D-Day 1944: Could We Do It Again

As I write, it is June 6th, 2019. 75 years ago today a multinational force of free men threw themselves onto heavily defended beaches in the Normandy region of France. The Nazi forces defending those beaches had had years to prepare their defenses and had used that time well. Artillery had already been ranged on potential landing areas, machine guns had been placed to sweep every inch of the beaches with interlocking fields of fire, and landmines had been positioned to channel allied troops into the machine gun fire. The beaches of Normandy had been turned into vast killing zones. The American, British, Free French and Canadian troops in the landing craft knew this and so did the troops from the many other nations in the landing force. They attacked anyway.

Granted, many of them had been drafted into military service, but many had volunteered. Of those that had been pressed into service very few had refused to answer the call, fewer still actually tried to avoid that service. Draftees or volunteers, they did what rightness and morality demanded. They fought evil on behalf of those who could not fight it themselves. Free men took up arms and to liberate others and were willing to die for that cause. For most men of that generation, to do anything else was unthinkable.

Men were expected to be the protectors of those weaker that themselves. They were expected to be competent defenders of themselves and their families. In times of trouble, they banded together to protect their communities. Such men respected themselves and others and demanded the same consideration from those around them. Such men raised their sons to 'men', not just 'males.'

By this I mean that one can have the necessary mechanics of nature to be a male of the species, but cannot rightly be called a man in the sense of having traditionally masculine virtues such as courage, honor, personal responsibility, self discipline, respect for others, and strength not only of body, but also of mind and spirit. Without those attributes one is a male but he is not, in any real sense, a man.

There are still such true men today. You'll find them in military service as well as in fire and police departments. But you'll also find such men mowing the lawn of an infirmed, elderly neighbor for free. You can see them opening doors for ladies. You may find such a man allowing a mother with several young children in tow to go ahead of him in a supermarket checkout line. In more extreme case you'll see true manhood exemplified in a young high school student tackling a gunman who was attacking his classmates.

This breed of man is becoming rare but it does still exist. However, in this age of moral decay the virtues of manliness are increasingly being redefined as vices. Some women are now offended if a man shows them the simple courtesy of opening a door for them or pulling out their chair at a dinner table. Worse, some young males have never been taught these simple courtesies. Boys are no longer taught to defend themselves and their families with any degree of skill. Instead, when natural male aggressiveness asserts itself, it is random and pointless instead of being channeled into self-defense or the defense of others. Instead of being proud of themselves and their accomplishments boys are taught to act like girls or simply retreat into themselves and suppress their natural male assertiveness. This prevents boys from becoming men. It produces angry, confused and violent adult males who manifest what is called 'toxic masculinity.'

Where would civilization be if it not for traditionally masculine men? Would slavery still be a legal institution in the United States? Would Europe be under the control a Nazi empire while Asia lived under a Japanese imperial boot? Masculinity cannot be toxic any more than femininity can. Both can be corrupted and misdirected but they cannot be 'toxic' in and of themselves.

When a male of the species beats his helpless wife it is not a masculine act. It is a, criminal, immoral, and cowardly act that is fundamentally unmanly. When a boy is bullying other children he is not showing inherent masculinity. He is manifesting primal male drives that he should have been taught to process and control within a framework provided by traditional masculine virtues. If he does not receive this instruction he will almost certainly remain a bully and never become a man.

The men who assaulted the beaches on D-day were not toxic males. They were men in the truest, purest sense and they fought to drag an evil 'male' named Adolf Hitler out of his seat of power along with the other evil males of the species he had surrounded himself with. I think that we, the citizens of all of the nations whose sons killed and died on those Normandy beaches three quarters of a century ago must ask ourselves: if an evil on the level of Nazi Germany arose again, would there be enough actual men to effectively oppose it? Looking at the current geopolitical state of the world today the answer to that question might determine our fate as free people.