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AN ACADEMY

There is a terrible absence of fathers and father figures, and it is fast corroding every foundation needed for a free society.

AN ACADEMY

There is a terrible absence of fathers and father figures, and it is fast corroding every foundation needed for a free society. What can we do to stop and reverse this catastrophic process? Join us here at Team Freedom.

Video below hosted at Rumble.

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36 replies on “AN ACADEMY”

I say to those whom still have their father, go to him. May he be somewhat distant, always busy and self absorbed. But you may be surprised how welcoming he may become with your insistance for guidence…perhaps his dad was the same with him and he gave up trying. Go to him, give him the chance to be what his father wasn’t. You can save at least two lives here, and perhaps the entire family. There is no joy to be found like that of a loving, accepting and supportive family, this is what our soul desires…nothing else satisfies.

Bill, your choice of film reference really hit home for me. My Dad took me to see this beautiful movie as a kid, and it made a profound impression that stuck with me through the years. It’s a milestone marker for me, from before the time when our movies started to be laced with cynicism. It especially came to mind this past year with my father’s passing, and it doesn’t escape me that immediately after the scene your excerpted comes the death of Jonathan Kent. I included the soaring theme from the cemetery among the music at my Dad’s viewing, and started the reception playlist with the theme from this profound sequence — one where Jor-El provides his fatherly guidance from the great beyond. Bless Richard Donner and John Williams for giving us this open-hearted gem that no act of the cynical social critic legions can ever take from us. I treasure it and the memories of my Dad and childhood that go with it.
Your description of the idea for an academy for young men is so familiar, I can’t now remember whether it was something you perhaps talked about long ago in the past or maybe I heard someone else describe experiencing in some form. As the father of two young boys and a former scout leader who has watched that organization and tradition tragically fall apart, the need for things like this is keenly on my mind. I hope we may find ways to realize it in some form. Martial arts has provided some form of this to me, and I hope to bring my sons back into the fold when they are ready to return to it. Thank you for this and all of your thoughtful MB2A work!

Hi Bill,
I think you’re exactly right
I’ve been part of a group very much like this for seven years now. Young men and boys are definitely in need of community, belonging and mentorship.
There’s a lot of overlap between what you’re talking about and what we’ve been doing successfully.
We focus on building connection between men through direct honest communication. Goalsetting, accountability and mentorship follow naturally from there as well. We do keep the focus on in-person connection as that’s seriously lacking in most men’s lives.
I’m in a leadership role now (thanks to my growth) and leading multiple groups of men. The entire organization is now international and we’ve gone from 6 men (one of which is me) to over 400. That’s almost entirely with word of mouth and a little bit of social media.
We’re also right now exploring ways to have meetings for young men and older teens with a few of our veteran members. We have one such group currently as a beta-test.
The timing of your video is uncanny.
I’d like to connect on this because I’m uniquely experienced to contribute.

Sincerely,

Brady Kirk

Hi Bill, another wonderful piece that is spot on regarding the continuing decline of society thanks to the decimation of the nuclear family. It’s a shame what the left has done to destroy Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts of America. Steve and Marjorie Harvey’s foundation conducts mentoring camps for young men that are similar to what you are describing.

The Boy Scouts have taken a “hit” over the last several years. It was always a great place for that “substitute” father when mine was deployed, and it included a pretty good code to serve through life. I wonder what ever happened to the ‘Big Brothers” org.
As this is a Moving Back to America segment, I attach a draft agenda for consideration, rumination, etc. It includes a similar thought to the Academy – maybe as a “Preparatory School” to help recover those currently “lost” during what hopefully would be a transition phase. Some of the keys can be done at the local or state level, so what are we waiting for?

Fatherhood is something that is definitely missing from our society today. And I myself don’t know what we can do to replace it. Maybe this is something that the church can pick up. I went to a church as a teenager that had an organization called the Royal Ambassadors that were the churches version of the Boy Scout. But we definitely need something.

I’m wondering if, rather than an organization that is specifically trying to offer fatherhood, we would be more successful with an organization kind of like the boy scouts used to be: focused on wholesome and interesting activities, where the aspects of fatherhood get to come along for the ride? I.e. Fatherhood is the medicine, but what’s the spoonful of sugar?

Jordan Peterson’s tenets would make a good start, call it a “twelve step” program as that is essentially the set up of his book written to subdue chaos.

