A man's gotta do what a man's got to do

There are two statements or truisms that always confused me as a child, "A man's got to do what a man's got to do" and "Don't believe anything a woman tells you." As I have grown up as crazy as both statements appear on the surface, they both have never failed me in dealing with life as it is rather than life as one might think it should be. For as strange as this sounds they are both saying exactly the same thing just in a ancient colloquial way.

First of all a man's got to do what a man's got to do. This basically gives a man the right and ability to do anything at any time anywhere. This type of thinking goes back thousands and thousands of years.

Whereas "Don't believe anything a woman tells you", is actually an ancient survival strategy for women before they had rights like the do now (at least in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe and a few other places on earth). So, a woman defended herself by not always telling the truth. A woman learned politeness, not truthfulness in the past. A man learned that if he didn't want to be beat up or killed by boys or men as he grew up that truth was often necessary to stay alive growing up among boys and men.

Whereas for thousands of years girls and women learned the opposite. Girls and women learned that "The Truth often kills girls and women" so the way to survive was to be polite which often has absolutely nothing at all to to with any truth whatsoever. So as women were conditioned to survive by the women they knew, politeness verbally was the rule but never truthfulness.

Whereas, if you were a boy or a man you knew that telling the truth might keep you alive and lying could almost always get you beat up (at least among peers who were also your male gender).

And if you were a boy or man and were a snitch or a fink (told on people) you could expect always to either be beaten within an inch of your life or killed. (no questions asked). You were injured or dead. That's just the way it has always been.

Also, if you are a man you know there is No one who will take care of you most of the time if you are injured or sick long term. Whereas relatives or not most women will always find someone to take care of them no matter what. So, as a man you always know this and as a man it can make a man do desperate things at times in their lives.

Most young women (15 to 25) don't seem to get this one dynamic about heterosexual males, that they are very aware if they are injured or wounded no one will care for them. They are as good as dead to themselves and to others if this happens. So, in desperation men injured or wounded long term might have to do unthinkable things or just choose to check permanently out of their bodies.

The other thing about "Don't believe anything a woman tells you!" There is a caveat to this if you are their significant other. and that is "Always watch what a woman does and never what a woman says". This could be said for everyone. You will know everything by what all boys, girls, men or women do. What all beings do says everything. But you can't always believe what anyone says male or female.

Note: My wife thinks all this changed in the 1970s. However, just like Civil Rights and everything else I don't think people have changed all that much. They have just learned what to say and when. I think people are much more polite than they were in the 1950s and 1960s but much less honest in general with themselves and everyone else. But this is just my opinion. If you have another you are welcome to it. But just don't expect to change my life experience of the last 62 years. Even if the form changes the substance is still the same for everyone.