Warriors assemble. . .

In contrast to the often aimless violence of the modern video games, the old call issued to boys was to become dragon slayers and to offer them dragons to slay.  Sure, it was the imagination that was being engaged but it was not only that.  The old order offered a solemn assessment of the state of things in the world and also offered the youth and young man a purpose and challenge to pursue in order to make it better.  There is a certain morality in this that is missing too much today.  We need it back.  We do not need to rob young boys and young men of their masculinity but to direct it and to push them to pursue the noble caused of virtue in a sinful world.  Because of this, it is not simply a religious cause but one that cuts through the whole specter of our society and the harm we have done to men and thus to ourselves as a society.

We tell men all the time that they need women and yet we live in a culture in which we tell women that they do not need men.  It is no wonder that our boys are confused and defeated.  They have been singled out as toxic and their masculinity berated as poison when the sins being described are not masculinity or the boys but a cruel stereotype and caricature of masculinity that serves no purpose but to elevate some by tearing down others.  We seem to be saying to them that the only boys and men worth anything are those who deny their maleness and become more feminine in their demeanor, behavior, and thinking.  It is no wonder that boys are struggling more than girls.  Don't believe me?  Look at the statistics of who is going to college, graduating from college, who are graduating with honors (on any level), and who are filling the ranks of graduate schools and university faculties (as well as boardrooms across America).  

Dragons are threats to the world, to the civilized order of morality and truth, to the well-being of the innocent and oppressed, and to the home and family.  The mere identity of dragons is a subtle admission that all is not as it should be in the world, that sin has carved its mark upon our humanity and upon the sacred institutions of that humanity.  Giving young boys and young men dragons to slay is to give them a purpose and to raise their cause from the aimless entertainment of their baser desires to the higher plane of virtue and its pursuit of the right, the good, and the noble things that raise humanity instead of tearing it down.

The mythological framework of the old stories and some new (Harry Potter) is morality, truth, and goodness against the immoral, the lies, and the evil that threatens to swallow up us all and steal from us the very hope that marks the good life.  Some people are worried that these stories will secularize our youth but I fear that without these stories, without the imagination of good slaying evil, and without the enlistment of youth in the noble causes of life, we will do far worse as a nation and as a culture.  C.S. Lewis, who loved fairy stories, once wrote that “sometimes fairy stories say best what needs to be said” (indeed, the title of one of his essays).  Such stories of dragons and their slayers give to our youth a far more realistic impression of the world around them than the brutal reality we tend to thrust upon them in modern literature and video games.  Stories of children who encounter trouble at school or who are focused inwardly upon their desires or identity and who find acceptance and tolerance seem noble but they do nothing to prepare that youth for the real world.  As we all know, the world does not value truth telling or truth tellers but only those who do not question the sacred tenets of modernity.  Instead, the old stories of dragons and dragon slayers tell children how to recognize, confront, and overcome their enemies toward the pursuit of a higher good than recognition and the accolades of their peers.

When we work to sanitize the world and rid the child’s mind of such things as death, violence, wounds, suffering, heroism, and good, we also prevent them from finding ways through this darkness to any real light.  In this case, what we are doing to protect our children harms them -- especially the boys.  By teaching them of brave knights who battle dragons with heroic courage, we give them hope to confront the evils around them.  So let us admit that there are cruel enemies, wicked kings, monsters who fly through the skies, dungeons that hold captives in darkness, giants who need to be brought down to size, and villains who need to be confronted.  The more we do this, the more our young boys and young men will see their purpose and their place and this will benefit not only them but the women who really do need them.