I imagine if you're super strong, this happens a lot.
Mass killings aren't a product of religious fervor or mental illness. They're a product of maleness. And it isn't maleness unchecked that's the problem; it's maleness fermenting. It's the bubbling, seething, growing mixture of masculinity finding no outlet in the body of a man-child. The inability of these ever aging man-children to cross over to manhood in their own minds creates a growing resentment and anger against the society that seemingly refuses to simply accept and embrace their maleness. In Islamic countries, we're seeing this anger and resentment being used to manipulate these young men toward somebody else's extremist goals. In America, these negatively confident males seek solace in others of their kind where they learn to direct their anger at women and other men who have seemingly made the impossible transition into adulthood with little or no effort. These women and men are symbols of their self-imposed emasculation brought on by isolating from the physical realm, where they've floundered, to spend more and more time online, a space where they will never get a chance to express their masculinity and find the adulthood which they so desperately need. A lot of this fermenting is obviously sexual frustration (due to religion or culture or the amount of Dungeons and Dragons manuals they own) and a lack of some ceremony or tradition to mark an occasion of manhood (getting a Magic-User to epic levels is close but, ultimately, doesn't fucking count).
I'm not a fan of rigid social customs but when I see a growing segment of men turning to anger and blaming others for their inability to feel like an adult man, I think of something my Uncle used to say. He believed compulsory military service would be a boon to a great number of young men. And while I hate the idea of it and believe it would do harm to a different segment of the population who would do the opposite of thrive in those conditions, I can't help but think he had a theoretical point. Maybe not compulsory for everybody but some people need and desire the regimented and stable direction of a military life. It has the added benefit of fast-tracking a boy into manhood. I'm sure there are other ways to accomplish this that aren't military (which feels like a poor choice to fix the problem since the problem is violent tendencies). And while the military isn't strictly defined by violence, we all know why the military exists. But maybe that's the part — the potential violence and death — that makes a boy soldier, no matter how young, feel like they've become a man.
While I'm expressing flights of fancy, how about another consideration: arranged marriages! Although, instantly, I'm already feeling sorry for any woman in an arranged marriage with a guy who owns a Fedora, a complete set of Antiquities, and a full complement of Mox gems.
See?! Right there is part of the problem! I'm poking fun at these man-children who might be reading this and are now fuming that I've probably stuck my dick in a vagina (and a butthole! I mean, or a butthole!) even though I'm obviously a huge nerd who reads comic books and knows the powers, strength, and toughness of the Guardian Beast card.
When I first had sex, it was due to doing something manly and heroic in front of a woman I had been casually flirting with all weekend. Up until that moment, she hadn't taken me seriously at all (nor did I, really! Sex with a woman I'd just met? Ha ha! Inconceivable!). I was also never anxious or worried or angry that it was never going to happen for me. I actually had previous opportunities but bypassed them because my heart was pining desperately for a girl who long since had stopped thinking of me in that way (because I never made a move! Idiot!). But when the opportunity arose, it was because I showed myself to be independent, responsible, kind, and capable of calling myself a fucking adult. Don't be fooled! I still barely think of myself as an adult! That's a hard concept to truly wrap your mind around. I suspect that I became an actual adult not when I first had sex but when I first left my hometown for good. That isn't a general rule for everybody; I'm not offering advice here! I'm just expressing the moment, when I look back, that I knew my life was irrevocably my responsibility.
I don't have any answers to stopping mass killings but I know one of them is not "destroying Islam." Seeing that more Americans on American soil have died from young American males than foreign terrorist attacks, you would think would be enough proof in understanding this isn't a religious problem. It's a problem that certain religious extremists are certainly using to their benefit! But even so, America has an entirely different problem that has nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with fermenting maleness. To ignore that problem in favor of blaming a religion is to simply accept living in a world filled with report after report of young male Americans killing their fellow Americans as we lay blame at the feet of Muslims.
All this being said, it's just thoughts off the top of my head based on things I've thought about and felt and experienced. I may have written it in a matter-of-fact style but it's all just thoughtful ruminations on a complicatedly deadly matter. The worst part is that I've completely thrown Magic the Gathering under the bus and I love that game!
The Review!
