Matthew Gault combines a well framed article with a phone interview of my favorite journalist, Sebastian Junger, best known for his book The Perfect Storm. Matthew offers himself as a transparent avatar for the reader in what is possibly the best interview-based article I have read. It might not seem like a lot, but getting out of the way of the subject is a keen skill. Below are three quotes from Junger:

“I think this is probably the first society in history that actively discourages an intelligent conversation about what manhood should require of men,” Junger tells me. “Simultaneously, our society is asking adult males to be men,”

“I remember as a young man just having no idea,” he continues. “How do I become this thing I want to be? How do I do it? So what happens is young men try to devise their own rites of passages.”

“I have friends who are anthropologists and primatologists and evolutionary psychologists … [who are under] an enormous amount of pressure to generate data that shows that all gender differences are cultural.”

For more in this phenomenon read ‘The Pain Of Being Human’

For more details on Junger’s work on men at war read ‘2nd Platoon, Battle Company’.

If masculinity in America is a topic of interest to you check out this incisive discussion at the link below.