“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph
Visits from outer space
“The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us”. (Bill Watterson)
My reaction: Why would any intelligent being from outer space want to visit this riven planet? I write this after seeing the news about the white supremacists and other violent crazies, armed to the teeth (thanks to Facebook etc), threatening the employees of elected Federal and State governments, indeed, all of us.
The gender crisis: what can be done? Continued
What can be done about the falling marriage rate and drop in childbirths?
First, one conservative suggests dropping the “conservative” label altogether, since “branding oneself in this way is a womanly stance … that accomplishes nothing real, while seeking abstract validation.” In fact, right-wing men should refrain from talking about politics with women at all and instead aim to “be builders. Build your body, your home, your garden, new networks, and business.” (oh, dear! Ed)
If men build a world with “high standards and natural hierarchies,” women will “follow” because they are “socially submissive creatures” (sic) and many of them long “to submit to a mission against the modern world.” (Oh, dear again! Ed) That’s because the modern world makes them miserable, and so women are eager (often without realizing it) to fall in behind men who “strike out on their own from the system that rewards women for dominating them.”
If anything, the second American Mind essay (presumably authored by a woman, writing under the pseudonym Peachy Keenan) displays even greater contempt for the attitudes and outlook of young women in America today. Taking its cue from poll data showing 1-in-6 young adult (18-23) Generation Z women identifying as LGBTQ, with 72 percent of those claiming to be bisexual, the essay claims that calling oneself bi gives now gives one “extra social points” and “elevated social status as a protected class.”
Some blame the trend on “the tragic feminization of men” that has led them to “forget what it actually means to be a man” and has therefore driven women to flee into the arms of other women. As for solutions to this problem, the author offers little beyond a call to “build off-ramps from this chaos, and a pathway back to healthy heterosexuality for children assigned straight at birth.” She also offers a warning that a failure to do so will make “Generation Z girls the most medicated, dysfunctional, childless, self-sterilized generation ever.”
It’s unclear how widespread such atavistic views about men and women are on the American right. Fears of emasculation under modern conditions have a long history in this country, and among American conservatives in particular. Recent trends appear to have tapped into and reactivated that tendency.
In the last few years conservatives have proposed a pseudo-philosophical justification, teaching young conservative men that they will find girlfriends and wives by thinking and acting as if they are owed female adoration. This is exceedingly unlikely to work. The same goes for teaching men that women who fail to respond warmly to displays of preening self-regard are mentally defective. None of it will help these young conservatives to become less lonely, less sexually frustrated, or emotionally unfulfilled.
On the contrary, encouraging misogyny in American men is liable to make their loneliness, frustration, unfulfillment — and anger — far worse. We should all understand by now how dangerous that can be — and that it’s unlikely to end well for anyone concerned. (Damon Linker, The Week 3/19/21
My comment: I am so glad I’m old! Whatever happened to old-fashioned woo-ing, good manners, behaving thoughtfully and considerately, being charming, making them laugh, treating women as equals – in other words, the foolproof, ancient strategies going back millennia? These guys haven’t a clue.
Beware the lonely, angry men
“We have so many mass shootings in the US, and so much gun violence in general, that those who come to a sweeping conclusion on the basis of any one massacre are playing a fool’s game.
“Yet the facts wrapped up with Tuesday’s rampage at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area nonetheless raise disturbing questions about relations between the sexes in the contemporary United States — and in particular about the complex and ominous interaction of loneliness and rage inside a certain subset of American men.
In focusing on the gendered dimension of the attacks, I’m presuming they weren’t racially motivated hate crimes so much as homicidal misogyny. It’s understandable why people leapt to the other conclusion, given that six of the victims were women of Asian descent and the country has seen a nearly 150 percent spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans over the past year or so. Yet the confession of the alleged shooter, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, seems to indicate he didn’t explicitly choose his targets out of racial animus. Rather, he targeted women who worked at the spas he frequented, and those women happened to be Asian. Moreover, if the statement by the Cherokee County Sheriff can be believed, the shooting was proximally provoked by an impulse to lash out at the objects of his lust.
“That would place Long in the vicinity of incels — the “involuntarily celibates” who turn their failures at attracting women into an ideology of virulent misogyny that can inspire real-world acts of violence. Long supposedly frequented these businesses, so he wasn’t celibate. But he apparently confessed to being a sex addict — and his actions on Tuesday demonstrate that he reacted to his own compulsion to seek sexual satisfaction in a form of prostitution (rather than in a stable relationship) by harboring and acting out in rage against the women who serviced him for money.
“Obviously this is the most extreme manifestation of pathological relations between men and women one can imagine. But it’s still worth reflecting on more broadly because its murderous toxicity is a function of a combustible mix of emotions (loneliness, frustration, anger) that are experienced in less sociopathic form by plenty of men who don’t become mass shooters — and because the distinctive way partisan polarization is interacting with sexual differences in our time is likely to produce quite a lot more of these unfulfilled men over the coming years.
