by R.E. Hannay
MASCULINISM AND FEMINISM
For some time there has been a movement by the Wine and Cheese Cartel to make men more caring, less aggressive – in other words, more feminine – and to make women more masculine. There was even an attempt to pass what was called the Equal Rights Amendment, an unwise proposal stopped almost single-handedly by Phyllis Schlafly, who still writes passionately on the subject. Most K-12 teachers are women and most appear to want boys to be like girls, with just different clothes and plumbing.
Those ideas, darlings of the liberal academics, effete Northeast liberals (is that redundant?) and some hairy-chested females, ignore the natural realities. It isn’t just their plumbing; males and females are different. Lions and lionesses think differently, act differently, have different roles and instincts wired into them by thousands of years of evolution, in the grand scheme that used to govern our lives, the survival of the fittest. Now it's the survival of those favored by the politicians and those with the most successful PR staff, lobbyists, and trial lawyers.
Boys are given depressant drugs to suppress their aggression. Girls are told they can play football, box, fly fighter planes from carriers in combat and do guerilla warfare with the commandos. Men’s wrestling and other sports in colleges are eliminated because that money must be spent on women’s sports or it just isn't fair. Colleges have coed dormitories and bathrooms but lay down specific rules on how the boys must get specific permission from girls before any intimacy. Gwendolyn, I was thinking of putting my arm around your waist. Would you sign this release form?
Playgrounds are stripped of slides, swings and other equipment because there must be no injuries, lawsuits or fun. Competitive sports are banned, only pansy games are permitted and all players in must be given a trophy because the losers might suffer a reduction in self-esteem. Regulation F was signed by all 37 of Obama’s unconstitutional czars, Psychiatrists Without Borders, the U.S. Federation of Trial-Lawyer Ambulance Chasers, the National Sociologists Society, the Socialist/Democrat National Committee and the New England Liberal Pantywaists Association.
All this is more sophistry of the limousine liberals and their co-conspirators in the liberal news media, but do not consider opposing the new rules. You might find yourself on another Obama-IRS hit list.
MARRIAGES, NON-MARRIAGES, VIRGINS, SOMEWHATS AND SUCH
Put in the language of the home of adultery, 'le shack-up' has become ordinaire. Once upon a time in the West, it was largely confined to the Bohemian set and to some extent, the poor. When average people lived together without the right paperwork, it was done with as little public notice as possible and was subject to extensive tsk-tsking. White wedding gowns were (supposedly) a symbol of virginity, bastard children were lifelong disgraces for parents, children and extended family and most unlicensed intercourse was here and there, now and then. Now it’s “Let’s move in together, share the expenses, maybe have some children and we might get married some day, but who knows? It’s not important.”
Like olive oil, this attitude has led to many types of girls: virgins, extra virgins, extra-extra virgins, part-time virgins, real virgins, sort-of virgins, and the most common type, Oh, that! All this got a slow start after World War I, when a lot of our boys saw Paree. The Twenties roared a little, and World War II exposed 14,000,000 Americans to the carnal offerings of romantic urgency, seedy military towns and hungry foreign women, but the real revolution came with the flower children and the Pill. Communes, free love, joblessness, drugs, generous welfare for the lazy -- the ‘60s and ‘70s finished the job of tearing down social norms and mores. Tune in, turn on and drop out.
What followed was a wholesale move to anything goes: If it feels good, do it. Coed college dorms and bathrooms became a civil right fiercely promoted by our splendid ACLU trial lawyers and militant feminists. Seniors often decided to simplify their finances and family relationships by just living together. In one generation, what had been a furtive, socially unacceptable lifestyle became common.
The difference compared with a generation or two ago is incredible to those who grew up then. “Hooking up” – casual, unpaid sex without even friendship – is common now. In a study by Michigan State University of 125 college students, nine out of ten “hookups” didn’t even lead to dating relationships, and 60 percent said they had had sexual “friends with benefits” relationships. Oh boy. But some who have studied these patterns say many girls are looking for romance, not sex.
The obvious question is, so what? Is it better, worse, or just different? The answers are not clear. It’s too soon to tell, there are too many aspects to consider and data are hard to find and unreliable. The true story has to be based on long-term results for all those involved.
