In Praise Of The Good Man
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 9 months ago
Re: “A man can’t live forever. And it matters how you die.”
Precisely my point. Our civilization and our society used to contain men who understood that certain fates were worse than death. Traditional manhood was sacrificial, when necessary, to protect the aged, infirm, the weak and the children. Allowing the law of the jungle in society, where the strong preyed upon the weak, was seen as evil and would have been unthinkable.
Men also risked their lives in defiance of tyranny and to free the oppressed. The insignia of the U.S. Army Special Forces contains a Sykes-Fairburn dagger, pointed upward, superimposed upon crossed arrows, against a heraldic shield bearing the inscription, “De Oppresso Liber,” Latin for “To Free the Oppressed.” Once, those words meant something to Americans, not only to elite soldiers, but to common men as well.
Do we still live in a culture which honors those lofty values? I honestly do not know; you tell me. There are undoubtedly individual men who still honor those words, but as for the wider society, I am not nearly-so-optimistic.
This is not to say that men of that time threw their lives away cavalierly; they did not. Rather, it is to recall a time when honor and courage were virtues widely-celebrated in our culture – and men strove to live up to those lofty expectations. Cowardice was shameful, not something to be celebrated.
In those now-bygone days, little boys wanted to grow up to be just like John Wayne, James Arness, or one of the other great cowboy western stars. People still believed in heroes then; today, heroes are tough to find anywhere in pop culture – and when you do find them, they are apt to be post-modern caricatures of them – traditional males need not apply. Today, the role of the villain is reserved for those kinds of men! Today, many kids have the ambition of getting rich and famous. People who risk their lives for others are seen as fools, saps who didn’t know how to play the game.
Yes, I am cynical, I admit… but I have ample reason for being so, would you not agree?
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On February 28, 2018 at 8:01 am, Bob Kerstetter said:
Herschel, I would not agree. Of course, on its surface a lot of life really super sucks. But, most of the old men, middle-age men and young men I know live sacrificially—believers and non-believers alike. Some would like to be rich, but not famous, and certain not rich at the expense of others. Some gain too much weight from too much food and too little physical activity. While some divorce, most increasingly put their wives before themselves—because God built that into their being—believers and non-believers alike. Some honor their wives because they read Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi or Peter’s first letter to the exiles. Most die daily to themselves to build up this most precious relationship, the one best illustrative of that between Christ and the church, although some who do this do not know Christ. The later do it because of the residual effect of the God-likeness in their being. For believers, strengthening this relationship helps overcome cynicism and makes the power of Christ known by example to others both inside and outside of the church. Beyond that, most live quiet lives—doing their jobs with honesty, living in hope. The believers among them answer questions about deep hope in meekness and fear, as Timothy heard from Paul. While all harbor some cynicism, they walk in the spirit to not fulfill the lust of cynicism. They take to heart where the Psalmist says, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers…Trust in the Lord, and do good…Delight thyself also in the Lord…Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him…” The believers grow out of their cynicism in Christ. Least you take this as criticism, I am the chief of cynics. But Christ uses my movement away from cynicism as a spectacle of his power within.
On February 28, 2018 at 8:32 am, Frank Clarke said:
If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.
There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. — Winston Churchill
On February 28, 2018 at 9:12 am, Bob Kerstetter said:
@Frank Clarke
Winston Churchill lived as one of the greatest, raised up for an otherwise desperate moment.
On February 28, 2018 at 3:54 pm, Gryphon said:
“Every Man Dies. Yet, not Every Man truly Lives.”
Take Comfort in the Fact that the vast majority of the Enemy, if left out in the Woods, would be Eaten by Field Mice within a Day or two…