Men As Learners
and Elders (M.A.L.Es)
a program offered by
the Center for Action
and Contemplation
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Men As Learners
and Elders (M.A.L.Es)
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Adam's Return Copyrighted material from Chapter 2 pages 11 and 12 Excerpt from Chapter 1 Two WHY
WE NEED INITIATION IN MODERN CULTURES Lest we who have preached to others miss the Unless A MAN has on some level been involved in the human struggle, it might be hard for him to know what is missing from society. You can only miss something that you have searched for and partially experienced. In fact you do not even search for it until you have already touched it. Now that classic initiation has been so long absent from Western society, we can do no more than point to the patterns of nature, the quick deconstruction of culture when it stops initiating, and some validating patterns in the very nature and growth of the brain. We assume that animals imprint and pass on instinct more naturally than we do. But even our brothers in the animal world make it clear that juniors need elders to know who they are. Both humans and animals are imitative, or mimetic. We desire what others desire, and we do what we see others doing, even though it is humiliating for postmoderns to admit it. As Rogers and Hammerstein put it, we all "need to be taught, we need to be carefully taught." A few years ago there was a nature special on television about elephants in a certain part of Africa. For some reason, these young bull elephants were acting 11
strangely out of character—antisocial and aimlessly violent; they were stomping on VWs, pushing over trees for no reason, and even killing other small animals and baby elephants. Park rangers came in to study the problem and, in the course of their investigation, they discovered that there were no older bull elephants in that area. By some accident, all the older bulls had either died or been poached for their ivory, which left the teenage males to roam and forage out of control. Their solution? They brought in some older bulls from other areas by helicopter, lowered them onto the scene, and in a matter of weeks, amazingly, the whole situation had changed. Apparently, all the old bulls did was wave their ears and make various sounds or small charges, and somehow the younger male elephants understood through these communications that their behavior was not the way good elephant boys should act. It seemed to be just that simple. Things soon returned to normal once the elders operated as elders. In the human realm, when there are no "kings," young warriors become brutal, magicians behave as charlatans, and lovers are soon addicts. Someone has to give the young male boundaries and identity. He does not get them by himself or without guidance. We are not a healthy culture for boys or men. Not the only reason, but surely one reason is that we are no longer a culture of elders who know how to pass on wisdom, identity, and boundaries to the next generation. Most men are over-mothered and under-fathered — now even more in the age of single parents. Or to use the title of Alexander Mitscherlich's classic, we are a "society without fathers."17 The effects of this are lifelong for both genders, creating boys who never grow up and want to marry mothers instead of wives, and girls who want securing and affirming daddies instead of risk-taking partners. Neither gender is ready for the work and adventure of a full life. 12 Order Adam's Return Excerpt from Chapter 1 Return to: |
Last modified: April 13, 2008 |