The complex works like this: virtue is so rare in the West that, in order to make any sense to the young Western mind, the perceived model of excellence must be sufficiently abstract or foreign. A mentor of the Far East turns out to be the only plausible candidate befitting the requirements of this semi-traditional moral exemplar. We are talking, of course, about the Karate Kid’s Mr. Miyagi.
Bankrupt Western culture sees literal and figurative “Daniel-sans” everywhere, fatherless either actually (like Daniel-san himself) or functionally (like any kid whose dad fails to teach him what he needs to know). Society’s “Cobra-Kai,” or secular humanist culture, prey on these many Daniel-sans, being raised defenselessly by single mothers, who usually love them but neglect to teach them (because they are incapable) manly virtue, like fighting for honor or self-defense.
Now, there’s nothing inherently problematic about the “Miyagi complex,” except the abject lack of Western morality and leadership it reveals. Mr. Miyagi, after all, proved an excellent mentor to Daniel-san: he loved him better than most fathers of our day. But we cannot all be Daniels: Daniel was lucky enough to live in the same apartment complex as Miyagi. Most are not so lucky. Therefore, we must unlock the true virtue hibernating in the Christian breast and the Western canon. Only then will moral exemplars emerge in the West.
Once more, there exists undeniable logic in the Miyagi Complex: Mr. Miyagi was tough, wise, kind, and involved. By contrast, the fathers and grandfathers of most young men in the West no longer teach them to fight (defensively); they are pragmatic rather than wise; they prove self-interested rather than kind; and most of all, they remain utterly uninvolved in the moral lives of their young. Simply put, there are virtually no wise elders in our midst, meaning our generation must rise up and dare to live virtuous, faithful lives! That way, our own children can—like all human beings throughout history, except for the last two generations—look to its elders for the location of moral treasures, practical shortcuts, and avoidance of moral pitfalls. The tough part, of course, is doing this without real-life exemplars!
The Boomers attempted to hybridize Christianity with libertinism, which is like trying to draw a circular square. But the duplicitous aim of their attempt to “circle the square” has been quite persuasive, at least in the view of the popular culture. Let’s examine this in light of some previous rules.
Christianity has been so sanitized in the popular mind that its teachings on chastity have fallen upon popular ears as utterly worthless and even silly. In this arena, as well, the Miyagi Complex looms large: if the message of true chastity somehow gets transmitted to a child of the West, it will always be through some Oriental means, most frequently through one of the martial arts. For example, “boxer’s chastity”—think of the trainer Mick telling Rocky to “lay off the pet store dame” during training—will usually be welcomed, but never Christian chastity. In other words, the pseudo-chastity of the boxer is merely pragmatic, not moral.
Blame Boomer-isms, and the defanged version of Christianity they represent, for this toxic phenomenon. It is most unnatural for a society’s moral exemplars to be abstract, removed from the young. Nature mandates that the young learn by immediate access to wise leaders close at hand. Somehow in this generation, we must triumph over the additional cross of a largely bankrupt generation of elders: the only conceivable way of recovery inheres in looking to the One True Man, Jesus Christ, and the saintly disciples he inspired over the course of two Christian millennia. We must become our own exemplars for the sake of our children.
Mr. Miyagi was a fine model of protective, virtuous manhood in the 1980s. Karate Kid was a timely film in the sense that it instructed the next generation after the Boomers, who desperately needed the message in whatever conduit they could find it. But it is high time for a new generation of retrogrades to live deliberately and morally—so that we may end what the Baby Boomers began. We must be the heroes and champions of our own families, for our own sons and daughters.