Men’s Conference; Is it Necessary?

For a great part of the 21st and the preceding centuries, February has been known as a month of love. In the middle of this month, rendezvous of coquetry and love has been many times served hot and cold. Roses, beryl, lotus and primrose have been exchanged as a token of appreciation and kindling romance. The valentines as is and has been traditionally celebrated is measuring the worth of men by their altruistic extensions to their spouses and objects of love. Indeed love is beautiful.
However, the second decade of the 21st century has been quite volatile. It seems that this decade has, as a part of its unwritten laws, the demolition of systems and egregious defiance of life as Usual. There is a great effort to defy enslaving systems and set new ones, either for the sake of legacy or because of setting new normal. Therefore, it goes without saying that Valentine’s is becoming a relic of the past. The Valentines and the bold and thriving Men’s Conference cannot co-exist. It’s the most real expression of Pareto optimality for adding a little colour to the Men’s table means removing the same from the pools of romance. Like John the Baptist, it seems the Valentines is on her knees and loudly declaring to the Men’s Conference, “you must increase as I decrease!”
Nevertheless, my concern today is the Men’s Conference. As the Valentine celebration is raising arms and surrendering in defeat and discomfiture, is the conference necessary? If we don’t need it, then it must be harassed and vetoed out. If not, then we must get the best out of it.
As we talk about the Men’s Conference, we must not confuse it with the cheap and vilifying Stingy Men association, whose rallier cry is ‘let me see what I can do’. True man must not be stingy. Men must support courses and maintain a great degree of thrift and economy; whoever describes this as stingy is disillusioned and opportunistic.

In qualifying and rooting for the conference, or declaring it void, we must put the 21st-century man under the High power objective lens. Is the twenty-first-century man doing well? How useful is the PS5 in playing a 25-year-old man in thinking through problems and providing solutions? What about the increasing teenage pregnancy, which cannot be attributed to the Holy Spirit? What about the increasing suicide, homicides and genocides? What about the jobless young men who are driving blue Subaru? What about families famishing in pains and pangs of neglect while the family man is maintaining a mistress somewhere else in a better state than their progeny? When misconceptions have reduced a man’s worth to suits and triceps, is there something to be done?
Because today’s man is an endangered species, the conference is urgent and needful. We must find a working formula to pull the man out of the muck and mire of degradation. When men are true and dependable, the effect exponentially transmits to the entire society. They are the chords that bind the household, the home and the society together.
In the hands of irresponsible men, young girls are defiled and matrimonial beds abused. In the hands of untrue men, the national exchequer is swindled and treason entertained. In the hands of unscrupulous men, half-baked graduates who cannot solve problems are produced. In the hands of hypocritical men, religion is being taken as a joke.
We need men who are not debased and wanting but whose mental faculties are quickened and sanctified through obedience. We need men, not swimming like currents in matters of principle, but men firm and resolute in their moral tone. Because of this, we must call men to the conference and make them learn, relearn and unlearn.

The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.

– Education 57.3

In its true Spirit, the men’s conference is not a reaction against Valentine but a call to make men more responsible. If you get a man who makes your everyday life a valentine, you will never be hyped with a one-day love.