Chivalry: Is it Dead?

Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.

Charles Kingsley

There is one comment on Chivalry that gets more Social Media time than if it’s sexist, and that is if it’s dead. We hear it from the social justice warriors complaining that Chivalry enforces gender distinctions based on sexism, something we spoke about yesterday. Mostly we hear this countless times every time a guy complain about women and says that chivalry isn’t worth the effort or from women complaining that men are assholes. With so many people openly eulogizing Chivalry, could it be that it’s dead?

Far from it. From what I can tell, Chivalry doesn’t even have a cold.

But then why is it so rare nowadays?  The truth is, it isn’t rare. It just isn’t loud. We see it every day in the simple and small acts that men do that so often goes unnoticed because it’s second nature to them. We see it in the men who do good anonymously to make this world a little better. We see it in the WWII Veteran willing to go to jail for feeding the homeless. We see it in the famous actor who went back to his old job as a first responder during the 911 events. We see it in the young men who made the ultimate sacrifice to save their girlfriends. We see it in an anonymous "Santa" who paid off $50,000 worth of lay-aways for people he doesn’t even know.

And it’s not just in the grand gesture. We see it in simple everyday acts. We see it in another famous actor who offered his seat in the metro. We see it in the man who bought all the roses from a street vender with the condition that she gave them away to everyone she met. We see it in a president who shares his umbrella under the rain. And just this week, we see it in the Quarterback willing to help a lady stay out of the mud.

We have all heard the stories about men doing good, yet these stories are constantly drowned out by social media noise. With a medium dominated by loud groups of self-centered individuals screaming look at how awesome I am and self-righteous individuals screaming look at how awful he is, what chance does chivalry have to be heard?

None, and that’s a good thing. You see, chivalry should never be about looking for the spotlight. It should be about doing what’s right because it’s the right thing to do. And as long as there are good men in the world, good acts will follow.