Virtue: A habitual and firm disposition to do the good. Cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Traditional male virtues are strength, courage, independence, heroism in combat, and sexual initiative.

What better time to discuss the erosion of manly virtues than Easter Week?

For many years, Jesus has been portrayed as a Galilean flower child, walking around the countryside being nice, preaching love and peace, and having a thing for Mary Magdalene. Somehow, this easygoing hippie runs afoul of the corrupt power structure, and ends up dying with career criminals, under horrible circumstances.

Of course, even a casual reading of the Gospels reveals something far different. If anything, Jesus is a confrontational, in-your-face young rebel, more than eager to match wits with the best and brightest, and not afraid to get physical (as in clearing the Temple.) Although he can be very kind and forgiving, he spends a good portion of his time calling people names and warning them that they are headed straight to Hell. In short, nice guys and flower children don't get crucified.

But, this true picture flies in the face of how current convention views the ideal man. Much damage has been done by the assault on male virtues, but where did this revisionism come from?

Would you believe politics?

Allow me to connect the dots for you. Start out by reading any speech given by Teddy Roosevelt, or an earlier politician. Generally, they are blunt, clear, and certainly not warm, fuzzy, or sensitive. Compared to the current crop of speeches (and politicians, for that matter) one detects an abundance of testosterone. What happened?

The 19th amendment (26 August 1920), that gave women the vote. However, women did not cause the destruction of male virtues, we men did that ourselves.

The first president elected under these new rules was Harding, by a landslide. Since voting was a new experience, we can speculate that most women took the advice of their husbands. In any event, it can scarcely be argued that Harding campaigned for the women's vote.

The first candidate who seemed to address women specifically was Franklin Roosevelt, always a master at building political constituencies and dividing the public. Stricken by polio, and hampered in campaigning even in his gubernatorial run, let alone his presidential efforts, his wife Eleanor gave many speeches on his behalf. Sexual preference rumors notwithstanding, she was a beacon for women, and pulled in the votes.

The only problem is that no one ever figured out HOW to campaign to women. The original guidelines--that women were different from men, and required more sensitive, dumbed down talk--have not changed to this day. Therefore, with each passing campaign, the combatants became kinder, gentler, more conciliatory, and yes, more effeminate. Remember that before Vietnam, people actually believed and looked up to the government, especially the president. The president set the tone for the nation, and the president was becoming kinder and gentler.

Count up all the elections since 1920, and add to the mix the Leftist notion of a zero sum game, so that any gain for women must necessarily be a loss for men. Presto! You've reached today's sorry situation.

Pick any contemporary issue, and chances are you'll find destroyed male virtue as a root cause.

Illegitimacy--What's easier, being a strong man supporting your family, or just knocking her up and running off?

Chemical dependency--Whatever happened to temperance? Who cares? There's a government sponsored treatment program to bail you out any time and as many times as you need it.

Failing public schools--No more strength, courage, or heroism to stand up to the social engineers. Where is that high school principal willing to kick out the troublemakers and stare down the bureaucrats?

Crime--Only possible without prudence and justice

Poverty and welfare abuse--Thrive without independence, strength, and fortitude

We could continue, but you get the picture. Speaking of pictures, if we were to write a screenplay today for The Iliad, that most masculine of stories, how would we have to change things?

Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships, was despised by both Trojans and Greeks. She was treacherously stolen away by Paris, from her Greek husband Menelaus, but she went along quite willingly. Should the reader harbor any doubt that she was little better than a prostitute, after she makes a pass at Hector (Paris' brother), her miserable character cannot be denied.

In the movie, though, Paris would be the sensitive sort, while Menelaus, Lord of the War Cry, would be depicted as too chauvinistic. Helen would be praised for leaving her dysfunctional marriage.

Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, exerts his authority, and takes a prize woman from Achilles, prompting Achilles, and his huge Myrmidon contingent, to sit out key battles of the war, thus prolonging the suffering for both sides.

In the movie, the brooding Achilles, and the power mad Agamemnon would surely have a dark side, replete with drug use, orgies, and maybe even animal cruelty. Make no mistake that the close friendship between Achilles and Patroclus would be transformed into a gay relationship.

Bad enough that a classic would be so transformed, but worse by far that an entire culture is deteriorating.

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