I’m the father of three 30+ year old children. In spite of my poor parenting, they turned out to be remarkably well-adjusted responsible mothers and fathers themselves. Several years ago, during a cigar & whiskey after-dinner front porch gathering, one of the guys asked me what my secret was for raising such good kids. After recovering from the shock that someone considered me a good father, my only response was, “I was always ‘there’ “.
It is always embarrassing to have my kids hold me as an ideal father, especially since I was clueless as they were growing up and ‘making it up’ as I went along. It is always humbling also, when they recount their memories of me that the most memorable moments for them is when I was at my most embarrassing or angry.

Simple being there is one of the main things that is missing today in much greater numbers than the 80s and 90s. Congrats on you for being present in the present. There were a handful of times where ours asked for us not to chaperone as they got older so wings could be spread. Got to know when we were a little too smothering.

Great vid, 2 thoughts come to mind.

  1. Man, we could also use an academy on how to be a good father. I have kids and I feel like I have no idea what I am doing more often than I like to admit. Something like this would work in concert with the academy that you are talking about.
  2. I have loved this idea since you had it on a Stratosphere Lounge a while back, one of the rare times I made the live broadcast. I think the comment section dubbed it “The Bill Scouts of America” It was a great idea then and still is..

Let me/us know what we can do to help make this work, I have no doubt your subscribers would make it happen.

-Ryan

Thank you Bill this is very meaningful. I’ve found freedom through 12-step program called Celebrate Recovery and have been a sponsor to others. I see the need and encourage everyone to get involved in this.

Mentorship, whether it is manhood, parenthood, or even in a career is one of the greatest and most effect forms of education anyone can obtain. Mentors lead those they are mentoring. Mentors teach those WILLING to listen and learn. Mentors speak from a point of wisdom, not just books, but direct life experience.
The Issues Men-tors Face:
The largest issue that pervades the younger generations was drilled into them every waking hour of everyday. It came first from the governmental education system that taught them, “What to think, and not, How to think“. Then it was reinforced through the media, billboards, ads, movies, shows, etc.. This distinction of “What” versus “How” is glaring when speaking or discussing situations with these indoctrinated drones. When individuals don’t know how to think; they can’t evaluate the information. Thus they are stuck only understanding whatever has been told/taught/indoctrinated them to believe. They simply don’t have the skills to consciously change their own mind. This was done intentionally, sad to say.
AA requires self commitment and a strong desire to change. Some of this desire to change is fueled by repercussions for the undesired behavior. i.e. prison, fines, loss of jobs, kids, homes, death, etc…
The repercussions of the drones choosing to change are no less detrimental. Possible issues are loss of social stability, job loss, professional blacklisting, school expulsion, economic support(government aid), and yes even possibly their lives if the other drones are told to remove the insurrectionist.
The current system and public culture is anti-manhood mentor. No men are wanted in any aspect of the public culture. How do you get these drones to choose to be mentored? When the drones literally ignore the burning buildings, riots, emails, laptops, and laws, if they are told to?
I have mentored many successfully in prior decades, they had the ability to think logically. I have also attempted to mentor many more unsuccessfully in last two decades or so. They unilaterally lacked the ability to understand or comprehend cause and effect. There was no deep thinking going on, just complete “now” personalities with no desire to change. They didn’t think the past was important and the future wasn’t either. They also seemed completely incapable of self-learning anything. (IKEA is doomed :))
All this to say, mentoring the men in the younger generation requires them to be “Willing“. Mentor’s may understand the benefits, but how could the drones? The drones are told, what we call benefits are racist, fascist, bigoted, systematic hate.
We are agreed that this is probably the greatest lasting legacy that could change our world for the better if successful. Nothing worth having is easily obtained. This is definitely worth working hard to achieve.
Bless us all with the strength and wisdom to succeed.

This touched me, personally, to my soul. Thank you, Bill. Thank you for sharing your deepest feelings and just for being there. I needed this. I’ve had 3 wonderful men in my life and they were excellent fathers. Good fathers raise incredible men. All 3 have left this world but their handy work lives on. I’ve been blessed.

