"I'm worried that you're not happy"
Always beware of the person who worries that you're unhappy. It's almost always the case that they are really unhappy with you and they are projecting that unhappiness onto you.
Case in point, William J Bennett. He has a piece up on CNN in which he talks about how men are in trouble and gives us a bunch of statistics about how men are getting fewer university degrees, are less involved in family life and are earning less. You might think, given that intro, that he and other conservatives are upset with the way post-feminist society treats men. You'd be wrong about that.
The truth is that Bennett is deeply angry and disappointed in men:
People can be irrational, so it would be entirely reasonable to worry about one guy doing this. But when a whole bunch of guys all run out and start behaving this way, you can be sure there is a reason they are doing so.
What is that reason? Well, let's look at a parallel example: Why are little girls so into being princesses? Because it's a response to their parents who are forcing them to grow up with no clear distinctions in sexual roles. And when the princesses get past puberty and start dressing like sluts, it's for the same reason. And note, the statistics we have tell us that most of them aren't actually acting like sluts but rather just dressing like them. Flashing your breasts around is a way of asserting that you are, indeed a girl and she does that more for her own sense of identity than anything else.
The same calculus applies on the other side of the ledger. Why are so many men growing up to frittter away their lives in front of video games? Because they had grown up in a society that has willfully trashed separate sex roles.
And don't think those guys sitting around are being unmanly. The problem is that they are being a little too manly. Go back and read the Bible and notice how social roles are filled out there. All the work in the Bible is done by women and by men with no property. Male property owners have a lot of leisure time and they make the most of it sitting around the gate talking and then laying around the table talking and ... well, it all involves talking. When they aren't talking they are doing risky, irresponsible things like fighting wars or whoring around or both combined.
That's how you prove to yourself that you're a man. A a young woman asserts her status in society by drawing attention to her awesome breasts and a young man does so by showing everyone that he knows how to make rich use of leisure time and that he isn't scared of dying.
It's always been that way. Check out this song and notice the contrast between the boastful macho lyrics and the nerdy wimp who sings them:
That was 1956 and you can already see the pathetic combination of traits that make men stars today (even if the only place they are stars is their own narcissistic fantasy). And that isn't surprising because it's what young men do if all they have to fall back on is biology just as dressing like sluts is what young women do if all they have to fall back on is biology.
I look at those young men and sometimes I feel the same way that William J Bennett does about them. But, really, why would they do anything different. It's not like he has a solution. Here is some of his diagnosis of "the problem":
Bennett is also upset that men aren't getting married and they aren't involved in raising their children but, again, why would they be. There is no longer any any social role for them to play.
There areas where men still thrive, of course. Men dominate the high risk, high pressure fields like science, high finance and politics. And war. There is always war.
Whatever else you might say about all those girl princes and male princes out there, you can't accuse them of buying into the notion that it's all about gender roles. The results could be good or they could be disastrous but. either way, they are tearing down the feminist revolution one brick at a time.
Always beware of the person who worries that you're unhappy. It's almost always the case that they are really unhappy with you and they are projecting that unhappiness onto you.
Case in point, William J Bennett. He has a piece up on CNN in which he talks about how men are in trouble and gives us a bunch of statistics about how men are getting fewer university degrees, are less involved in family life and are earning less. You might think, given that intro, that he and other conservatives are upset with the way post-feminist society treats men. You'd be wrong about that.
The truth is that Bennett is deeply angry and disappointed in men:
Man's response has been pathetic. Today, 18-to- 34-year-old men spend more time playing video games a day than 12-to- 17-year-old boys. While women are graduating college and finding good jobs, too many men are not going to work, not getting married and not raising families. Women are beginning to take the place of men in many ways. This has led some to ask: do we even need men?(He forgot to add that these men also vote for liberals :-)
People can be irrational, so it would be entirely reasonable to worry about one guy doing this. But when a whole bunch of guys all run out and start behaving this way, you can be sure there is a reason they are doing so.
What is that reason? Well, let's look at a parallel example: Why are little girls so into being princesses? Because it's a response to their parents who are forcing them to grow up with no clear distinctions in sexual roles. And when the princesses get past puberty and start dressing like sluts, it's for the same reason. And note, the statistics we have tell us that most of them aren't actually acting like sluts but rather just dressing like them. Flashing your breasts around is a way of asserting that you are, indeed a girl and she does that more for her own sense of identity than anything else.
The same calculus applies on the other side of the ledger. Why are so many men growing up to frittter away their lives in front of video games? Because they had grown up in a society that has willfully trashed separate sex roles.
And don't think those guys sitting around are being unmanly. The problem is that they are being a little too manly. Go back and read the Bible and notice how social roles are filled out there. All the work in the Bible is done by women and by men with no property. Male property owners have a lot of leisure time and they make the most of it sitting around the gate talking and then laying around the table talking and ... well, it all involves talking. When they aren't talking they are doing risky, irresponsible things like fighting wars or whoring around or both combined.
That's how you prove to yourself that you're a man. A a young woman asserts her status in society by drawing attention to her awesome breasts and a young man does so by showing everyone that he knows how to make rich use of leisure time and that he isn't scared of dying.
It's always been that way. Check out this song and notice the contrast between the boastful macho lyrics and the nerdy wimp who sings them:
That was 1956 and you can already see the pathetic combination of traits that make men stars today (even if the only place they are stars is their own narcissistic fantasy). And that isn't surprising because it's what young men do if all they have to fall back on is biology just as dressing like sluts is what young women do if all they have to fall back on is biology.
I look at those young men and sometimes I feel the same way that William J Bennett does about them. But, really, why would they do anything different. It's not like he has a solution. Here is some of his diagnosis of "the problem":
The data does not bode well for men. In 1970, men earned 60% of all college degrees. In 1980, the figure fell to 50%, by 2006 it was 43%. Women now surpass men in college degrees by almost three to two. Women's earnings grew 44% in real dollars from 1970 to 2007, compared with 6% growth for men.But turn that data around. As any feminist of the time would cheerfully have pointed out, in 1970 women were only earning forty percent of college degrees. If you make college a more female-friendly environment, you make it less male friendly. And vice versa. It's inevitable and unavoidable, you can't pretend that men and women are the same in anything.
Bennett is also upset that men aren't getting married and they aren't involved in raising their children but, again, why would they be. There is no longer any any social role for them to play.
There areas where men still thrive, of course. Men dominate the high risk, high pressure fields like science, high finance and politics. And war. There is always war.
Whatever else you might say about all those girl princes and male princes out there, you can't accuse them of buying into the notion that it's all about gender roles. The results could be good or they could be disastrous but. either way, they are tearing down the feminist revolution one brick at a time.
As the stats indicate, this is more than women "catching up", it is men imploding. Decades of concerted effort to institutionalize pro-female/anti-male laws and social protocols have succeeded beyond the hopes of even the femi-nazis. It brings to mind the old admonishment: be careful what you wish for. So do we declare this social engineering experiment a success, or simply complete? And more importantly, what to do now?
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