My dad’s father was highly decorated and was on a PT boat  in WWII. He taught my father the way to be a MAN, as his dad had done with him.
This is how it looked as I saw it:
Don’t show emotion unless it is anger or strength. Be physically strong. Play sports. Be good to your elders and your mother, and a gentlemen to all women.  Keep your honor, never back down, be number one and always win; do not ever talk back to your mom, and if you even try to talk back to your dad you will never do it twice. Never let “them” get you, know how to fix everything, do it yourself, be self-confident, know how to talk to women, know how to throw and catch a ball, be intimidating to other men. But most of all, have strong sons and repeat this system that has been going on from the beginning of time.

So I was raised like this, and so was my brother. We have gotten in many fights, we have opened doors for girls, and we have managed and lead men. We win. We weight lift every day, we know how to talk in public situations, we ride motorcycles and work on them. We climb tall mountains and when a woman is with us in a dark alley, that woman feels safe.

So what the hell has happened? I see boys today, nothing but boys. They play video games and text message; they are afraid of talking to girls, and if they do it is on some form of impersonal way like instant message or Facebook. They think that being physically strong is not cool.  They look for the easy way out of situations 9 times out of 10 . There mom and dad never told them no because they were afraid that it would hurt their feelings. This has made for a large group of early 20-somethings and teenagers that rarely respect there parents. They are weak both physically and socially.
(this is my experience and I have collected it over the last 12 years of working with thousands of men of this age in sales retail education and the fitness industry)

Now here is the question:
Am I crazy?? Or am I just an old fashioned guy raised by an even older fashioned man?
I have a video that presents evidence to my assumptions, with facts to back up my observation.
This is more of what I hope would be the start of a conversation.

I will however end with this, if you were able to pull a generation Y kid away from there Xbox long enough to ask them “what is it to be a man?” i would be very curious to see what they would say, if anything…

Luke Exley, writer for RunHollywood.com

NOTE
((There is nothing wrong with video games, Facebook and text communication, it is only when it is used to replace face to face interactions that i feel it becomes a negative factor. ))

TED Talks Psychologist Philip Zimbardo asks, “Why are boys struggling?” He shares some stats (lower graduation rates, greater worries about intimacy and relationships) and suggests a few reasons — and he asks for your help! Watch his talk, then take his short 10-question survey: http://on.ted.com/PZSurvey

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