The immediate problems are obvious, particularly for the children involved. The other big unanswered question is whether living together without the traditional glue of a marriage -- a public commitment of ‘til death do us part’, combining assets, liabilities and finances, parents and children with the same names -- will result in substantial differences compared with traditional families. The limited information available to us now already presents some surprises. For one, it seems as if a trial marriage, giving a couple the opportunity really to know each other rather than marrying after an olden-days, best-behavior period of dating would make for a higher percentage of long-term marriages, but the evidence so far is the opposite.
A report by Barbara Whitehead and David Popenoe in the 2004 Rutgers annual, “State of Our Unions” report found 94 percent of the young married men surveyed said they were happier married than being single. Only one in five of the young single men surveyed said they do not intend to marry. The authors also concluded that the freely-offered alternatives like cohabitation damage men’s attitudes toward women as well as their understanding of marriage. They also said the evidence suggests that couples who live together before marriage are more likely to divorce.
Another element is the increasing independence of women, now that a much higher percentage have good job opportunities and careers. When the inevitable times of stress come in a marriage, it is much easier than a generation or two ago for women to split the sheets and make it on their own, one way or another.
Another weakening of the marriage glue involves religious restraints that are dissolving. Compared with almost all Christian countries, a surprisingly high percentage of Americans say they practice or believe some kind of religion, but the ability of most Christian religions to prevent unmarried coupling and divorces has lessened considerably. Like typical answers of Roman Catholics when asked about the Vatican’s mandates on family planning -- “Oh, we don’t pay any attention to that!” -- most church dictates on hanky-panky and divorce seem generally to be ignored.
OUR FRACTURED FAMILIES AND FRACTURED NATION
Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family. -- Anthony Brandt
Self-responsibility is one of life’s most precious qualities. It is the motivating factor essential to personal development. -- Leonard Reed
Families have always been the foundation of thriving nations, and a common culture has always been the great strength and unifying force of nations. Now both unifying forces are collapsing, attacked from within by changing social, cultural and lifestyle patterns, by legal and political attacks by left-wing groups, and from outside by Muslim groups determined to impose Islam on the world, by force and by out-populating the non-Muslims.
FAMILIES
Census Bureau data for 2005 said 51 percent of American women were living without spouses. (Their data are only slightly misleading, including females 15 and older and such spouses as military personnel on deployment.) While 51 percent is shocking, the real shock is to the children involved and to the stability of the populace. There are many causes of the recent drastic changes in family structures and lifestyles: The “feminist” movement; dependable, readily available birth control options, better-educated women with more earning
power and many desirous of having their own careers and independence; easier divorce laws; and the loss of most social and religious restraints on unmarried cohabitation and illegitimate children.
The percentages of illegitimate births of American citizens in 2003 were 24 percent for whites, 50 percent for Hispanics and 73 percent for blacks. That’s a lot of bastards, many of whom will grow up without the positive influences of a two-parent, cohesive family environment. Great harm often results from great changes, and the sudden loss of traditional family structures, relationships and mores is causing great harm.
The effects on the children of more than half of American women living without spouses are dramatic and scary. Some statistics on fatherless children from U.S government data (more complete data are addenda):
Children from fatherless homes are:
• 5 times more likely to commit suicide;
• 32 times more likely to run away from home;
• 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders;
• 14 times more likely to commit rape;
• 9 times more likely to drop out of high school;
• 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances;
• 9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated institution; and
• 20 times more likely to end up in prison.
In a shocking book on girl gangs in the U.S. by Gini Sikes, 8-Ball Chicks, the author concluded that the problem of gangs in this country is caused by overcrowded classrooms, and too few rehabilitation programs, special education or jobs for “troubled” youths. Her solution, like those of all liberals, involves more government “programs,” meaning more welfare. Instead of solving problems, government welfare programs provide crutches to perpetuate dependence on government welfare.
As long as 70 percent of the mothers of school-age children feel they must have careers to feel fulfilled or to be able to afford the luxuries they now consider to be necessities, leaving much of their children’s care and upbringing to others or simply letting their children flounder, their children are likely to become floundering adults.
No government bureaucracy or taxpayer spending will glue American families back together. As long as government welfare programs continue to pay the poorly educated, unskilled and undisciplined more than they can earn at a job, why work, particularly when they can earn more in a short day dealing drugs than in a month working at the unskilled jobs they are qualified to perform. Hang out with the gang, steal, deal drugs, fight other gangs over turf, and draw welfare paid by productive taxpayers. That’s where it’s at, man. Lyndon Johnson started it with his War on Poverty. The battle cry of the parasitic flower children was Tune in, turn on, drop out. Forty-eight years and sixteen trillion taxpayer dollars later, the bureaucrat-described poverty level is as high as it was then.
