Strength, Ethics And Self-Control

Yesterday I was getting a ride from a friend, and he and his other friend were talking about how they both knew how to confront people and how they could reduce people to tears. They were talking about how they wanted to refrain from hurting people and to keep their verbal strength in check.

I told them that they needed to practice ethics and self-control. In fact this is necessary with any kind of strength, mental or physical. Strength, by itself, can be a very destructive force. It must be wielded rightfully and intelligently. Do not go around beating up random people. Do not go home and beat your wife. Instead use the strength as a tool of enforcing peace, using it only as necessary when dealing with people who choose to do wrongful things and aren't willing to stop when confronted rationally.

Now there have been women – especially in the baby boom generation - who were afraid of men's strength; who out of that consideration effectively castrated their sons. This was not a provident course of action. Their sons became weak and lacking in confidence, and they were run over by various people, especially mean-spirited young women. Some of these young men have found strength in things such as gangs and Jihadism. Any number of them followed Eminem. They became in some cases severely violent, especially against their female partners. They didn't learn strength from their families; so they found strength in things that are in many cases very destructive and very wrong. What these women have done is inflict upon the world a bunch of Eminems. And that was in no way favorable to women's cause.

Strength can most certainly be a destructive thing. But when combined with ethics and self-control it can be a great thing. This is what is taught in martial arts. This is also what is taught in the military. The problem is not with strength but with lack of ethics and self-control. The solution is not to prevent the teaching of strength, but teaching ethics and self-control as part of it.

As for domestic violence, it should be seen as a failure of character. It is a failure of ethics and self-control. Both ethics and self-control demand discretion as to what you do with your fists and your mouth. It should not be confronted only from the liberal perspective of it being violent or misogynistic. It should also be confronted from the conservative perspective of character.

As with many other things, the problem is the confusion between a value and the misuses of the value. Strength can most certainly be used for wrong; but it is not a wrong thing in itself. Same is the case with just about anything else – money, logic, beauty, patriotism, intelligence, moral values, you name it. All of these things can be used for wrong. That does not make them wrong in themselves.

So take then a completely different approach. Teach strength; also teach ethics and self-control. And find yourselves raising excellent men who are both strong and morally upstanding and who are a boon to their countries and to the world.