TRUE GRIT

 

by Michael X.

Grit : An elusive quality. It embodies courage, determination, steadfastness, the ability to endure pain, ridicule, isolation and doubt.

It is distinct from taste, political ideology or religion.

While women can have it, it is not considered essential to femininity. Grit is a masculine quality and all real men must have it to some degree.

In the 2008 American election we had John McCain, the war hero, and Sarah Palin, the housewife/governor. This pairing unintentionally stood conventional wisdom on its head. There was no small irony in the fact that McCain, the war hero, had no grit while Sarah Palin, the housewife who became governor, had it in spades.

In my generation, John Wayne had it. Ronald Reagan had it. George Patton had it. So did Burt Lancaster and Clark Gable. Almost all the men of that generation had it.

Clint Eastwood has it. Sly Stallone has it. Jason Statham has it. While Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, et al, do not have it.

That does not mean that men sympathetic to the left don't have it. Jeff Bridges has it and Liam Neeson has it. 

Our culture used to have grit. That was when men asserted themselves and exerted their influence as heads of the family. And women supported the role of men as providers and protectors. Now modern men are discouraged from thinking of themselves as providers and protectors and are encouraged to think of themselves as helpmates.

Women (mostly single women) are encouraged to think of government as a more competent and reliable provider and protector of women than men. Manliness is rejected as an intrinsic condition of the male.

And what do we get from this progressive view? Beta-males. Those unremarkable, careful men who like to wag their tails, back away from risk and confrontation and have an unmanly pre-occupation with avoiding pain and danger. In time this will become a self fulfilling prophecy. Manliness will become a cultural anachronism.

Grit is the defining characteristic of the male. Grit is essential. A nation without grit is a nation that cannot and will not defend itself. A nation without grit, ultimately, is not a nation at all.