Hand Jive - The OK Symbol by Chief Chuck
A few days ago, it was a big uproar after the Army-Navy game about some hand signals that some of the cadets had used and whether it is was racist or not. Well, anyone that's been around the male world for any length of time will recognize the circle game. It’s using the thumb and forefinger to make a little circle, technically you're supposed to show up below the waist, and if somebody looks down at it, you either owe them a punch on the arm, or if it's after work they owe you a beer.
The fact that certain agencies and people have turned this into a racist event by stretching way into the depths of the rabbit hole to try to link a W from the three fingers and a P from the circle made by the forefinger and thumb is absolutely ridiculous. When I was in the Navy, this game was played often and in some of the weirdest places you could imagine. Have you ever thought about trying to work on a helicopter and have to worry about somebody coming by and calling your name and then you look down and you see the circle and then, they reach out and punch you while you're hanging onto the top of a rotor head trying to safety wire bolts?
The fact that we have decided to reach this far into our collective idiocy tells you a lot about the current state of social affairs. We have no clue about how to have fun, how to take a joke and how humor can sometimes border on the edge of culture, manners and sometimes even good taste. But isn't that the point of humor? Isn't that the point of fun? Isn't the point of playing games to get a release from the expected behaviors of our everyday cultural mores and means?
Let's focus on the event that caused the most recent uproar on social media and then therefore into the mainstream media. This event happened at an annual Army-Navy football game which is the pinnacle of most of these Cadet’s college careers at the service academies. Very soon after this event the seniors will graduate from their respective academies and then they will be on the front lines of our nation's defense, leading young men and women in some of the most stressful situations imaginable. The Army-Navy game is an anticipated event all year long amongst these two service academies and I would even say among both of the services deployed around the world. Millions of people watch this game and millions of people have a pretty hard stance on who they like to see win. The spectacle is broadcast to tens of millions of people via the CBS network and is one of the few college football games that receives the after game coverage due to the tradition of singing the Alma Maters of those service academies. It just so happened that during a live broadcast interview of a journalist, a Cadet standing behind him was seen on screen flashing the circle sign, obviously in a moment of excitement to be on television and to be at this highly regarded service Academy event.
It did not take long for the trolls of Reddit and 4chan and Twitter and Facebook to take a screenshot of this and decide to turn it into something that it absolutely was not nor should it have ever been. The fact that these neck-bearded trolls, who sit and wait for something like this to happen to launch their cowardly attacks from behind a computer screen, is evidence of the lack of honor culture that we have allowed to develop in our modern society. This is wrong, it is not right, it never will be right and it's time for men around the world to take charge of this and stop the stupid behavior. The fact that both service academies had to take valuable time out of their work days after this event to “investigate” this event was ridiculous. Tens of thousands of dollars were spent in salary, resources, and manpower that could have been devoted to better priorities investigating the so-called event which really turned out to be a non-event and just a continuation of a culture of fun excitement camaraderie and building bonds between future Warriors.
It is time for us men to stand up to the ridiculous culture of over pacification, over protection and the culture of everyone having to be offended about something at all times. If we allow these trolls to continue trying to find a little bit of insult about everything that happens every day, who knows where this society will end up? Think about this...if we took American Sign Language, we can find and make up any number of symbols and signs to mean something, either racist insulting or counterculture and that is just ridiculous. It's time to collect pull our collective heads out of our asses and learn to be upright individuals and see everything for what it is, take appropriate actions when needed and when they're not needed to move on and go forward with the business of the day.
In short, let fun be fun, let insult be insult, learn to know the difference, learn when to take action and learn when someone is simply just having some fun. And don't look down because you never know when I'm going to pull the circle game on you.
Semper Fortis
I am honored to announce that this guest article by Chief Chuck is not a one hit wonder. Chief Chuck is a friend, and a wise elder who has offered me plenty of advice, wisdom and many good laughs. Due to his excellent writing skills and appropriate life experiences, Chief Chuck is going to be a regular writer for Path to Manliness.