Why America Has a Generation of ‘Little Men’ | Intellectual Takeout

Why America Has a Generation of ‘Little Men’ | Intellectual Takeout:
"There’s a lot of talk these days about the problem with young, uninspired, and allegedly lazy males.
...this problem is evident in the fact that all the young men around them seem to have “gotten really soft.”
There are many theories as to why these problems are intensifying...
... there is another that we may have overlooked.
This theory is one advanced in the 1930 book The Conquest of Happiness, written by British philosopher Bertrand Russell.
In his book, Russell argues that children need to learn to deal with boredom early in life.
As Russell saw it, too many modern parents (and by extension one could argue teachers and other adults influential in children’s lives) whip their children around from one activity to the next.
In doing this, they teach children to love pleasure and become addicted to excitement.
Instead, Russell urges parents to let their children – particularly boys – have times of “fruitful monotony,” in which they can be busy and working, but not necessarily in an activity that is exciting or stimulating:
“A boy or young man who has some serious constructive purpose will endure voluntarily a great deal of boredom if he finds that it is necessary by the way.
But constructive purposes do not easily form themselves in a boy’s mind if he is living a life of distractions and dissipations, for in that case his thoughts will always be directed towards the next pleasure rather than towards the distant achievement.”
Those who fail to follow this advice with their children, Russell notes, stand to reap serious problems in future years..."