Human Terrain & Anthropology (merged thread)

[Norfolk]

I think you've touched on a key security issues that is seldom analyzed in any rigorous way: how does a society channel off and control the aggression of young males? This sounds glib but I'm serious--things like sports and video games help. The problem in much of the Islamic world (and I realize this a gross generalization which many people won't like) is that the only outlets are making babies and venting through extremism. I really think we'd to more to augment our security if exported X Boxes as enthusiastically as we exported democracy.

The best solution is universal conscription IMO - putting young men under the eagle eyes and firm hands of professional officers and NCOs. Next best is sports - until you think of Brit football fans and Central American republics going to war over soccer matches.

X-Box is effective, though, at keep the rabble off the streets; but like the Roman forums and their gladitorial and animal matches, this also serves to ennervate them, and that's not good for society as a whole. A good chunk of the male working-age population sitting around at home after work (if they're working) playing X-Box and not engaging in family life leads to all sorts of other serious societal problems.

Besides, some bored and innovative individuals just might get the same idea someday as that professor at MIT and hook up a few together to produce his own supercomputer, which he claims is capable of wreaking all sorts of havoc - though he in fact uses it for research to counter said. We might just be trading in suicide bombers for cyber bombers.

I don't foresee a solution for youthful male aggression in the Near East, because as far as I see it, the conditions, issues, and problems are so far out of reach of any thinking that I've ever been able to grasp. Hopefully there are others who can.

As for the potential for young male aggression in Western socities, universall conscription is a must in my view. Young men must learn duty, order, discipline, obedience, and self-control; and particularly within the context of assuming their responsibilites as citizens. There has been far too much emphasis and leeway given on "rights", and responsibility has largely been ignored and even maligned. Time for a permanent change, and to help head off "underclass" situations. By extension, tt is also time to redress in the U.S. the neglect of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, the right to bear arms and the accompanying duty of all citizens to be part of a "well-regulated militia". Both sides in the gun-debate tend to emphasize one half of this while ignoring the other.