Where are the Real Men?

Gone are those days when most men saw the acquisition of education, the subsequent culture of hard work and a strong self-determination as the path to success. With this value-based foundation, laudable careers, solid enterprises and other great accomplishments were solidly established. They did take years to take shape in the societal consciousness. But the invested time and efforts paid off as manifested today in form of colleges, financial institutions, media houses and other establishments built by the baby-boomers and those before them.

Young men of nowadays however, are “a different ball game”. All around me—in neighborhoods, cities and States are too many young men turning their backs on education. In their bids to get rich quick, these young fellows are “putting the carts before their horses”. They drop out of schools with impunity. And by schools, we are talking about mere 7th or 8th grade. Forget a high school diploma…and don’t even think of a college education. But where have all the values gone?

Ask about individual ambitions and all you’ll hear is the desire of these youngsters to sing, act in movies or be sports personalities. While these are not bad aspirations, the problem however lies in the terrible impression among these young men that a foundation in education is not a necessity. They don’t know that for every sports or show-biz personality, there are millions who merely dream or aspire to be one. And there is this salient question; if everyone had chosen to be in show-biz or sports arena, who then would be accountants, medical doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers?

Ironically, while more and more young men are dropping out of schools, a large number of young women are graduating, not only from high schools but also from colleges. And as these women embark on various enviable careers, the men are either loitering at home or lurking around street corners on a wild goose chase.

Unfortunately, it’s from a pool of men, consisting largely of barely literate, lazy hustlers that highly educated, professional women are expected to date and even marry. This therefore explains the rationale behind the decisions of many women to remain single instead of getting stuck in mismatched relationships. They would more likely do this than having to contend with men of poor intellect, emotional imbalance and inferiority complex.

But under this circumstance, what fate awaits the future generations? What sort of a role model does a man expects to play in the lives of his kids when he can barely spell, read or hold his own in certain environments that call for intellectually-stimulating conversations?