Bill, I would like to share an early portion of my life’s story, not to parrot or emulate but simply because what you shared has awakened memories long dormant. I was born in the late 40’s my father a WWII veteran of the Normandy invasion (Juno Beach, Kent Regiment) I grew up in a suburb of a small city in Canada. I remember as a young boy that my father would wake me early in the morning some time around 4:00 am and we would drive down to the dock on lake Erie where his outboard runabout was docked, and we would go fishing for several hours… there was never a lot of discussion me being in those days between 6 and 11 years of age and not having a whole lot to contribute… but it was the quiet comradeship… sharing the simple pleasure of fishing. My Father, David died of a heart attack at the age of 48 when I was 11 years old. I was devastated… I remember the morning when mom brought me and my younger brother into my parents bedroom sat us down, and explained that dad was not coming home… that he had died. I remember a buzzing in my ears and feeling myself go numb. My next clear memory is watching my mother standing over the coffin reaching down and shaking his body “David wake up… please wake up” next memory at the grave site as the coffin is being lowered I felt my self falling… I came to my senses 3 months later in a psychiatrists office. To the point of your story about fatherless boys… the neighborhood where we lived was constructed for vets… my neighbors and the children there did not all have fathers… the older boys conceived before their fathers went off to die were understandably a rough lot…. I fell under the sway of these young men… fortunately for me, before I could get too far corrupted, I was given an alternative path… The mans name was Mr Thompson (Larry as I eventually was allowed to call him) he was a vet and though he wasn’t in dad’s regiment he and my father became acquainted…. Larry took me under his wing. He was a machinist… under his tutelage I learned to work a lathe, to fashion steel, to use an electric arc welder and an acetylene torch to cut metal… he would buy old cars and cut them up for scrap…. by the time I was 15, I was earning my own money scraping out old cars. He taught me personal discipline and self respect. You are right in your assessment that men like Larry are few and far between… My best guess is that you will find them among those who once wore a uniform.

First of all, I am a father, and that experience has been an eyeopening and awesome responsibility that I thought I was ready for, but had to learn as the situation unfolded. I feel I was more than adequate, but still have my doubts and think I could do better.
My son lost his mother just as he was graduating from high school and it knocked both of us into unknown realms of reality and denial. The first thing I did was take him on a 2 week road trip so we could bond and get to know each other more intimately. Just before this I had been working very long hours and hadn’t had the time to really get involved with his life on a daily basis, but I always tried to make the time we did spend together “quality” time.
We did a lot of talking on that trip. His mother knew how to “push his buttons” and motivate him, but I didn’t have the knack she had. He had been diagnosed at an early age as autistic and I had to learn his social deficiencies and the way he processed life. The only major thing that still remains is following a multi-step instruction if explained all at once until he had done it the first time himself. This has been a point that has made it hard for him to stay employed.
My step-father was a naval officer and was away at sea a lot, but was wonderful when we were together. I tried to follow his example in supporting my son. If I interrupted him when he was busy, he would ask if it could wait. If I said no, he would immediately stop what he was doing and we’d talk. For the times he was away, my minister was a great resource as a father figure and was instrumental in my life.
People talk a lot about the brotherhood of the military and it’s true. No where else can you find other people that understand what you are gong thru and are willing to help you get thru it. It can also show you the bad side of people and how to deal with them. Live together with a bunch of other guys who’s life you depend on and who depend on you can be a life changer. It doesn’t take combat for this bond to form either, although combat will make it last for the rest of your life.
If you’ve gotten this far, I hope I’ve made it clear that having a father or being a father is very important, second only to a mother. Nobody can replace a mother!

Bill, I’ll be happy to contribute to your academy. Time, resources, whatever. One of the other values that a father needs to teach his children is how to treat their mother, how to value their mother, and how much he is committed to their marriage. There are a lot of lessons that a father can teach his sons about how the worldly system is trying to influence them, in both positive and negative ways. For example, I would point out to my sons how a simple billboard would show a mother with her children, and that the billboard was wrong to not include their father. We need to show that fathers matter. We know they do, but our society eschews that real need for our children. Girls need to be “Daddy’s girl”, and boys need to learn how to be men and grow into responsible fathers from their dad.

I heartily second that one of a Dad’s biggest responsibilities is modelling for his sons how to treat women properly. My daughter recently shed 200 pounds of excess weight. Her mother and I were delighted even thought supportive of her sadness. We never liked him because he didn’t treat her the way I treat her mom, or her. Drove us crazy that she couldn’t see it. I guess some lessons will always come hard, but support and love are constant.

Been thinking about Fatherhood and Mature Wisdom in film lately. The dumbing down of fathers in film/TV is a major issue today, you really have to go way back to find good movies with strong male role models . Captains Courageous, The Cowboys, and similar films can help bridge some of the gap in entertainment, I think they can be very instructive for those looking to become fathers/role models.

This was a very powerful piece. It made me stop and think (as I often do lately) of my own relationship with my long-departed parents, both father and mother.

