Savagery and civilization - a balancing act

A classic tale of savage young men.

In William Golding’s 1954 classic, Lord of the Flies, we witness the thin veneer of civilization peel away as a group of boys, marooned on an island, begins to run wild.  As empathy fades and self-interest reigns, survival of the fittest and conquest by the strongest begins to overcome all feelings of humanity. Their behavior quickly descends to brutality, torture, and murder.

Young human males, their bloodstreams coursing with hormones, are among the most dangerous creatures on the planet. Unsupervised, they tend to selfish, sociopathic behavior, forming gangs, striving for supremacy, quick to react violently to even imagined slights, subject to depression.

The most effective moderating force, the greatest civilizing influence on these young men has been found to be involved fathers. Not a surprise. Since time immemorial, the job of fathers has been to humanize their sons, to teach them to respect others, to sublimate violent tendencies, to become empathetic. It is not a simple task to overcome the strong brew of teenaged testosterone.

Why is this pertinent?

Because, as our progressive society evolves, it tends more to increase the number of single parent families, often with uninvolved fathers. We, as a society, have enabled this trend with programs and policies and benefits designed to support single parent families. And while the freedoms thus afforded are laudable, there is an unmistakable cost. The disturbed, depressed, violent young men who are the byproduct of absent fathers.

In a May, 2012 article in Psychology Today, Dr. Edward Kruk lists some characteristics of children of divorced fathers:

·         Diminished self-concept and compromised emotional and physical security

·         Behavioral problems, swaggering, bullying

·         Truancy and poor academic performance

·         Delinquency and crime

·         Promiscuity and teen pregnancy

·         Exploitation and abuse

·         Physical health problems

·         Mortality (children of divorced parents are more likely to die while children, and live four years less on average)

·         Mental health disorders

Please note that last item.

We have been repeatedly shocked by recent incidents of mass shootings (the media now have defined that down to two deaths). Yet many of the baby boom generation remember much higher prevalence and acceptance of guns in their youth. High school kids with high power deer rifles in the trunks of their cars, having come to school after an early morning hunt. Pickup trucks with rifles and shotguns hanging openly in cab window racks. Kids plinking with .22 rifles, shooting cans and bottles, but not each other.

Now we have Newtown, and Isla Vista, and Centennial, and Roseburg. And many others. What the heck has happened?

Our culture has changed.

One startling fact: a December, 2013 National Review article finds that nearly every school shooting “involved a young man whose parents divorced or never married in the first place.”

This cannot be an accident.

For further corroboration, simply correlate the proportion of married households versus murder rates in our inner cities. (Chicago had 3 killed and 25 wounded last weekend. President Obama did not console the families).

In addition to a yawning dearth of paternal influence, we also have a deep crisis in our mental health care system. A recent Wall Street Journal article paints a dire picture. From a high of 558,000 inpatient beds in 1955, we now have only 45,000 psychiatric beds nationwide. Militant patient rights movements, as well as a  reduction in both state and federal spending, are at fault.

We are reaping the whirlwinds of societal change which, while providing many benefits, has also loosed a plague of unintended consequences.

And millions of honest, upright, reliable gun owners in this country are rightly outraged that they are being blamed.

It is time, as Ann Landers so succinctly said, for us to wake up and smell the coffee.