Cheetah reveals that the group searching for Diana and a way onto Themyscira is called Godwatch. The Island Steve and Diana found is apparently this world's gateway to Themyscira but it must be opened by Diana. She's gotten halfway there by drawing a picture of the gnarled tree in the sand before they left the island, a tree which has now appeared again on Themyscira. Diana is still crazy from too many continuities crowding around in her head. And Etta and Steve have gone off to find some old friends to help bring Diana back. I guess the first friend is the Minotaur who she refused to kill at Ares insistence in some Annual or flashback story in The New 52. He's been living on the streets of New York. I guess that's as good a labyrinth as any.
The Ranking!
No change!
I'm not a fan of rigid social customs but when I see a growing segment of men turning to anger and blaming others for their inability to feel like an adult man, I think of something my Uncle used to say. He believed compulsory military service would be a boon to a great number of young men. And while I hate the idea of it and believe it would do harm to a different segment of the population who would do the opposite of thrive in those conditions, I can't help but think he had a theoretical point. Maybe not compulsory for everybody but some people need and desire the regimented and stable direction of a military life. It has the added benefit of fast-tracking a boy into manhood. I'm sure there are other ways to accomplish this that aren't military (which feels like a poor choice to fix the problem since the problem is violent tendencies). And while the military isn't strictly defined by violence, we all know why the military exists. But maybe that's the part — the potential violence and death — that makes a boy soldier, no matter how young, feel like they've become a man.
While I'm expressing flights of fancy, how about another consideration: arranged marriages! Although, instantly, I'm already feeling sorry for any woman in an arranged marriage with a guy who owns a Fedora, a complete set of Antiquities, and a full complement of Mox gems.
See?! Right there is part of the problem! I'm poking fun at these man-children who might be reading this and are now fuming that I've probably stuck my dick in a vagina (and a butthole! I mean, or a butthole!) even though I'm obviously a huge nerd who reads comic books and knows the powers, strength, and toughness of the Guardian Beast card.
When I first had sex, it was due to doing something manly and heroic in front of a woman I had been casually flirting with all weekend. Up until that moment, she hadn't taken me seriously at all (nor did I, really! Sex with a woman I'd just met? Ha ha! Inconceivable!). I was also never anxious or worried or angry that it was never going to happen for me. I actually had previous opportunities but bypassed them because my heart was pining desperately for a girl who long since had stopped thinking of me in that way (because I never made a move! Idiot!). But when the opportunity arose, it was because I showed myself to be independent, responsible, kind, and capable of calling myself a fucking adult. Don't be fooled! I still barely think of myself as an adult! That's a hard concept to truly wrap your mind around. I suspect that I became an actual adult not when I first had sex but when I first left my hometown for good. That isn't a general rule for everybody; I'm not offering advice here! I'm just expressing the moment, when I look back, that I knew my life was irrevocably my responsibility.
I don't have any answers to stopping mass killings but I know one of them is not "destroying Islam." Seeing that more Americans on American soil have died from young American males than foreign terrorist attacks, you would think would be enough proof in understanding this isn't a religious problem. It's a problem that certain religious extremists are certainly using to their benefit! But even so, America has an entirely different problem that has nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with fermenting maleness. To ignore that problem in favor of blaming a religion is to simply accept living in a world filled with report after report of young male Americans killing their fellow Americans as we lay blame at the feet of Muslims.
All this being said, it's just thoughts off the top of my head based on things I've thought about and felt and experienced. I may have written it in a matter-of-fact style but it's all just thoughtful ruminations on a complicatedly deadly matter. The worst part is that I've completely thrown Magic the Gathering under the bus and I love that game!
The Review!
Cheetah reveals that the group searching for Diana and a way onto Themyscira is called Godwatch. The Island Steve and Diana found is apparently this world's gateway to Themyscira but it must be opened by Diana. She's gotten halfway there by drawing a picture of the gnarled tree in the sand before they left the island, a tree which has now appeared again on Themyscira. Diana is still crazy from too many continuities crowding around in her head. And Etta and Steve have gone off to find some old friends to help bring Diana back. I guess the first friend is the Minotaur who she refused to kill at Ares insistence in some Annual or flashback story in The New 52. He's been living on the streets of New York. I guess that's as good a labyrinth as any.
The Ranking!
No change!
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