“Marriage rates have been falling for years. Men and women are both unhappy with the dating scene. There are numerous reasons for both trends. But one of them is the country’s growing political divide. Joe Biden won women by 15 points in 2020 while Donald Trump won men by 8 points. When this gender gap is combined with increasing cultural and moral animosity between the parties, the possibility of a couple negotiating a cross-partisan relationship or marriage seems increasingly remote.
“A poll from the Pew Research Center found that 47 percent of single adults on the dating scene definitely or probably would not consider being in a committed relationship with someone who had voted for Trump. Twenty-six percent said the same about dating someone who had voted for Hillary Clinton.
That’s a snapshot of a country in which the pool of potential heterosexual partners is quite a bit more constricted than it might first appear. A significant chunk of men are averse to becoming involved with the sizable portion of women who vote for Democrats, and a larger percentage of women apparently want nothing to do with men who support a Trumpified Republican Party.
“There are, of course, plenty of women who vote for Republicans and men who vote for Democrats. But combining the partisan gender divide with the much higher number of people unwilling start a relationship with Trump voters yields a population with relatively fewer dating options for conservative men.
“This is something that the right is aware of and worried about — at least based on a pair of essays published recently in The American Mind, a website run by the Claremont Institute, the intellectual home base for Trumpian conservatives.
“An essay by Helen Roy begins with her noting that when she talks to conservative male friends about their love lives, “the conversation almost always begins and ends with the same sentiment: There are no like-minded women out there for me.” The problem arises from both sides of the partisan divide — “Modern women aren’t into conservatives, and conservatives aren’t into modern women” — but ultimately the women deserve the lion’s share of the blame, she says. That’s because “the kind of woman our society produces is generally quite unpleasant.”
“The political has become personal: relentless feminist indoctrination from an early age has convinced many millennial women that to be sexually and professionally dominant is ideal. Most women are living up to societal expectations, and destroying their own mental health, ability to pair-bond, and procreate in the process. In seeking their political mirror image in women, conservative men see no one. In calling themselves conservative, no one seeks them.” [The American Mind, Damon Linker, pub. in The Week 3/19/21
Tomorrow: What can be done about this dismal situation?
The US postal “service”
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is preparing to put all first-class mail on a single delivery track, according to two people briefed on his plan for the U.S Postal Service, a move that would mean even slower and costlier service for both consumers and commercial mailers. The plan also prevents first-class mail from being shipped by airplane, forcing all of it into trucks, and coincides with a push for significantly higher charges.
My comment: As far as I know the traditional mail makes no profit in any Western country. This is to be expected owing to electronic messaging. It is futile to try and make it a profitable exercise. On the other hand the mail is essential, for instance for checks, annual tax correspondence etc, and should be treated as a public service. Aside from anything else it is a big employer of the Black community and also important to charity fundraising
As far as I am concerned charity request mailings constitute three quarters of all deliveries.
Oh, and by the way, delivery where I live almost stopped over Christmas, with one or two deliveries, at 9 or 10 p.m in the evening. For the last three weeks deliveries have suddenly arrived in the afternoon, but every other day.
Consistent it is not; crazy it is.
Man jailed for jet-skiing to his girlfriend
A Scotsman has been jailed for riding a jet-ski across the Irish Sea to spend some time with his girlfriend. Dale McLaughlan, 28, was sentenced to four weeks in prison for the 25-mile journey from Scotland’s Isle of Whithorn to the Isle of Man, after his trip was found to break coronavirus rules. “The craziest thing is he can’t even swim,” said a relative, adding that he’s a “nice lad but thick as a brick”. (The Week 3/23/2021)`
My comment: What could she say after that?
Please note! Important news.
A psychic who uses asparagus to see into the future has predicted that Prince Harry will return the UK next year, unaccompanied by wife Meghan. After throwing asparagus into the air, Jemima Packington, 64, the world’s only asparamancer, said: “What we have here, very interesting, is the letter H. We have two spears plus a crossbar here. I don’t see any M at all whatsoever. I see no letter M, but I do see letter H coming into the fold.”
My comment: It takes all sorts. I rather think that Epicurus was a cheerful, tolerant man, who would laugh and maybe pretend that an “asparamancer” had something useful to say, a sort of amateur philosopher. For myself I don’t much care where Harry and Meghan go, together or apart. And I am a pro-monarchist, for what it’s worth.
White supremacy
The distribution of white supremacist propaganda nearly doubled across the US in 2020, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which recorded 5,125 incidents of racist, antisemitic and other hateful messages, averaging around 14 cases a day. This compared with 2,724 in 2019.
My reaction : Firstly, we are all human beings. Secondly, there is nothing inherently superior about a white skin. I know because I have one. What distinguishes a white man from a black man is access to education and better job prospects.
