The cure for "toxic masculinity" is the Vedas

I remember as a child having an apprehension which is not all that uncommon in this day and age and that was the fear of becoming an adult.  It was not that I feared responsibility but that I saw adults as evil, I can't quite explain it, it was not 100% rational, but there was just something about them that was not good.  I think most children these days can sense something duplicitous and corrupt about adults, they almost seem to taunt the children that one day they will lose their innocence and goodness and become cunning and ugly like them. While there is this sense among too many children today, the worst is perhaps reserved for the relationship between father and son, men and boys. 

Before I became Hindu I soaked myself in the milieu known as "Aryanism", this is based upon the intuition of pagan men as to how our once supposed Aryan ancestors lived, believed and acted.  While this reconstruction is far from holistic, there is of course something to this atavistic regeneration.  One of the complaints found among white pagans wishing to return to a more Aryan past is the mutated concept of masculinity under which we now live.  The Christian world is absolutely rife with hypocrisy when it comes to the concept of the perfect man.  The perfect man whom all Christian men should strive to be is Jesus, but hardly can you find a man anywhere in the West who would even think of going out of his way to be like Christ.  Jesus was an effete philosopher who knew no self-defense, was more or less passive, and allowed himself to be tortured and humiliated without a fight. While Christian men should strive to be like Jesus, they always escape this duty by relying upon the idea that men are imperfect and Jesus came to die for their sins anyway.  Boys who do emulate Jesus are usually viewed as silly homosexuals who have no other place in society than to be priests and teachers to tell the soft and inapplicable fairy tales of Christ, at least as far as it goes to tutoring men. 

But Christian man does have a tutor on how to be a man from the Bible and that is the Old Testament.  The Old Testament man was barbaric and narrow, he laid claim to the lands of more advanced pagans and invaded them like hoards.  They destroyed everything that was delicate and beautiful, tearing up the pagan's sacred tree groves, destroying their temples of advanced architecture, burning their books of nuanced philosophy, and more than this they were instructed to kill every man, woman, child and animal... just stupid savage blood lust. The most beautiful and delicate of the pagan women were transformed into wretched and destroyed sex slaves as their heads were shaved to humiliate them and they were given a year to give up their idolatry or be killed.  The Christians of Europe repeated this barbarism as they wiped out the more exquisite ideas and peoples of Greece and Egypt.  Hypatia is the most famous story of these, a young brilliant female mathematician and pagan philosopher who had been tolerant and cooperative with Christians yet who was stripped naked and bashed to death by Christian mobs nonetheless.

The Bible tells its adherents to avoid "highfalutin" philosophies and anything graceful is viewed with disdain and mocked. Nietzsche lamented that the Christian conquest of Greece had destroyed all that was delicate and replaced it with coarseness, and this is what the Judeo-Christian man aims to be, coarse.  As a boy I had no respect for men, they were brutish, stupid, ignorant and cruel.  I remember a neighbor boy of mine who was perfectly normal as far as the masculinity of young boys goes, yet his father would constantly threaten him that he was going to military school; now the father did not make this sound like a good thing but with extreme sadism would constantly torture his son that this place would be an experience of extreme breaking and horror. It is often expected in Judeo-Christian culture that young boys will not want to make the passage into manhood and must be forced in a boorish fashion, this is because young boys are kind and sensitive and are disgusted by the belligerent and oblivious creature they are expected to become.

The Aryan pagan is usually marked by his hatred for the Rambo style of modern Judeo-Christian informed military culture, its over simplification, its blockhead socialization, and its disdain for wit in favor of relying upon more brute force as to preserve the machismo identity of the soldiers.  Pagans usually romanticize the armies of such as Alexander the Great or the Roman soldiers, ornate and lustful armor design, a strong diversification of specialized weaponry, ostentatious religious and ritual displays and the overt incorporation of poets and wise men into the military structure. Pagan soldiers are often depicted as being more decorative with their hair and beards, having intellectual pursuits outside of warfare and being much more open in showing affection for each other. Now while I must say this vision of masculinity would be much more appealing to me, I also have to admit that this is likely the reason why the Christians were able to subdue these pagans and today view them as weak, their refined masculinity was simultaneously too cumbersome and too dainty. While I find modern day imitations of Greek and Roman ware attractive, there is something decadent about it which conveys vulnerability. 

