I was watching a video of young men playing parkour on high-rise buildings. This is similar to other extreme sports, viz. Motocross, mountainboarding, rock-climbing.
i) The foolhardy hubris is arresting. A daredevil has to get lucky every time while gravity only has to get lucky once. What factors contribute to this high-risk behavior?
ii) Atheism is nihilistic. Doesn't give young people anything to live for. So secularism fuels risky behavior.
iii) Some boys have always been attracted to dangerous stunts. That's why it's good to have contact sports (e.g. football, ice hockey, Lacrosse). While contact sports aren't risk-free, they're far safer than the activities some boys resort to if denied that outlet.
The cultural elite, which dominates the education establishment, demonizes masculinity. Frowns on stereotypical male activities, like contact sports. But the result is to make boys pursue even more hazardous extracurricular activities.
iv) It may not be coincidental that parkour has an urban setting. Men are designed for the out-of-doors. While some guys love the big city, I think many guys find too much urbanization claustrophobic. In the past, boys had hunting, rafting, horseback riding to work off their excess energy.
Although there are probably multiple reasons for street gangs, I think one reason is that inner city kids lack access to nature in the wild.
One factor is how trivial the culture is. People aren't encouraged to think much about the most important issues in life, like God, accountability to him, and death. Instead, they're encouraged to have a highly trivial view of life.
ReplyDeleteAnother factor is a false view of God. If they give God much thought, which often doesn't happen, they'll typically think of him as morally permissive and religiously pluralistic. Even when God's moral standards are violated, he won't do much about it.
If they aren't thinking much about subjects like God and death, and the thoughts they do have about God involve one who's permissive and pluralistic, there isn't much to be concerned about.