Welcome to A Man Should Know, a brand-new series from The Free Press. It’s a response to a question: How can today’s lost boys become tomorrow’s good men?
Young men are struggling when it comes to the pursuit of happiness. They’re increasingly online, unemployed, single, and lonely. There’s no shortage of voices telling them what to be. Some insist masculinity is toxic; others, that it’s unfairly maligned, and men don’t need improving.
Elliot Ackerman does neither. A Marine Corps veteran, former CIA Special Activities officer, and New York Times best-selling author, he believes there are some tried-and-true tenets that go into the making of a man—and the modern man would do well to remember them. So each week, he’s going to pick something a man should know. Today, he begins with the very beginning, with the thing every man must do before anything else: introduce himself. —The Editors
In a society with mixed opinions on traditional masculinity, how do we speak to men—particularly young men—about manhood?
The role models in my life taught me to be a man by teaching me certain skills. Often these lessons would begin with the phrase “a man should know” and were then followed by a tutorial on how to change a spare tire, buy a watch, choose a restaurant. . . you get the idea. Tied to these skills, though, were larger lessons about life as a man. What I promised those role models (and not all were men) was that I would pass on their lessons.
