The Alpha Man (Part I: Introduction)
Modern manhood is in crisis. I began to notice this even during my teenage years, but now in my twenties it became obvious. Everyday I see examples of what exactly a Man should not be. Weakness, lack of discipline and commitment, constant complaining, lack of ambition and the will power to turn it into reality – these are just a few of shortcomings of the Man of the 21st century. Values such as loyalty, honor, responsibility and qualities such as keeping your word faded away, till the point when they are characterized as “old-fashioned” and out of place in the modern world. Even intelligence is deemed by the pop-culture as anti-social.
There are perhaps many reasons for this decline. Some of you might be familiar with the idea so effectively introduced in “Fight Club”. According to it, men of our generation (first Generation X, now Generation Y, so technically – two generations) lack a fundamental challenge. We don’t have our WWII, Vietnam War or Cold War. Our fathers were living in a much more difficult era. Maybe the challenges which they faced were the main driving factor for shaping their character? My grandfather himself had to take care of his whole family, after his own father was murdered during the first years of the Soviet regime in Ukraine. He had to do that at the age of 12. Nowadays our lives are basically insured till the age of 30.
Not having to fight for our lives and those of our loved ones might be a reason, but certainly no excuse. We modern men are facing the biggest challenge yet – developing a character by introducing a challenge from within.
In the next chapter: The Decline
When I am asked what I want to do later in life I don’t say do science, I say become a professor. Almost everyone is remarkably surprised at that statement and I am yet to find somebody else close to me that shares the same goal (though I am sure quite many of my colleagues will eventually continue further up in academia). I can confidently say that to me, teaching and inspiring are even more important than science. 
