The perfect amount of danger

There is no virtue in being harmless

For thousands of years mankind has been at strife. Only until recent years starvation, genocide, disease, etc. was not only a very real threat, it was an everyday threat that could only be mitigated to a miniscule scale. The industrial revolution came with previously unimaginable improvements on the general well-being of not only the United States, but the whole world. Vast amounts of people have been lifted out of poverty, given some means of protection, and medicine/technology have greatly expanded life expectancy/quality and is now available to much more of the world. All of these things are great and they all are working together to build a much brighter future.

I know what you’re thinking.

This is leading to a “but” or a “however” that would seem out of place after all of the unbelievable progress the human race has made in recent times. But it’s important to understand that in a world where attention and critical thinking is becoming less and less prevalent for serious issues, it must go to futile, irrelevant, or even fabricated issues. After all there is always something needed to be improved upon, and the solving (or vast improvement) of some issues leads to the creation of others. The problem arises when a society no longer knows how to be strong, a strength that can only be formed from living through the hardships of life that have existed since the dawn of time. When the world, a country, a government, a city, all the way down to the individual (after all, all groups of people consist of individuals, each of which has the capacity to alter the outcome of it) no longer experiences or even acknowledges the hardships of previous generations and the blessings of their present one it gives a false sense of security that easily can be taken away. Being a harmless man doesn’t make you a good one. Watching as a society begins to form dangerous ideologies or idly watching as your friend becomes a raging alcoholic is still wrong. The sin of omission is what causes so many dictatorships to rise to power and causes your friend to go off into the deep end. A dangerous man who lacks control, however, can be far too reckless. This idea is best represented by the Disney story of Beauty and the beast, the beast, is dangerous, reckless and has no love in his heart. That is dangerous. The very extreme end of it, for there is nothing left to love, especially himself, and the world itself seems to be out to get him in the mind of the beast (it doesn’t matter if it is reality or not, it is the beast’s reality). I believe we see this often-time todays in the minds of mass shooters. Obviously there are virtually too many dark and twisted reasons and possibilities behind their acts, but amidst the dark and dreary swamp there arises some patterns that are commonly shared among them. A mass shooter is a literal representation of the most dangerous a man could be. A man, who like the beast, has a virtually non-existent social life usually met with rejection, a traumatic past, psychological disorders, among many other horrifying complications, some of which were created by the individual and some of which were naturally given at birth. That environment creates a dangerous man. A very dangerous man because he no longer cares if the world views him as good or evil. He believes humanity is disgusting and that the world would be much better off if it were to be ridden of the disease, a belief that Murphy’s law (everything that can go wrong, will go wrong) has manifested in his life. It’s puzzling because the theory is paradoxical, for he is human himself. One must truly have a contempt for life and oneself to become the most dangerous man conceivable. But there is hope. The beast then meets beauty, and beauty is a representation of infinitely more than a desirable woman. Beauty represents the best possible version that the beast could be. The highest virtue (within reason) the beast could achieve. Beauty acted as a mirror of sorts, whom the beast inspected carefully, and thought, “oh maybe if I change that, or accept responsibility there, or help out here, my life can become not only tolerable but desirable”. And it’s not easy. Looking at potential and what could be of your future is frustrating. The discovery that there are no real shortcuts and that one’s path forward isn’t a simple stroll, it’s a stumbling, slow, and exhausting crawl to a potential that supersedes your current situation. And so the beast got his act together. But he was still a beast. He was still dangerous. He still frightened the average person, but he was stumbling forward on his path. He willingly accepted his hideous state and took responsibility for his life. The beast still was frightening to others than beauty, after all he was a creature unlike no other. He still was strong and dangerous, but he learned to manage it not too much to the point of harmlessness, but to a place where it was optimal to fight against malevolence in the world while not being ensnared in it. The problem we often see with men (and women but mostly applicable to men) today is a lack of burdening one’s responsibility and setting forth into unchartered territory. The willingness to sacrifice so many basic human rights for security is something new. It’s one of the great dangers of the postmodernist movement. Being a man isn’t popular anymore. Males who overtly display their masculine tendencies are now viewed as toxic when they used to be viewed as not only worthwhile but required for the flourishing of any body of individuals. Even a cursory glance at psychology will tell you the upbringing of children (particularly before reaching the age of 7) in a completely safe environment can lead to serious social implications later in life. Your child is going to get scraped and bruised, but that is a vital part of learning to prevent worse implications in the future. You already do this without even knowing. At 16 years old (9 years before the brain finishes developing I might add) you hand your child the keys to your car. Cars are extremely dangerous machines, according the CDC, they’re the 4th leading cause of death in the US and knowing all that you still decide it’s worth the risk. You’re hesitant and worried, but you know the alternative, he must learn so he is not left behind in an ever changing society. So you make sure they’re careful, check their mirrors, drive the speed limit, wear a seatbelt etc. but you know there are only a set amount of variables that your child can control. You can’t prevent a drunk driver from coming from nowhere and t-boning his car. But you accept the risk. You know the harm overprotecting your child, or yourself, can do. Head forthright into the belly of the beast, because in order to defeat the Goliath in front of you, you must first pick up the stones.