You could've just summed it up and said that his argument points were all over the place and he got a bit hypocritical at points.


Having that said, the only lesson that can be taken from this is the lesson that humanity as a whole has been trying to develop for the past... er... however long civilization has lasted. People will be as they are shaped. This isn't a recent development. There will always be the elite few on top and the unenlightened, undriven masses. He just doesn't realize he belongs in the latter as well. He's a columnist for fucks sake. If he has such drive and determination, why isn't he the next noble, hardlining US senator or great general? I think he's failed, he's not tough enough, he's content sitting on the internet writing articles. It's easy to say how your parents raised you and how you think other people should be raised.

My father could've turned out to be a dipshit like him, and I would've ended up being your average idiot teenager, honestly. Was my father a hardass? Yes. Not towards me specifically, just towards everything in general. Yeah, when I fucked up, he usually went overboard. He got pissed off and near-violent very easily. But he left me to my thinking, my personal development, and for the most part let me make my own set of values rather than trying to raise me with the Christianity, the unthinking love of America, the predetermined conepts of people and ways of life, all that that his parents tried to instill in him when he was young. He just punished me when I fucked up, and made it clear there would be no help from him if I failed out of high school or couldnt get into college. To sum up, he instilled in me that I am what I make of myself, not what he thinks I should be, and that society will not be forgiving.

I don't think I turned out half-bad, considering I'm way ahead of most people my age (almost 4 years of college worth at 20, and real work experience, not doing some sweaty-brow bullshit the columnist would masturbate to like tuning motorcycles or something) and I don't plan on stopping. This Mafioso figure breeds tradition and discipline with his advice, but still does not encourage true intelligence and ambition. He completely missed his own point. His concept of unthinking toughness is the reason a small portion of this generation (I think youths today are more ambitious than ever, but whatever, my exaggerations are as valid as this guys) are so perturbed with authority to begin with.