I have to say until I converted to Hinduism I really never found a masculinity that attracted me, something I wanted to be, something to join, something to aspire to.  Now it is true I am an effeminate homosexual and so it is not likely I would ever join the more masculine men in their adventures, but that does not mean I could not wish to be one of them, though I never had this feeling before reading the Vedas.  The warriors of the Vedas are starkly different from the warriors of the Bible or the Quran, they are much happier, jovial, jocular and kidding. The Maruts or soldier of Indra are painted as bands of beautiful young men who shine with luster and whom are not afraid to enjoy one another's beauty. My favorite god, the god of sex and war Kama Deva, he is not afraid tonuse what would seem like an atom bomb to utterly destroy his enemies immediately, he does not need to prove his masculinity by digging trenches and putting himself in the way of hellfire. The wind and warrior god Vayu is said to be exceedingly handsome and delicate and he announces his arrival with shimmering garbs which rustle and make noise like the wind to accentuate is delicate good looks. 

The Vedas often use the word "manly" to describe the Vedic warriors but they also describe exactly what they mean by this.  While the Vedas do describe the many stereotypical manly feats of the Arya such as slaying and over powering the enemies, they also illustrate the more elegant side of their manly nature.  Unlike the military of today whose young men must be crushed and brainwashed to obey, the manly warriors of the Vedas are said to be praised by their sons and are surrounded by many adoring youthful consorts. They are said to be wise and majestic and while they are soldiers they are pure enough to offer up sacred rites. The painting of the beauty of the Arya is usually reserved to their bodies and their auras, however there are passages which do speak of their golden chains and animal skin coverings. They are said to be liberal in giving out alcoholic meed.  Leaders among the Arya are well skilled in adoration of the gods and advance the welfare of the people by listening to them rather than commanding, and this draws the people to ponder his holy statue instead of following under threat. Not only are warriors said to be manly but sages can be manly too, and the generals are not so stupid as to be unable to see the use of even musicians (Gandharvas) and nymphs (Apsaras) in destroying the enemy as these are viewed as sneaking and clever. Poems are likened to the arrows of a manly archer.  Finally, kings are said to be clothed in grace, shining in their own luster and endowed with every form of quality, including the delicate wisdom to find immortality, an intricate pursuit usually not befitting a manly man of today. 

As the great World-halves, so are their Son's praises; skilled, as a man, to act, is he the Herald. Vaisvanara, celestial, truly mighty, most manly One, hath many a youthful consort. - Rig Veda 1.59.4

BRING for the manly host, wise and majestical, O Nodhas, for the Maruts bring thou a pure gift. I deck my songs as one deft-handed, wise in mind prepares the water that hath power in solemn rites 0 Rig Veda 1.64.1

Held in your manly arms are many goodly things, gold chains are on your chests, and glistering ornaments, Deer-skins are on their shoulders, on their fellies knives: they spread their glory out as birds spread out their wings. - Rig Veda 1.166.10

Bring us the wealth that men require, a manly master of a house, Free-handed with the liberal meed. - Rig Veda 6.53.2

These have passed all in glory, who, the manly, have wrought with skill the hymn of adoration; Who, listening, have advanced the people's welfare, and set their thoughts on this my holy statute - Rig Veda 7.7.6

Wealthy in heroes and in cars and horses, strength hundredfold and thousandfold, O Indra, With manly sages, happy troops, Iight-winning: vouchsafe us mighty and resplentdent riches. - Rig Veda 10.47.5

The Gandharvas and Apsaras, the serpents and the gods, holy men and (deceased) Fathers, the visible and invisible (beings), do I impel, that they shall slay yonder army! - Atharva Veda 8.8.15

 Bring hither, O chanter, thy poem, that which earns cattle and earns good things! Among the gods (kings) place thy voice as a manly archer his arrow! - Atharva Veda 20.1.27.6

Prayer at the Consecration of a King As he did step hither all (men) did attend him. Clothed in grace, he moves, shining by his own lustre. This is the great name of the manly Asura; endowed with every form (quality) he entered upon immortal (deeds). - Atharva Veda 4.8.4

The men of the West today often resent the term "toxic masculinity" as they view this as an attack on all masculinity by Marxist informed false feminism.  The Puranas state that in the time of the Kali Yuga, the time of ignorance, women will become rebellious against men, however it is also stated that this happens only because men become wicked, evil and unrighteous. The fall of masculinity can be seen in the later epics where the once proud and noble warrior and king god Indra has become a drunken stupid fool who spends his time trying and failing to prevent humans from following the path of Dharma as in his insecurity he fears they will compete with him. Judeo-Christian men, while defensive against claims of toxic masculinity, are certainly aware of their own inadequacy in terms of true masculinity.  Some believe the best way to correct this is to resurrect the chivalry of the knights of the Middle Ages, but not long could this last as that culture was the product of pre-Christian paganism and the Judeo-Christian ethos has already proven it is simply not able to hold such an ideal.  I think if these men were introduced to the masculinity of the Vedas they would find something much more organic, refreshing and sustainable than what has currently been put before them.  They would also find that other less masculine men, women, and children would be much more accepting, respectful and grateful for Vedic masculinity and the man would not have to live his life trying to subdue his sons, his daughters, and his wives.