The Cult Of Youth

By Author: Thomas Strickland
Total Articles: 102
Comment this article

The world has always been simple. The bigger animals eat the smaller ones. Danger encourages the species to evolve and the best survive. Because humans were never the biggest, we survived by developing intelligence. With tools to extend our killing power, we've managed to fight our way to the top of the animal kingdom. Over the centuries, we've slowly reduced the physical threats so that, except in the less well-explored jungle areas, there are no predators lurking in the shadows to leap out on us and devour us where we stand. Despite the best efforts of Hollywood to persuade us to the contrary, there are no packs of wolves, were or otherwise, ready to chase us down and rip us to shreds. So we no longer rely on the young, fit and healthy men to defend us. They are the ones who used to preen and strut in front of the tribe, demonstrating in dance how they were going to kill the [insert name of beast]. When these heroes ran out of animals, they made the same dance and named the leaders of the tribe living in the next valley. In this way, power was maintained.

Today, men still strut and preen in dance, but it's usually only ...
... after a stiff drink and when they think the girls are watching. No matter how hard we try, we've never been able to come up with a different courting ritual. The only difference between the primitive days and today is the girls have more say in which men they will pair off with. They now look with more appraising eyes at the pecs, wondering whether all six of the pack are in place and sizing up the butt. For the young girl, the hot hunks are young and muscled.

This puts the aging men at a real disadvantage. Key indicators give away the passage of time. The waistline sags as beer consumption continues at full volume and the activity level drops. But even more of a giveaway is loss of hair. Only older men lose their hair. Except that's never been strictly true. Some men's genes have always acted unfairly and dumped the mane of hair starting in late teens and accelerating into the twenties. For these men, the time of play is over almost before it's begun. How can you work the singles bars and clubs, talking up a storm with the girls unless you look young enough to fit in?

The answer has always been a magic potion of some kind. For centuries, different medicinal products were developed. Some you drank. Others you rubbed on to the head. All of them were ineffective but, before this became obvious, the sellers had moved on to the next town. Now, for the first time, we actually have a product that works. The manufacturer put the drug through clinical trials. It submitted the evidence to the FDA and the FDA was impressed enough to issue a license. So it is we have Propecia on the market. For once, science has managed to produce something really useful. No longer do men need to experiment with wigs or hide under baseball caps. So long as we start Propecia early enough in the hair loss cycle, we can preserve our youthful looks.