For The Individual Man
A young man is dangerous. In addition to his animal instincts, he possesses increasing abilities to freely choose, reason and create. Thus he is a potential threat to the powers that be. Like a wild animal running loose on the farm, he must be tamed, trained and put to good use–or locked up.
Everyone in the young man’s world has a different idea of who he ought to be or become, and all sorts of methods are used to make him conform to various notions of what a “good man” is. He faces an endless onslaught of punishments, rewards, propaganda masquerading as education, mood altering drugs which make him more docile and compliant–it”s endless. He”s manipulated to feel guilt, fear, shame, self-doubt and pride in ways and at times that will induce his submission.
Perhaps the greatest threat the young man faces is not the indoctrination, the moralizing, the intimidation or the drugging, but the conscription of his heart.
Mythologies are created and promoted to move his heart in ways which inspire him to be loyal to the group, obedient to the authority figure and a hero for the given cause. Militaries, militant groups, religious causes and political movements attempt to stimulate the arousal of this deep sense of honor which manifests as a feeling from within the heart of the man. If successful, the group evokes in the young man a profound and unmistakeable fire in his heart, which inspires a sense of loyalty and a willingness to fight, suffer and possibly even die or kill for the cause.
The group will in one way or another tell the man that this feeling in his heart means that the movement is true, that it is right, just or holy, and that he is to follow it.
The young man has inner forces acting upon him as well: animal instinct, gut/intuition… the guidance of his heart. The heart guidance I speak of is the inner felt experience of a man”s heart which calls him to “be the one for his people.”
There is a natural heart intelligence which…