soaked-oversexed-be-happy-with-your-sports attitudes or the equally dangerous trap of androgyny. Paula Cole asked it well? "Where have all the cowboys gone?" Well men, let's get back in the battle. And it'll be scary to reclaim such brilliant attributes as brotherhood, chivalry, initiative, and testicular fortitude. But as John Wayne said, "Courage is being scared to death--but saddling up anyway."