Jordan Peterson's 11th Rule & Kipling's 37 Conditions for Manliness

What is masculinity? Why is it under attack today?  These are the fundamental questions addressed in Jordan Peterson's Rule 11: Do Not Bother Children When They Are Skateboarding. We'll be exploring the life of MAN from Ancient Greece to modern time. We'll be talking about wildly different men like *Demosthenes of Ancient Athens *Winston Churchill *John Adams *Thomas Jefferson *George Washington *And Your everyday men like me! Are there conditional requirements to meet before one can enter the eternal fraternity of man? If so what are they and what do they mean? In the poem IF by Rudyard Kipling he sets down a set of 37 conditions he believes in necessary to achieve manliness.  As Peterson addresses in this chapter, there is a sentiment prevelant today that has been growing for the last 50 years. He began to identify this motivational emotion when he noticed that the University of Toronto, where he worked, put "skate stoppers" on certain curbs and on the bases of sculpture. These were designed to stop young skateboarders from grinding their boards against these areas. But they were uglier than any damage a young man could do on his flimsy piece of wood. So what really was their motivation? And what is it about boys and men that seem to crave pain and agression? Is this what so many women today are calling "toxic masculinity?" Is it the same tendency in men that leads to real violence? We'll be exploring these questions any more in this episode. I hope you'll join me in an attempt to understand what this thing we call "masculine" really is. IF- by Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you        Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,     But make allowance for their doubting too;    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,     Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,     And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;        If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster     And treat those two impostors just the same;    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken     Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,     And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings     And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings     And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew     To serve your turn long after they are gone,    And so hold on when there is nothing in you     Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,        Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,     If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute     With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,        And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!