4 — Wednesday, April 15, 1992 - North Shere News A timely tale of testosterone i REMEMBER Sam Keen as one of those larger-than-life American overachievers, a guy whose name was perfectly matched to his energy. He got into things so quickly, so keenly. As a contributing editor to Psychology Taday, he used to write fairly breathless pieces about a lot of the same people I had written breathless pieces about —~ Easlen Institute types who would visit B.C. every once in a while, usually courtesy of a like-minded group of radical shrinks calling themselves the Cold Mountain In- stitute. In his book Fire In The Belly, On Being A Man, Sam is basically still on about personal transfor- mation, although now the per- sonal journey is hitched up with the collective journey cf Post- Industrial Mar. . This is an old trick practised by generations of book-writers, by the way: tie your own yarn in with some epic quest, muddy the waters of history thoroughly, get royalties, autograph wet T-shirts. if you wind up on the New York Times bestseller list, so much the better. This was precisely the cynical attitude I carried with me into reading this book. Boy, do U need some glib magazine writer, even if he does have a doctorate from Princeton, to tell me anything | don’t already know? About a third of the way through, I finally let go of my professional rivalry enough to start to enjoy the sweep and play of his ideas. It was a joyful reaffirmation of everything we learned in the '60s about growth, only a little deeper, said with the advantage of perspective, and rightly located in the context of this last desperate decade of the century. Much of Sam’s analysis is, of course, about the American scene, and, as usual, while it is interest- ing for Canadian males to read about the problems of their Yan- ree kin, the profile doesn’t quite [ta _It’s been a tong while, for in- stance, since Canadian males en masse (especially since Masse, you could say) thought of themselves as warriors. Yet even mellow, ever-so-polite Canuck males basically walk around trapped in the mindset of a stag or a buck or a bull. If it’s not quite that bad, it’s close. Writes Sam: ‘‘Without our con- scious knowledge or consent we BUILD WITH CONFIDENCE New Homes &° Renovations Consultation Design Estimates _Keep Smiling! THE DENTAL PROFESSION OF B.C. Bob Hunter STRICTLY PERSONAL have ali been. molded by the mod- ern myths of war, work and sex.”’ He adds: ‘‘Men are systematically conditioned to en- dure pain, to kill, and to die in the service of the tribe, nation or state. The male psyche is, first and foremost, the warrior psyche. Nothing shapes, informs, and molds us so much as society’s 4&6 The traditiona! male suffers from an adrenal system overstimulated by a constant fight-or-flight state of mind..99 demand that we become specialists in the use of power and violence, or as we cuphemistically say, ‘defence.’ ’* Historically, the major dif- ference between men and women is that men have always been ex- pected to be able to resort to vio- lence when necessary. “The capacity and willingness for violence has been central to our self-definition. The male psyche has not been built upon the rational ‘I think, therefore I am’ but upon the irrational ‘! conquer, therefore I am.’ " . Does this mean the story of Cain and Abel is etched upon our DNA or, as Sam Keen puts it: “*Does excess testosterone con- demn us to violent and early heart attacks?’’ He thinks not, but suspects it will take at least 100 years to overcome the power dynamics that exist among tribes, groups and nations, which fie at the bottom of the way both male and female psyches are shaped. My own thought is that Sam’s keenness is getting ahead of his objectivity. He makes up for this with sev- eral notable pop psychology in- sights: “Barly in life a boy learns that he must be prepared to fight or be called a sissy, a girl. Many of the creative men I know were sissies. They were too sensitive, perhaps too compassionate to fight. ‘“‘And most of them grew up feeling they were somehow inferi- or and had flunked the manhood test. I suspect that many writers are still showing the bullies on the block that the pen is mighticr than the sword.’’ (Well, other writers, maybe.) “To understand men and the twisted relations that exist between men and women, we need to look at what happens to a man when his mind, body and soul are socially informed by the expecta- tion that he must be prepared to suffer, die, and kill to protect those he loves.’’ (Hey, what’s this “twisted’’ bit? I didn’t say that. Sam did.) ‘*Depending on how you look at it, aggression may be man’s greatest virtue or his greatest vice. If our destiny is to conquer and control, it is the prime mover. “If our destiny is tu live in harmony, it is the legacy of an anima! past. Or maybe it is only focused energy that may be as easily directed toward making a hospital as making war.’’ (Or at least making a movie.) The traditional male suffers from an adrenal system overstimulated by a constant fight-or-flight state of mind, his chest is constricted, his anal sphincter is tight, and his breathing is shallow. Thus it has been for millenia. If we are just a century away from changing all this, terrific! I just somehow have my persona! doubts. In the meantime, it is perhaps worth noting that in the overall picture, in the U.S., at any rate, ONCE INALIFETIME! RV Y HE Cash, Cheques preferred. M/C, VISA accepted. Monday - Wednesday Thursday - Friday Saturday Sunday NO EXCHANGES OR REFUNDS ON ANY OF THIS MERCHANDISE DEMANWN Spring 92 Collection 0% Off 1519 Bellevue Avenue West Vancouver British Columbia Canada V7V 1A6 (604) 925-2990 9:00 - 6:00 9:00 - 9:00 9:00 - 6:00 12:00 - 5:00 THE SPORTING LOOK male violence against women is far less than male violence against men. According to FBI figures, two- thirds of the 21,500 American murder victims in 1989 were males. Being of a somewhat mystical bent, Sam Keen finally sees life as a spiritual journey. in his slightly too New Age-ish zest for meaningful life (at feast, that's how it seems to me) he has convinced himself that the gradual loss of rigid male character armor is a good and inevitable thing, Zreeing the formerly repressed male to tra-la-la around with the women and kids, scattering posies. I dunno. There are still a lot of psychos out there, and they have their hands on some pretty nasty armaments. There are stalkers and cannibals and people wired on weird stuff, most of these danger- ous types being other maies, - wouldn’t you know? You can just never tell when that outmoded, overbuilt adrenal system might come in handy. Yo! a Easter Weekend Shopping Hours Good Friday till Easter Monday 9:30am-6:30pm_ For information phone 985-6261 Restaurants open later