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Notes -
Feels cringe to post twice, but something stood out to me on a quick reread: the original post doesn't actually describe 2020s-era boys' interest in or aptitude for helping other people, for doing one's duty to God and country, or keeping morally straight-- much less in, per Baden-Powell's original oath, "doing my best to help others, whatever it may cost me." Instead, it sounds as though they empirically enjoyed (a) casual unfocused play-violence/chaos (pin spearing) and (b) short bouts of running around in parks and fields, i.e. two of the highest-reward, lowest-discipline, lowest-skill-demand activities possible, already familiar from videogames.
The OP presumes that since safety is coded feminine to him, reintroducing risk, competition and violence will naturally lead boys to develop masculine virtues. I have no problem with risk and violence per se, but the old stories from when men actually engaged in these things make it quite clear that adventure and excitement are just occasional bright spots rolled in with a lot of discomfort, self-denial, patience and ego mortification in developing assorted masculine virtues. The miles gloriosus and similar tropes actually ridicule the sorts of people who get too immediately enthusiastic about themselves as adventure heroes bound for a life of fun and excellence. Presumably, that consistent ridicule is drawing on long cultural experience that vainglorious people don't go the distance in the end.
I'd be interested to follow the further adventures of this troop, especially since it doesn't sound as though there was meaningful resistance to OP's initial experiments. I do wonder whether it's true that with danger and violence in place, today's boys would eagerly line up for the less fun parts of the Baden-Powell program. Would those kids ever have had the interest or self-command to hang out around a shop for weeks just handing tools and watching the competent guys, like the builder of those Eagle Scout bridges presumably did thirty years ago? To sit quietly in the cold for hours on a hunting or fishing trip, then gamely return if the first day or seven weren't successful like the first 10 mintues of a game? I wish somebody would try working them up to these challenges and report back.
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