Morality and Manliness

  • "Damn ye, ye yellow-bellied sapsuckers! I'm a better man than all ye milksops put together!" - Blackbeard

    "Damn ye, ye yellow-bellied sapsuckers! I'm a better man than all ye milksops put together!" – Blackbeard

    It is often the case that, when a society has successfully aligned its masculine ideal with its moral or religious ideals, men will say that an immoral man is not a man.

    This confuses the definition of manhood and gives rise to myths about masculinity being completely culturally specific or relativistic. This confusion leads people to believe, as many today do, that masculinity is relative—that it is “whatever you want it to be.”

    Manhood, detached from its basis in strength, becomes meaningless and trivial.

    There is an important distinction to be made between men and good men.

    Bad or immoral men can and often do demonstrate strength and masculinity and dominance. To say that they are not men because they are immoral is a grave mistake. Young men idealize men who demonstrate strength, and if your bad men always appear to be stronger than your good men—your sons will idealize bad men.

    Men almost universally enjoy tales of manly crooks and villains, but sane societies hold their heroes higher and make them appear to be stronger. Unless you want to raise a bunch of villains, you make sure the hero triumphs in the end, or dies admirably and wins through dying.

    It is not necessary to claim that a man who clearly demonstrates “the ability and drive to exert his will over objects, over nature, over other men, or over himself” is not a man.

    Masculinity is separate from morality.

    An immoral man is simply a bad man, or a man who has different values than your own. If he is from a different culture—especially if he happens to be your enemy—he may well be a moral man in his own people’s eyes. Wars often pit good men against each another.

    We can acknowledge the manliness of pirates and raiders and mobsters and tyrants without redefining masculinity to exclude them.

    At the same time, we must differentiate between good men and bad men.

    In the simplest terms, we need our good men to be strong so that they can stand up to and defend us from bad men!

    Masculinity seems to have a morality of its own, a code of honor that grows from the selective exercise of strength.

    A man can be good at being a man without necessarily being a good man.


    October 17th, 2009 | Jack Donovan | Comments Off | Tags: , , ,

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Jack Donovan

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