As you said, it isn’t just a father thing; the mother issues need to be addressed, too. In fact, I think the whole concept of “parenting” has been distorted in the media and society in general. I used quotation marks there because I’m still wondering when the noun got turned into a verb. Though I’ve never had the experience of parenthood myself, I think that it’s been turned into an activity rather than a way of living.

A different angle that afflicts a lot of families is the problem of knowing when to stop the parenting and let the kids start making their own decisions, solving their own problems and fighting their own battles. The absence of fathers in kids’ lives is definitely an issue, to be sure, but the rise of the Helicopter Parent is another whole problem.

Count me in. I have the time and would LOVE to help our young men in any way that I can. A few of our young men from my church went into the military just because I talked about the Navy and how good it was for me! I look forward to doing whatever I can. Reid

Bill, thank you for your honesty. Nothing ever really changes without it. I was blessed with a very good father, who was still somewhat absent for me because he was a missionary and school administrator and on innumerable committees. Right now I myself am a missionary, with children and grandchildren, but none of them close by. I do have a number of spiritual children who see me as a father figure, and it is both a huge honor and heavy responsibility. I do a good bit of counseling, particularly related to marriage and parenting, but since I am physically located in Japan, I can’t exactly join your academy! If, however, there is any input you would like, I’ll do my best to supply it – in English, instead of my usual Japanese!

“they” have worked hard to destroy those organizations that held the values we used to honor such as the Boy Scout of America. I’ve been wondering if it would help to bring back the military draft, at least provide some discipline to young folks who desperately need it. There was an interview with a black man recently who pointed out that much of the destruction of the black family came about as a result of government progams that paid women to have children in practically unlimited numbers as long as there was no man in the house, I fear this bled over into the white community, too. As long as “big Brother, whether faith based or Govt based will pay something for nothing we’re never going to solve this problem

We have LBJ to thank for that. I think America took a wrong turn at the killing of JFK. Yeah, the govt. did other things B4 that (Fed Reserve), but it’s been swiftly going downhill since JFK. IMO

There’s already an Academy sort-of-organization. It’s called the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America. I’m surprised more of you, including Bill, don’t seem to be aware of that.

If enough Conservatives got involved in that program we could probably for all practical purposes take it over.

All I really know about it is the ads that used to run on TV many years ago. I’ve not actually sat through a whole TV ad in well over a decade so I looked it up online and it’s still in existence. It’s been a long time since I looked into anything involving that program so for all I know it’s now a hotbed of Leftist indoctrination. Even if that’s the case, it’s still a useful model of organization to get where Bill is talking about.

I was reminded of “Second Hand Lions” and the scene where the Robert Duvall character gave the “lecture that all young men need”. The whole movie was two old men fulfilling the need of the boy, and consequently he changed them. This academy idea sounds great ….would Zo be in on this too?

One of my favorite films, mostly for the portrayal of those two rough men turning a wayward boy into a good man.
The lunch counter fight scene is a mini-tutorial of brilliance in film-making.
Dam. Now I need to dig out my DVD and watch it again…

Random thoughts prompted by this…
I once told someone that I took my honor as seriously as any ISIS fanatic. He asked me what makes me different or better, then. I said the ISIS fanatic uses honor as an excuse for what he does. I use honor as a reason for what I refuse to do.
Every life is a work in progress, right up until your last breath. The good news is, no matter how screwed up your life is, if you haven’t taken your last breath yet, you still have time to fix it. The bad news is, no matter how wonderful and perfect your life is, if you haven’t taken your last breath yet, you still have time to screw it up.
The basis of my morality is very, very simple: There are several kinds of people that I flatly refuse to see when I look in a mirror. I’ve heard Christians talk about “What would Jesus do”… my personal experience is that if there is a “voice of God” inside of you, most people seem to find it astonishingly easy to ignore. But my subconscious knows everything I ever done that I’m ashamed of, forgets nothing, and reminds me of it at the most annoying possible times… and I hear that voice even in my sleep.
I won’t say I was a good father. Eventually I became at least a not-terribly-bad father… but I did it the hard way, by starting out as a well-intentioned but blundering and clumsy father, and learning from years of mistakes.
I didn’t “grow up without a father.” I had a father, and I like to think he was a good one… but he passed away when I was 15, right in the middle of what I refer to as “the teenage hormone storm.” As good a childhood as I had up to 14 or so, just losing my father during those crucial teenage years is still something I will carry the scars of to my grave.

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