Podcaster Joe Rogan invited Hollywood actor Michael Jai White onto his podcast on Wednesday.
While the two talked about a variety of topics, two of them stood at the forefront: the loss of masculinity in America, and the “everybody gets a trophy” mentality that pervades sports and academics from a young age.
“Not Making Men”
Rogan and White discussed how other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, have produced several action movie stars and competitive fighters over the years.
This may stem from several reasons, but White has a theory about the whole thing. He believes that having those rites of passage for young men in warrior cultures allows them to become strong and resilient.
When talking about the United States, it’s a different story.
“That’s one thing that is sad about the United States. It’s like we’re not making men anymore,” White shared.
Rogan agreed, saying, “Not a lot of them. When they are, they stand out.”
With the production lowered, it’s impacting Hollywood, too. White claimed that in many American movies today, if there’s an American alpha-male character, it’s often not played by an American at all. Most times by an Austalian instead.
“It’s very rarely an American,” White said. “It’s such a trip, man.”
The statement made Rogan laugh, and add, “Well masculinity is demonized here for some strange reason over the last couple of decades.”
Everyone Gets a Trophy Mentality
And it’s not only masculinity that’s getting impacted, either.
The whole mentality of winning or losing has slowly shifted into an “everyone wins” mentality. White saw this transition first-hand.
“Bro, I saw the beginning of a lot of it, because you know, like I said, I was a schoolteacher, and I was right on the forefront seeing, like, ‘everybody gets a trophy,'” White shared.
The focus has been placed on children’s self-esteem and protecting that, and White is not impressed.
“I’m like, ‘Come on.’ And, you know, taking away competition? I saw the beginning of that, [too].” He further goes on to say, “… it’s just so, so bad. Then these kids don’t know how to deal with loss or anything and then they end up shooting a classroom!”
Rogan agreed with his guest, and the importance of losing to get better in life.
“Dealing with loss is one of the most important lessons you could ever learn,” Rogan said. “If you want to get better, losee. Losing is the best medicine because you lose, ‘I don’t ever want to feel that again.’ And then you start thinking about alll the things that you cut corners on, all the things that you didn’t do. ‘What can I do differently to make sure that that never happens again that I never feel that feeling?'”
Rogan finalized his thoughts with a final statement about winning or losing.
“Those are the two options. Either you get way better or you quit.”