Editor’s Note: Our buddy, Adam Piggott, the Gentleman Adventurer, has shared another of his posts with us, as it relates to a recurring topic we have covered. You can visit his page here.
Vox Day has a particular dislike for the Boomer generation due in no small part to their collective tendency to reframe every discussion back to themselves. The other day he composed a scathing screed as a result of a Boomer infestation in his comments section. A taste:
Look, while I can’t speak for younger generations, I can say that on the average, Generation X HATES and DESPISES your generation. That’s just a fact. We hate your stupid music. We hate your narcissism. We despise the way so many of you have neither the time nor the inclination to love our children the way our grandparents loved us. We hate what a pain in the ass you are now that you’re starting to require caretaking but are still determined to live where and how you want to live. We hate the way so many of you are actually hoping to leave nothing to your kids and grandkids and “die with the most toys”. Decades ago, we actually used to joke that your generation would be babbling about “70 is SEXY” when it got old, and then you guys actually WENT AND DID it.
As entertaining as that is it was a comment on the piece that really caught my attention:
I had “good” boomer parents. Christian, stay at home mom, etc. My dad would pick on me for not taking good enough care of the spare car. It didn’t occur to him to say “Now that you’re driving, Kat, here’s when and how to maintain the car.” I guess he thought I’d petition for the right to be taught basic life skills or something. If I didn’t know something they’d blame me for not knowing it instead of thinking that perhaps it was at least partially on them for not teaching me.
The teaching of life skills to their sons was a responsibility that somehow passed by the Boomers. My own father was born a few years before the Boomer arc, a fact which he is quick to point out to anyone so foolish as to lump him in with such an unpopular group. He did teach my brother and me some life skills, but not as many as I would have liked. Still, it was more a result of my lunatic feminist mother’s blocking skills than a lack of effort on his part.
But this broad gap in the teaching and passing of basic knowledge to Generation X by their Boomer parents is a complaint that I come across with some regularity. Even worse is the additional noted Boomer tendency to mock their children for somehow not knowing the same things that the Boomers were taught by their fathers but failed to pass on themselves.
In addition, with so many young men today being in the unfortunate position of having only a single mother to guide them, it is imperative that those boys who do have a father in the house to get as much teaching as they can possibly get.
Boys love it when their dads teach them. The earliest memory that I have is from when I was about 4 years old. We lived in a cool old house in Bayswater, Perth, and out the back was a ramshackle yard, perfect for little kids to have adventures. My father was remodeling the house and there was a large pile of scrap lumber and other assorted cast-offs and bits and pieces. I turned it into my own scrap lumber yard, complete with a small counter where I could “sell” my goods to all of my customers, (my dad).
In my little yard I would categorize and set into order all my precious inventory. I remember in particular my large box of nails, each twisted lump of metal painstakingly removed from a length of 4 x 2 with my own small tool kit, my most precious possession.
My demented mother of course absolutely hated the very idea that I enjoyed the idea of being a common tradesman. Things got no better for her when I passed onto my next stage which was a total fascination with all things military.
So to all those fathers out there of boys and teenagers, make sure that you teach your sons. Show them how to fix a leaky tap, or change out an electrical fuse, or do basic maintenance on the family car. Not only are these skills critical for any man, but it is an excellent way to mold the boy into the solid man that hopefully one day he can become. While teaching him some solid practical skills there can also be a seemingly casual discussion where certain red pill knowledge is imparted as well.
Things that the Boomers seemingly never could be bothered to do.
Somewhat related is the very irritating habit of boomer men to ridicule a young man for ignorance of something that really doesn’t matter any more. I supposed the running joke with every generation is the “when I was your age I walked 5 miles to school in 3′ deep snow” line. However, the stupid questions, like “do you know how to operate a rotary dial phone” or “do you know what an 8 track is” and then laughing when the reply is “no” aggravates me to no end, and I’m a boomer. What is so funny about not knowing how to do something or what something is if it’s no longer available or technologically obsolete?
My dad would state facts like, “back in the day, we had to stoke the coal boiler to heat the house” or “men had to wear garters around their calves to hold up socks because they didn’t have elastic tops” but didn’t ask stupid questions about these things and then laugh at me because I didn’t know.
This nasty habit is just another example of boomer arrogance.
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[…] Source: Fathers, Teach Your Sons – Men Of The West […]
My own father lacked teaching skills. I think it might have been a fear of appearing foolish. I try not to hold it against him because I strongly doubt his father taught him much. My grandfather never seemed interested in teaching me things either. He painted civil and revolutionary war lead miniatures but he never sat with me to show me how he did things. Or offered to let me paint one of his. He just let me do a semi-decent job on my own D&D minis.
“I don’t know” is a good phrase as a teacher, if it’s true. “Let’s find out” seem to be the best attitude towards progress.
I keep trying with my nephews. I want to help them become musicians as I’m working on that myself and it’s fun.