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Brad Miner on The Compleat GentlemanBRAD MINERThe notion of the gentleman has been out of fashion for some time, especially because of its connection to boorish, Victorian-era stoicism. However, Brad Miner believes that the example of the gentleman is ripe for recovery, and far from being a stick-in-the-mud, the "complete" gentleman is a passionate warrior, lover and monk.
Q:
What is a "complete gentleman"?
Miner: The book is boldly descriptive and only mutedly prescriptive. I'm not an evangelist for chivalry, and in any case my view is that the descriptive part — the detailing of the history, the telling of stories, the listing of virtues — amounts to a kind of prescription, at least for the few willing to swallow the medicine.
Miner: I suppose the "barbarians" are the boys animated by the macho violence of hip-hop culture and the "wimps" are the kids politicized by the various "isms" of the New Age. There are many causes of this degradation, but it all comes down to a simple fact: Young people tend to lack a sense of calling or mission. This is partly what Michael Barone is getting at in his recent book Hard America, Soft America. We have teen-agers who seem unable to cope with the rigors of competition and then 30-year-olds who are capable of running the world. We live in a nation that has achieved an unprecedented level of luxury and in an age in which technology encourages passivity. Young people ought to be physically fit, if possible, morally responsible and intellectually active. If education does nothing but raise doubts, and culture mostly encourages predation, then the "smart" kids will be weak and "tough" kids will be cruel. The antidote to this is balance and restraint. We need scholarship, devotion and self-control.
Miner: I devote some considerable space in my book to Newman's observations, (see excerpt here) and I argue that you have to put them in the context of his time and, to an extent, to read between the lines. Without question, he considered saintliness preferable to gentlemanliness, but his point of reference was an ideal of the gentleman that had long ago lost its connection to chivalry. I believe the complete gentleman recovers that connection, especially chivalry's martial quality. Newman was reacting to the portraits of the gentleman as drawn by writers such as Lord Chesterfield, Samuel Smiles and Charles Kingsley. Having summarized their views, Newman says they are fine — as far as they go. Trouble is, they don't go far enough. It's as though the man they describe is what he is by virtue of his clothes; that gentlemanliness is merely something you wear. The biblical phrase "whited sepulchers" comes to mind. A real man, we might say, was in Newman's view someone who "discerns the end in every beginning," which means he lives more fundamentally, less superficially. He is patient and forbearing on philosophical principles — not on the basis of social expediency; he "submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny." This is a flesh-and-blood man with, perhaps, emphasis on the blood.
Miner: At the risk of seeming to duck the question, I have to say that each man must answer in his own way. Authenticity is inseparable from individuality. I have no "Seven Steps to Manliness." But I will say this: We do well to reconsider the ancient qualities of the knight, which are loyalty, generosity, courtesy, honor, courage and restraint. It's fair to say that men in the Middle Ages mostly fell short of the ideal, as probably we will today. But for heaven's sake, let's at least aspire to a higher standard. If I could give one rather reckless bit of advice to American men, it's this: Learn restraint, learn to fight, remember that you will die, and meditate devoutly on the fact that death is preferable to dishonor.
Miner: There are aspects of feminism that are nasty, but any man who throws up his hands in despair because he's confused about what women want, is a loser. Again, we must live with a distinction between public and private, and what ought to matter most in a man's life is the love he shares with the particular women his life, not attitudes about "women in general." Women are manifestly more powerful today than in the past, and this is positively good and absolutely not going to change. Palaver about male oppression is as ludicrous as claims about female superiority. Loving and respecting women does not require diminishing masculinity.
Miner: This question is outside the realm of my knowledge. But I suppose a culture that produces weak and vacillating men will produce weak and vacillating priests.
Q: What can
parents, schools and churches do to reverse this crisis of masculinity?
The above interview with Brad Miner was conducted by Zenit in Rome on February 3, 2005.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ZENIT is an International News Agency based in Rome whose mission is to provide objective and professional coverage of events, documents and issues emanating from or concerning the Catholic Church for a worldwide audience, especially the media. Reprinted with permission from Zenit - News from Rome. All rights reserved. THE AUTHOR
Copyright © 2005 Zenit |
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