If people haven’t regularly got up and gone to work whether they felt like it or not, they are unlikely to be able to keep a job for long. Self-discipline is not a word in the dictionaries of the inner cities and barrios. When a cousin, aunt or friend needs a little help or offers a more interesting activity, forget work today or this year -- Friday is welfare-check day.
What is the solution to repairing dysfunctional families? First, change government welfare programs that pay people more not to work than they could earn, and curtail welfare to fatherless homes. Second, encourage mothers of school-age children to be at home when their children are not in school. Employers can help by permitting more flexible work schedules and alternatives. Most important, everyone must be made aware of the effects on children of growing up without the discipline, guidance, love, security and togetherness of a traditional family. Without the commitments of a conventional marriage, the pooling of resources and talents, everyone having the same family name, doing things together, and the balancing of complementary roles of a committed mother and a committed father, do not expect improvement in the present predicament.
Mike Pence has it right: “I say you would not be able to print enough money in a thousand years to pay for the government you would need if the traditional family collapses.”
POLITICS
Once upon a time, in the olden days of a generation or two ago, people like Sam Nunn, Barry Goldwater and most of the members of Congress who disagreed on the proper size and role of government still worked together for the good of the country. Now the Socialist/Democrats, the Religious Right, the ACLU, AARP, abortion and anti-abortion factions and many other groups have one interest: ramming their single-issue legislation through Congress with no concern about the overall good of the country. Their goals involve their limited area of interest.
The Democrats in particular do their best to foster ethnic, economic, social and religious strife. It’s “the rich” vs. “the working people;” the minorities vs. the whites; the feminists vs. their male oppressors; the atheists vs. the Christians; socialized medicine vs. free markets; big government vs. personal responsibility. Power and control are everything, and the devil with how they are achieved. Anything goes, and criminal investigations of politicians and bureaucrats are answered by, “We’ll look into that,” “I don’t recall,” or other stonewalling in a game of Congressional or Executive privilege.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Our fractured, Balkanized country is being further divided by the left-wing university faculties, sheltered from market forces and public control by tenure, by left-wing administrators and by puppet governing boards selected by the administration. Outside board members bathe in the honor and glory but don’t rock the boat by trying to restore real university educations.
Traditional core curricula in the humanities – Western Civilization, the classics, history – have largely been replaced by garbage courses in multi-culturism, black studies, women’s studies, radical environmentalism, homosexuality, sex in Shakespeare and such. Instead of a real education, with all facts and opinions open for critical analysis, left-wing professors often teach one view – their own – and grade according to how well students parrot the teacher’s opinions. Instead of teaching students how to think, it’s what to think. That is indoctrination, not education. One predictable result of the changed curricula and the indoctrination is many uneducated, semi-literate, expensive college graduates working in lower level jobs, if they work at all. A result of the universities’ left-wing bias is to turn the country more into a socialist welfare state, although when many students escape from the ivory towers they find satisfaction and prosperity in the opportunities and incentives available in the real world and fight the liberals’ sclerotic welfare-state policies.
For some reason there is very little publicity about what is really going on in the closed, terribly expensive and inefficient world of the academy. Floodlights are badly needed.
We are a fractured nation of fractured families.
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The facts are on the effects of fatherlessness households are shocking (U.S. Data):
1) BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS/ RUNAWAYS/ HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS/ CHEMICAL ABUSERS/ SUICIDES
* 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes (Source: Center for Disease Control)
* 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
* 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (Source: National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools.)
* 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes (Source: Rainbows for all God’s Children.)
* 63% of youth are from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
2) JUVENILE DELINQUENCY/ CRIME/ GANGS
* 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes (Source: Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol. 14, p. 403-26, 1978)
* 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept 1988)
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* 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home (Source: Fulton Co. Georgia Jail Populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections 1992)
* California has the nation’s highest juvenile incarceration rate and the highest juvenile unemployment rate. Vincent Schiraldi, Executive Director, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, “What Hallinan’s Victory Means,” San Francisco Chronicle (12/28/95).
These statistics translate to mean that children from a fatherless home are:
* 5 times more likely to commit suicide;
* 32 times more likely to run away;
* 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders;
* 14 times more likely to commit rape;
* 9 times more likely to drop out of high school;
* 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances;
* 9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated institution; and
* 20 times more likely to end up in prison.
