One troubling American demographic is the young white male. He is lagging behind in education, job placement and self-esteem. According to the legend, he can be found playing video games while living out his early adulthood in his parents’ basement.
Such a depiction obviously distorts reality. However, there is an element of truth in it. The young white male, like his black counterpart, is in trouble.
Victimizing the Young White Male
Liberals have created a narrative of oppression to explain the plight of these white young males. It welcomes the sad situation of these young men as something they deserve.
For generations, white males have benefited from white culture and oppressed others. Their toxic masculinity has also imposed “patriarchy“ upon society. This white male is often Christian and has forced his morals upon society. Now society is changing, and a time of reckoning has arrived for the triple “sin” of racism, patriarchy and morality.
Thus, the young white male deserves his fall from grace, and liberals do everything possible to facilitate his defeat and deconstruction.
Not Guilty
The young white males see their situation differently. They do not feel guilty of anything. Most just want to live their lives without controversy.
Thus, many youths solve the problem by retreating to the basements, to live out their resentment in cyber-isolation inside the dark web of gaming or pornography.
Other white young men follow another narrative. They flip the Marxist script of class struggle rightward, turning themselves into an oppressed class and therefore free to use brutal and shocking tactics in their quest for vengeance. They proclaim themselves victims and blame their fall on the system, whether it be society, culture, government, or the liberal establishment. They claim the deck is now stacked against them (and it may well be). They adopt a post-liberal narrative that calls for the system’s demise.
Where They Go Wrong
These white young males have real complaints against the system that need to be addressed. It might be argued that they are less equipped to deal with them than past generations. Postmodernity has handed them a wasteland devoid of virtues as the place to work out their problems.
Tragically, virtue hardly enters into the discussion in either narrative since life is almost always framed in economic terms, not the moral ones that get to the root of what is wrong.
The Nietzschean Model
Unfortunately, the resentful white young males of the second narrative adopt a vision of manhood that only makes matters worse.
This manhood is expressed in the Nietzschean affirmation of the strong man obsessed with a “will to power” and domination. Steeped in false mysticism, this vision idealizes brutal behavior and vilifies compassion.
Thus, the Christian man is seen as weak because he is wrongly perceived as only charitable and compassionate. He is despised because he does not adopt a macho persona that gives free rein to his unruly passions. He does not engage in lewd and vulgar behavior, mistakenly seen as a manifestation of manhood.
These young men are often exposed to the political thought of illiberal figures such as Oswald Spengler, Julius Evola, Alain de Benoist, Francis Parker Yockey, and Samuel Francis. All these now-popular figures were occultists and avowed pagans who idealize fierce pre-Christian models. Their anti-Christian message sidesteps any talk of virtue and proposes a simplistic, brutal way out of their problems.
Not a Threat to the Left
In following this model, the young white male thinks that he becomes a threat to the left that mistreats him.
However, this false model actually poses no real danger to the left. The young male shares with his woke counterparts the same anti-Christian worldview, depraved morals and godless outlook. He engages in a reverse yet similar class struggle that wrongly frames history as power plays and favors the left’s revolution against what remains of the Christian West.
Guilty as Charged
The real solution for the young white male is to proudly declare himself “guilty” of the Christian values and virtues of which he is accused. He must embrace those morals that bring down the left’s wrath upon him…and satisfy his manly instincts.
He must say: yes, I do deny my unbridled impure passions. Yes, I practice charity toward the weak. Yes, I strive to be strong and intransigent against those who offend God.
He is guilty as charged because there is no crime or sin—only honor—in affirming the Faith that naturally gives purpose and meaning to life. There is nothing wrong—only honor—with following the natural law that corresponds to human nature.
Living this life can address the spiritual void that corrodes the hearts of so many young men who search for meaning inside the postmodern wilderness. Best of all, this cause can and must be defended in a manly fashion, with strength, Christian courage and forceful affirmation in the public square.
Why the Christian Model Can Work
There are three reasons why this Christian model can succeed.
The first is that this kind of program is generally attractive to young men. It appeals to their broad outlooks, passion for justice and mode of action. They like challenges and high ideals.
Secondly, this program can work because many young males are already heading in this direction. They are attracted by the structured discipline of ancient liturgy and purposeful vocation. They are converting to the Catholic Faith in increasing numbers as they search for and find a manly ideal infinitely superior to that of Nietzsche—the way shown by Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Left Fears the True Christian
Finally, the Catholic ideal of manhood is a very powerful proposal. The Nietzschean man cannot compete, since he is not really strong but, like the bully, given to insecurity, anxiety, and weakness.
The Christian man represents so much more. Indeed, the leftist man fears the Christian ideal of manhood. He trembles in the face of its purity. He is terrified by its chivalry. He is afraid of its manly prayer. He even fears its compassion. Far from the meek caricature of the Nietzsche world, with the help of supernatural grace, the virtuous Christian man can do all things in He who strengthens him (see Phil. 4:13).
A Strong Identity Transcending Race
When a young male pursues this strong identity, the adjective “white” curiously falls off. The young man sees the broad picture and realizes that the left really targets Christianity, not just masculinity.
He is then free from the heavy weight of Nietzsche’s unmanly and unattainable Übermensch. The now-young male can then live in accordance with the qualities that God endowed manhood (regardless of race). He can survive by aggressively attacking those who want to destroy what remains of Christianity. He can truly be who he is called to be.
First published on TFP.org.
Photo Credit: © Alexandr – stock.adobe.com