Behold the man, the man of action, the ruthless hero of myth and saga, society's darling. Here is this rugged doer of deeds, the rough-and-ready "go getter", the one who grabs what he wants without pausing to think... the aggressive stranger, the cowboy, the soldier, the gangster. Contemptuously, he shoves past that quiet guy in the corner, the shy one, the one ridiculed by family and friends as a "wimp", a "mouse", a victim, as perhaps something less than a man.

Only a nuance, a subtle shade of meaning separates aggressiveness from its less respectable cousin, aggression, the use of force to gain one's ends. With this in mind, understand aggressiveness as a sign of immaturity, of fear... of weakness, of blind stupidity. It is the crudest mode of social interaction, the blunt instrument, the bludgeon. It is the "bull in a china shop" syndrome, a behavior pattern that gets its practitioners typed as boors, thugs, and worse. Aggressive men seem to get women, to attract women, many women, for there is something fascinating in a flame... to the hapless moth. There is an immediacy about them, a brutal spontaneity, for they recognize no tomorrow. Unfeeling, unbridled, unburdened by remorse, they leave behind them poisoned relationships, broken trust, betrayal, and despair. They loot, despoil, and ruin.

          "Things are not as they seem, skim milk masquerading as cream."
                  ---Shakespeare