Two things disappoint me with the current generation of men as a whole. Some things disappoint me about certain groups of men, but as a whole, there are two things that irritate me.
- As a group, we are 'somatically incapable' (explanation follows)
- As a group, we don't desire any change from this.
While we pride ourselves on our knowledge on everything from carpentry to cars, we are often completely unaware of anything besides the buzzwords. Which is where the term (which I made up), Somatically Incapable, comes in.
Somatically Incapable means that while we may know things, we are unable to convert our knowledge to ability. So while we all know the difference between a V6 and a V8 and can probably argue at length about the pros and cons of both we may well not be able to change a tyre, and while we may know the difference between a dovetail joint and a tongue and groove joint (admittedly they are similar) we have no idea how to make them. Don't argue with me on the definition of the phrase, I made it up so I can tell you what it means.
As males we pride ourselves on going down to the shed on the weekend and doing something - or we used to. Now, I'm only 19, but I can still remember being excited after coming back from the garage having forged something from the earth (or gluing a few pieces of wood together to make bookends). The somatic component of our lives has run away with the onset of technology. You may have noticed the effect - tradesmen are becoming less respected and conversely, more needed. We need them to do nigh on everything that goes wrong. As soon as there is anything that needs repairs, we go straight to the yellow pages and then complain that they overcharged us. And yet, we will have a pile of tools rivalling that found in the entirety of the UK - most of which, we won't know how to use (because almost everyone can use a hammer or a screwdriver).
Now we come to the issue of the second problem - we don't want to change this. When you asked someone for help to do something last time, did you have any idea how to do it for the next time? or did you just assume that they will be able to do it again? Most people want to specialise in their chosen field, whether it be criminal law or plumbing, and don't want to know anything outside of that (which I think is a subject for later) in case they become a jack of all trades and a master of none. So the idea is that you know nothing about anything else. An expert is defined as someone who knows more and more about less and less and everyone's ideal is to become an expert. While we can never be pantomaths and its still hard to get to polymath status, we can know other things.
The term man around the house probably originated from the man's ability to be able to do things around the house. Why can't we return to that?
Somatically Incapable means that while we may know things, we are unable to convert our knowledge to ability. So while we all know the difference between a V6 and a V8 and can probably argue at length about the pros and cons of both we may well not be able to change a tyre, and while we may know the difference between a dovetail joint and a tongue and groove joint (admittedly they are similar) we have no idea how to make them. Don't argue with me on the definition of the phrase, I made it up so I can tell you what it means.
As males we pride ourselves on going down to the shed on the weekend and doing something - or we used to. Now, I'm only 19, but I can still remember being excited after coming back from the garage having forged something from the earth (or gluing a few pieces of wood together to make bookends). The somatic component of our lives has run away with the onset of technology. You may have noticed the effect - tradesmen are becoming less respected and conversely, more needed. We need them to do nigh on everything that goes wrong. As soon as there is anything that needs repairs, we go straight to the yellow pages and then complain that they overcharged us. And yet, we will have a pile of tools rivalling that found in the entirety of the UK - most of which, we won't know how to use (because almost everyone can use a hammer or a screwdriver).
Now we come to the issue of the second problem - we don't want to change this. When you asked someone for help to do something last time, did you have any idea how to do it for the next time? or did you just assume that they will be able to do it again? Most people want to specialise in their chosen field, whether it be criminal law or plumbing, and don't want to know anything outside of that (which I think is a subject for later) in case they become a jack of all trades and a master of none. So the idea is that you know nothing about anything else. An expert is defined as someone who knows more and more about less and less and everyone's ideal is to become an expert. While we can never be pantomaths and its still hard to get to polymath status, we can know other things.
The term man around the house probably originated from the man's ability to be able to do things around the house. Why can't we return to that?
Not to mention that men feel less responsible as women become more and more empowered to do everything that men do. I'm not saying that women should be suppressed, but men have gotten very lazy.
ReplyDeleteNot only are they shirking their duties as men capable of doing various commonly demanded tasks, but they're becoming less like fathers and husbands... More like... Visitors.
It seems to be that men come home, open a beer, watch the TV, eat, nap. Visitor right there.
ReplyDeleteIt gets when you consider that often women will also work and their still 'required' to cook and clean. If that's going to be the way that you do things then at least make it a fair trade and try the maintenance once in a while.