HUMANITY NEEDS TO TRAIN BOYS BETTER

We humans are so wired by nature that we can usually become experts only in things we do repeatedly. And we love doing those things repeatedly which we like and understand. For instance, I think, write, and teach. This is the only thing I know how to do easily and best. I do it while at work and I do it while outside work schedules. I do it all the time. I love doing it. It gives my life joy, meaning, and purpose. I don’t know how to fix a dripping tap in the house. And I surely don’t know how to make furniture. I get stressed even with the thought of taking up such challenges. We do and do well only the things we like, love, understand, and do normatively.

I’ve been shocked at the large numbers of young men from around the world who want to go to fight in Ukraine. The number of international fighters in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan had shocked me too. It is a scary and worrying matter that tens of thousands of young men in our generation so quickly understand war and are comfortable with that environment. They have no qualms about killing someone unknown in a far away land.

It says something about how our male children are being trained in their earliest years of life. Humanity needs to train boys better. We need to present them nonviolent options for life and duty.