Are We Teaching Our Sons That To Be A Man Is To Be Violent?

Many ancient customs involving male initiation into manhood require either fighting, killing, or endurance of pain. For eons, men have equated violence and the subjugation of others with manhood. Yet, the great teachers of enlightenment - Buddha, Confucious, Arisotle, Jesus, Muhammad, Ghandi, and many others, always taught that manhood is the mastery of oneself in order to obtain inner peace. So why are we still, all over the world, guiding our sons into a culture of violence? Men are traditionally considered the protectors of women. Well, if we lived among wild beasts, such as lions,  tigers, wolves, and so forth, that might be necessary. But in our urban communities, there are no wild beasts. There are only other men, who have failed to master themselves and are therefore dangerous to others. Why have we not as a human family, chosen to teach our sons to aspire to nonviolence as a greater mark of manhood?  Women, at what point do we collectively choose to stop encouraging violent behavior in men?