At its core, traditional/unenlightened masculinity is a willingness to kill a threatening other man. Do you have the balls? Do you have the cock? If challenged by a rival will you step up and be willing to kill. There are a multitude of other layers to this normalized masculinity. However, it comes down to this question.
In the year 2015, our time, our era, in order to kill a man all you need is the psychological capacity, in an instant, to pull a trigger with your pointer finger. You need not lift weights, get buff, train for years in a given martial art. All you need to do is squeeze a trigger. Technology and advanced weaponry have made the passage into traditional/unenlightened masculinity so slight and simple.
We still play games on the gridiron and fight in octagons broadcast on cable television. But this is entertainment, not the heart of masculinity. Yes, it takes bravery and courage to step into the MMA octagon. But the game is controlled, and men have a certain degree of choice. (Men who fight in the octagon seem to be driven, enslaved possibly, by a quest for a quenching chaos, and in the octagon they are quenched.) But again this isn't about masculinity. It is about the visual performance of masculinity. It sells beers.
The question becomes where do we find the true bravery and courage that defines true/enlightened masculinity. No more a conception of masculinity driven by advertising, enslaved by an unconscious desire to "defend one's country" -- no longer do we uphold a masculinity that conveniently shepherds our poor men of color onto the new age battlefield, wherever that is.
In the age of the Glock, where do we find the courage of men?
I am carbon; I am love.
Anthony
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