Boys Adrift

I heard an interview with Dr. Leonard Sax on the radio show Coast to Coast AM. He was discussing his book Boys Adrift. The book focuses on the development of boys, but does so in terms of considering both genders. His basic premise is that for various reasons normal development has been altered in the past generation or so.

The website about this book:
http://www.boysadrift.com/

Here is an excerpt from his book Why Gender Matters and an interview with him on the Today show:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6941270/

The primary problem he sees is the estrogen-like chemicals that leach out of clear plastic bottles. This causes boys to develop slower and not to develop normally, and it causes girls to develop faster. Young men now have majorly decreased levels of testosterone and sperm count than previous generations.

Another major problem is that the school system has tried to treat boys and girls equally in recent decades. Teachers don’t take into account that boys and girls develop differently, and the natural behavior of boys has become unacceptable in schools. To try to calm boys down more like girls, drugs such as ritalin have increasingly been given to boys. This is a twofold problem. Boys are stunted psychologically which is bad enough, but the drugs have long-term consequences on brain development. It causes a part of the brain that relates to motivation to not to fully develop.

So, this means that young men are becoming evermore effeminate and apathetic. Young women are more likely to go to college, get degrees, and get professional careers. Also, with the sexual dynamic messed up, sexual attraction has decreased and along with it so has marriage.

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Dr. Sax talks about many other factors. He does mention porn. Its hard to know what is the cause and what the effect.

Another ‘funny’ thing was that this is affecting wild animals to boot. Large cats have shrinking testicles, and certain male river fish are laying eggs.

As for drug distribution statistics, I don’t know. I haven’t read any of his books. Okay… I just did a search. An article by the National Institute of Health mentioned that boys are 4 times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. I can only assume that this means boys are 4 times as likely to be administered Ritalin.

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I don’t sit around worrying about things like this. Either the human species survives or not, but we’re adaptable. Unfortunately, other species aren’t as adaptable as us. Whatever happens, I’m sure (some) life on this planet will continue.

I’ve read about how pollution can also damage DNA. That is even more interesting to think about. If the DNA could be altered within the egg and sperm, then we could have some major alterations to evolution. What Dr. Sax is talking about only directly affects the individual and the problem would disappear once the cause was removed. But changing DNA would be passed on to to the next generation causing permanent change.

In either case, what you call “population control” would apply. This is a basic idea in evolutionary theory, but we’re attempting a grand experiment of the likes nature/evolution has never seen before. Its Cosmic Chess on the planetary level.