Albert Ellis: Accepting Men as They Are

Dave Barry starts out by giving a new perspective on “Men” to show that most are just “guys”: a simple minded species that easily pleased through simple and pointless means. Barry humorously takes the stance that “guys” are not aggressive and violent like traits found in “Men”, but rather defines/describes characteristics that deem immaturity.

What do you see when you think about the Holocaust? What are things you associate with it? Personally I think about the absolute evil of the Nazis and the horrible things that the Jews had to endure. I think about how gut wrenchingly terrible of a life style every one of those people had to live through and what it would be like to have been in their place. What I don’t think about and had never even considered before reading the book Ordinary Men is what it was like to be a member of one of the police battalions that had to do all these gut wrenchingly terrible crimes toward innocent human beings. I saw them as trained cold-blooded killers, robots under Hitler’s command, and nothing else. While reading this book I began to realize that these people were living human beings too, that at first felt disgusted by what they were instructed to do too and that’s what I think the author, Christopher Browning, was trying to do. He is saying that these men were just regular people that were trained to kill and that if we’re not aware of this phenomena that it could happen again.

“In men, in general, sexual desire is inherent and spontaneous” whereas “in the other sex, the desire is dormant, if not non-existent, till excited” (457). Greg’s terminology is extremely power-laden. “Spontaneous” has the connotation of energy and activity, whereas “dormant” and “victim” imply inactivity. An important concept is the assumption that men, the “coarser sex,” act on women, the “weaker sex” (457).

“A man is a man, until that man finds a plan, a plan that makes that man, a new man.”-Dred Scott. Dred Scott was a courageous slave that was out to help everyone. His wife and two daughters were both also born into slavery. He went to court with the Dred Scott vs. Sandford case. Dred Scott was a slave who fought for the freedom of slaves all around.

Ordinary Men is the disconcerting examination of how a typical unit of middle-aged reserve policemen became active participants in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Polish Jews.

Perhaps one of the most disgusting accusations one can receive today is “You’re racist!” However as disturbing as racism is, it is just one of the many mediums in which people use to control others. Whether the motive is race, religion, nationality, financial standing, or even gender, in every society, certain groups of people have always been oppressed. The culprit of seemingly unnecessary and ignorant oppression is human nature itself. Humans will always experience the need to feel superior, and for that reason, similar connections can be made among those people living under oppression thousands of miles and centuries apart from each other. “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright, “Sweat” by Zora Neale

C.S Lewis’s broadcast “Beyond Personality -- Mere Men” first appeared on March 21, 1944 on a British Broadcasting Corporation home service radio. In this public talk, Lewis attempts to convince his listeners that those followers of Christianity must conform to and accept the fact that God cannot and will not address everyone’s call at a given prayer. Appealing to logistical and emotional ideas, he asserts that “God has infinite attention, infinite leisure to spare for each one of us. He doesn't have to take us in the line. You're as much alone with Him as if you were the only thing He'd ever created.” Lewis skillfully articulates and theorizes about religion and its potent figure, God creating a powerful and persuading broadcast.

In "The Men We Carry in Our Minds," Scott Russel Sanders tries to show how his views on men are completely different from the views that some women hold. He traces the problem to the country surroundings of his youth. He explains that the men he observed as a child were completely different from the men whom most women might observe. The differing viewpoints between him and the women he met in college caused him some grief. However, it was not so much an issue of gender, but an issue of class.

In A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines, the titular men struggle with their masculinity and pride, afraid to take a stand against white authority. That is, until “today”, a seemingly normal “Friday” (Gaines 162) in Louisiana. The theme of A Gathering of Old Men, central to understanding the novel, is today is different. Because today, the day Beau Boutan, a white man, is murdered by Charlie, a black man, is different for its unprecedented and very consequential occurrence in the racist United States South of the 1970s. This thematic idea is reinforced throughout the novel and is clearly demonstrated in three episodes. The first episode involves Mathu, who, at the age of eighty-two, recognizes his previously bitter and racist self, realizes

Christopher R. Browning’s “Ordinary Men” chronicles the rise and fall of the Reserve Police Battalion 101. The battalion was one of several units that took part in the Final Solution to the Jewish Question while in Poland. The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, and other units were comprised of ordinary men, from ordinary backgrounds living under the Third Reich. Browning’s premise for the book is very unique, instead of focusing on number of victims, it examines the mindset of how ordinary men, became cold-hearted killers under Nazi Germany during World War II. Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men” presents a very strong case that the men who made up the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were indeed ordinary men from ordinary background, and

Christopher Browning describes how the Reserve Police Battalion 101, like the rest of German society, was immersed in a flood of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Browning describes how the Order Police provided indoctrination both in basic training and as an ongoing practice within each unit. Many of the members were not prepared for the killing of Jews. The author examines the reasons some of the police members did not shoot. The physiological effect of isolation, rejection, and ostracism is examined in the context of being assigned to a foreign land with a hostile population. The contradictions imposed by the demands of conscience on the one hand and the norms of the battalion on the other are discussed. Ordinary Men

In, Checking My Male Privilege, Charles M. Blow expresses one of the many biases between males and females. He addresses the issue of men molesting and sexually assaulting women around the world, and stresses most men don’t have to worry about being harassed, “This is one of my male privileges, and I have to check it.” (Blow). Charles advocates for women who have been taken advantage of. Even Charles’s own daughter has experienced sexual harassment.

The Man Who Was Almost a Man, tells the story of a young seventeen year old teenager, named Dave Saunders, who finds himself struggling with the need to be taken seriously as an adult, while still being seen by his community, as merely a boy. Published in 1961 and written by Richard Wright, this short story focuses on the common struggle of young African American men in the South trying to find their identity outside of the box that the United States society put them in at the time. Dave felt that in order to prove that he was a man; in order to receive the respect he thought he deserved from Black and White Americans alike, he needed to purchase a gun. This, of course, proved to be of more harm than good, as Dave found himself incapable of using the gun correctly, and what resulted was the death of his employer’s mule. Dave then, after creating a nonsensical lie that does not convince anyone, decides to skip town in order to avoid the responsibility of taking up for his actions. When taking into consideration the story line and its relativity to the South during the 1920s, when the story is set, it’s clear to see that Dave Saunders’ story is more than what it seems to be on the surface. Dave Saunders’ story is a reflection of common coming-of-age struggles, and even more than that, the common African American struggle of trying to find power when everything surrounding you, and society as a whole, is telling you that you’re powerless; a struggle that is still very

Humans are very selfish people, they think of themselves much more frequent then they think about any other parties that might be affected by them. I wish I could say the men are guiltier of this, but women are just as guilty when it comes to being selfish. However, in the two poems To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and To the Virgins to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick we see many similarities in their efforts to get with a girl that they like. They both try to convince the girls that they need to live in the now. Also they use word pictures to make their interest, which is getting sex, more understandable and seem less important than it is.

According to a study undertaken by Lewis and Brown (2004), men have an innate preference to be in a relationship with women who are less dominant and conform more to traditional gender roles. This is believed to stem from early human history, where men wished to ensure their genes were carried forward to the next generation. One way to ensure this would have been to find a woman who is less dominant and therefore easier to have influence over. The female offspring from such a union would also have a better chance of ensuring submissive women for future generations (Lewis & Brown, 2004).