Chivalry and the Modern World

         I grew up in the 1990's, the early 90's at that, one of the first - of what the generations lovingly call us - 'Video Game Generation' kids. This would be just after the time the original NES came out and also the original GameBoy. That being the old GameBoy where it was about the size and weight of a brick with 16-bit graphics and in black and white for you folks younger than myself. I remember all of the buzz that was going around when the SNES first came around. However, as I said before this is when the video game industry is just really starting to take off, going beyond arcade games and into homes. But I didn't spend all of my time in front of a TV screen furiously pressing the buttons on my game controllers. Granted I really enjoyed them and spent a good deal of time playing video games. Though as a kid, for all the time I spent playing games I spent an equal or greater part of my time playing outside or reading a book. Yes, as a kid my favorite activity was to read books.
         The Lord of The Rings (before the movies came out), The Chronicles of Narnia, the whole Redwall series, Goosebumps, the Boxcar children and some Hardy Boys were some of the books I had read as a kid. Outside I would occasionally reenact what I had read, but more often than not I would go off on some adventure that my mind created itself. These adventures always consisted of me going off on some quest to save a princess, a presidents daughter or to save a group of people as a brave and chivalrous knight. At night before I would go to sleep, my mind would wander and take me on even more fantastical adventures. Never in my games would I act in cruelty or unjustly. I would help as many people as I could and get them to safety. Then slowly, I started to realize something, the way I played those games began to interface itself into the way that I lived my life. Two words governed the way I lived: Honor and Chivalry.
         Chivalry and Honor are two things that go together, to have honor you need to be chivalrous, to be chivalrous you need to be honorable. They are two similar concepts with ties to one another yet are two separate and different ideas. This is about chivalry, honor will be saved for another day. I first came across chivalry when I read the King Arthur stories. I read as many stories and watched all of the movies on him and his Knights of The Round Table. I even watched many History Channel and Discovery Channel documentaries on the Medieval Ages as I could. I feel in love with the Middle Ages. Images of knights on the battlefield, jousts and tournaments, dances and courting beautiful women were burned into my imagination for years and years. At first I thought that chivalry only concerned the way as how men should deal with women. There is more to it than that. It is about loyalty - to your country, God(or whoever it is that you worship or don't), beliefs and to your lady -, duty, kindness/mannerly, honesty and truthfulness, upholding justice and the law, and protecting the innocent and your family/friends/loved ones.
         I'll start with the part of chivalry that nearly everyone knows about, kindness to women, being the nice guy and being honest. This is an odd age that we live in now. If the generations preceding us saw how we treated women, they would be shocked. Before anyone gets the wrong idea about this let me say this: I do not and will never imply that we go back to the days of inequality between the sexes or anybody. It is a good thing that we have equality between the sexes, but this does not mean that they shouldn't be treated with respect. This is the age where nice guys finish last and people who stand up for the innocent and help others get the short end of the stick. There are many people who will argue that this is not the case, but it is. Men who treat women with kindness and respect are constantly trampled over by both men and women. Men view us as weaklings, and not nearly the person that they are. Women look at us, and if they don't just laugh at us, they overlook us as though we are nothing. Ans since when has it become insulting to call a lady that you don't know 'Miss' or 'Ma'am'? To me that is perplexing. I have been yelled at before for calling a woman 'Ma'am'. Instead it has become socially acceptable to call women 'B*$^h', 'slut', 'Chic', and other things. Normally I would think that these would be fairly offensive. Doing drugs and drinking have made people more popular, especially compared to us nice guys who don't do drugs or drink illegally. I have experienced this first hand. During High School, I had finally got the courage to ask a girl out. I was a senior in High School and it was the first time I had ever done so. Apparently, I had asked her out around the same time another guy had asked her out. This guy was a drug dealer, druggie, drinker and an overall jackass. She told me she wasn't ready for a relationship and then proceeded to date the jackass. It is fact that women prefer jackasses to guys who act chivalrous these days. Yet some of us continue to act in kindness and be the nice guy. We don't swear in front of women or call them offensive names, we stop what we're doing to help the people in our lives, we'll take the time to listen, and we even open doors. Most don't know exist and constantly look over us. Us nice guys are a dieing breed but we will always be around? Why? Because it is the right thing to do. Honesty, truthfulness, kindness and caring, it is the right thing to do.
          Another part of chivalry is loyalty to your country. There are numerous ways that this can happen. Some us are willing to die for our country, to protect the citizens of America safe and sound. That's why I joined the Army. So that I could protect the ones I love and all the citizens of America. But not everyone can do that. And that is OK. Instead people can support their country, those of us who are willing to die, and try to make it a better place. But even this is starting to fade away. Less and less people are starting to care less and less about the men and women who are willing to fight. More and more we are being made fun of, insulted and forgotten by those that we are fighting to protect. More and more all people do is attack and criticize the government. While no government is perfect and it is our job to make sure the government doesn't turn into a dictatorship, there is a point that it just becomes ridiculous, and we crossed that point already.
         The last major point is about religion. Again in this day and age, those who are religious come under more and more under attack. Just because I believe in God and Jesus does not make me a bad person, or a mindless follower. Not only defending what you believe in, but listening to others - even about things you disagree with - is part of being chivalrous. It doesn't what or who you believe in or if your an atheist. As long as you don't use your religion as an excuse to do something illegal or to do evil. Defending your religion also doesn't constitute ramming what you believe in down other peoples throat or forcing them to convert. I am Catholic and am willing to talk to anybody about my faith, but I won't ram it down someones throat or try and get them to convert to what I believe in. I will also listen to others arguments about their religions, as long as they don't try and force me to convert and insult my religion.
         In conclusion, it sad to say that Chivalry is not nearly as evident as it should be. But it is not dead. Not yet. Nor will it ever be by any standard. Not while there are some people like me, who actually care about doing the right thing, even if it means getting the short end of the straw all the time. There are always those us who are going to be the nice guys - kind, honest and loyal -, loyal to our country - whether it be fighting for it or supporting those willing to fight and die for us- and care about what it is that we believe in.