The Evolution of the Desire to be a Cowboy in Young American Males

Cowboys have become novelty. They won the West, only to see it out grow them. The Western film is a rare breed today, mainly to showcase murdering, thieving, and whoring. A true Western is hard to come by these days. Cowboys were once widely celebrated heroes in our culture. But as the world has evolved into the monster it is, America has lost hope in its Knights of the Free Range. Real and tangible heroes cannot save the world. Instead, superheroes have become fantastical career choices. Is society so awful that our children have become delusional in believing super powers are the only way to fight injustice?

There didn't seem to be a more masculine, or American, occupation than a cowboy. You are outside all the time. You don't have to bathe. You ride horses and herd cattle if you want. Live off the land by hunting. Drink water right from the stream. Play harmonica amazingly. You have a gun and can kill people. You frequent saloons. Academic background doesn't matter. Internship experience and teacher recommendations mean nothing. You don't have mortgages or utility bills or car payments or student loans. No city noise or pollution or even ambient light. Moonlight actually has importance. Stars blow your mind. Solitude can be a companion. Food earned or caught tastes better. You have no need for politics. You live by a code.

What I'm really trying to get at is cowboys appreciate more than the average Joe. Today, simple things are taken for granted. Food, shelter, health, etc. Our fathers and grandfathers seem to have appreciated more things when they were kids. The further and further you go back to more simple times, the more it seems people cherished life. A lot has happened since those cowboy obsessed times. Several wars, the rise of global terrorism, devastating epidemics like AIDS and a seeming inevitability of cancer have all arisen. The evolution of technology has made our lives easier - yet at the same time we are lazier, more dependent, and more complicated.

As children we are delusional about our futures. Once we get there and begin our careers, we look back at our childhood and remember the simpler times. We debate out child innocence vs. ignorance. If only we could have done this or that. If only someone told us how it was going to be. We desired to be complicated. All we wanted was to take on responsibility - from a driver's license all the way to fighting the injustices of the universe with superhuman abilities. We think we will free ourselves from society's restraints on youths, but instead find ourselves piled up in society's burdens, requirements, expectations. Ignorance won.

So we search for a simple life. Someplace where these burdens don't exist. But until that time, we must make due. Careers hopefully can be something more than a way to pay bills. Take-out becomes a last resort as cooking at home becomes more of a passion than a chore. A hard days' work is refreshing and satisfying. Hobbies are developed such as exercising, picking up an instrument, or even rediscovering the pleasures of reading. We choose to relax in order to clear our heads, not out of sloth. We enjoy life, not waste it.

The midlife crisis is just an extreme attempt to become a modern cowboy. We buy a motorcycle. We drink more. We bathe less. We chase women. We stay out late. We start a gambling debt. We do stupid things we never did like shoot a gun, jump out of a plane, even run across frozen lakes in the nude. Our subconscious minds demand to be free. The only problem with the midlife crisis is the inevitable return to society. This can be earth shattering and possibly even life-threatening. Being a true cowboy cannot be temporary. We cannot do it all at once (like the midlife crisis) or our minds go into shock. It must be integrated into our way of life. It's in our nature to be cowboys and we must not deny this, just build a low fence around it.