Many years ago, in Southern Mexico, I met a Mexican man who introduced himself as the leader of a Mexican nationalist organization dedicated to recovering lands of the South Western American States, lost in the 19th Century to US superior arms. “No further war, he told me. But we have a huge birth rate, and the strategy is to encourage our people to peacefully cross the border and recreate the Hispanic lands.”
”That is going to cause ructions in the US, however peaceful”, I said. His reply was, “We will divide them. Spanish language and culture will eventually be restored in the lands that belong to us”. (A dubious proposition – the lands were not Spanish or Mexican, but native American Indian. Never mind). What he forecast in 1963, nearly sixty years ago, is coming slowly to pass. Along with a poor white backlash.
And no one in the US seems to have heard of this rather well-kept secret!
Quotable quote
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted in The Sunday Telegraph
Did you know this?
For years many of the richest people in the United States have avoided paying their fair share of taxes thanks to a deliberately underfunded IRS that is incapable of aggressively policing wealthy tax cheats. So much money that is rightly owed to the IRS is being unpaid that, by simply giving the IRS more resources, the federal government can bring in trillions of dollars without raising tax rates whatsoever. (Ching Huang, Patriotic Millionaires)
My comment: Kill several birds with one stone – hire a whole lot of people for the IRS, hammer the cheats, increase employment and steady (or even start reducing) the massive national debt. Seems a no-brainer.
If you can’t beat ‘em, cheat ‘em.
Since the 2020 election, state legislatures have introduced more than 250(!) anti-voter bills particularly targeting Black and Brown voters.
Millions of dollars in political spending from big donors and wealthy special interests — often spent anonymously — are tilting (have tilted?) the balance of our democracy towards special interests.
Meanwhile, partisan and racial gerrymandering is still silencing voters –denying us a meaningful choice at the polls.
Epicurus may not have had a positive view of politics, but he would be dismayed. What is going in some State capitals is worthy of Russia or China, that is, it’s yet another attempt at a creeping coup, and an effort to guarantee one-party rule indefinitely. You can have no peace of mind with these shenanigans. They must be stopped and fair elections guaranteed.
There is a Democrat bill in the US Congress, called “For the People”, which attempts to turn back the attempt to create one party rule. It would
– guarantee every citizen’s freedom to vote…
– ensure that people, not Big Money, set the agenda…
– end partisan and racial gerrymandering…
– clean up our government…
– and make democracy work for everyone.
My comment: The Dems are now excited, in addition to the above bill, that would transform DC into a State. Since those who live there (more numerous than some existing States) are disenfranchised. This seems fair, but in reality it is another tat for tat, ensuring (?) 2 additional members of the House and presumably another Senator. Thus the maneuvering goes on. Ordinary citizens dearly wish the politicians would concentrate on the welfare, particularly the health, of the populace. No wonder Epicureans get impatient with politics as practiced at present.
Back to non-political subjects!
Once granted a certain power, politicians seldom give it up
“Have we crossed a line in surrendering freedoms?
Having locked down the country for the best part of a year and suspended basic civil liberties once, we are far more likely to do it again. We have crossed a line and it will stay crossed. “Ensuring that the powers the government has granted itself are abolished rather than kept for a future occasion is going to be hard political work, as is ensuring that we set the bar very high for renewing such powers in the future.” (Daniel Finkelstein, The Times)
My comment: This concerns the UK, but it can apply equally all over the world. We are seeing increased authoritarianism and (China, Burma etc. etc) repression. This is something that occurs, historically, in waves, and, thanks to modern technology, this wave promises to grow, not fade away. The last great wave occurred in the 1930s and 1940s, and took a huge effort and the lives of millions to tamp down. Regrettably, there are always arrogant people who have no truck with messy democracy and think they have all the answers. We have to fight the power-obsessed. They are a menace.
Raul, a poem
On a beach by the tropical water stands a boat
Anonymous, un-named, derelict and un-remarked.
It was assembled in make-do fashion in metal.
Over the rivets tar has been used against the leaks,
Oozing through the holes under the baking sun,
And dis-figuring the side of the boat.
The old petrol engine, once painted green
Is now a mottled colour, specked with rust,
An ugly mass of metal, open to hurricanes and blazing summers.
What is its secret? What is its history?
Why is it here, where the tide laps and deposits the seaweed?
Despite its dereliction there was a hint of romance about it.
This is no vessel from a fancy shipyard,
Or playboat for the recreational fisherman;
Its shape betrays it .
Imagine an Arab dhow with mast and lateen sail,
And you begin to piece together the story of this sad, decayed craft –
The curve,the high prow, the low stern
All speak of Spain, of Andalusia, of Araby,
A design transported centuries ago to Cuba,
Which is but eighty miles away to the South
As the pelikan flies.
In my imagination this boat without a name
(we will call it “Raul”, for want of better)
Belonged to a poor Cuban fisherman,
Ekeing out a living on Cuba’s northern coast.
The owner could not afford a marine engine
And made do with a motor from an early Model T Ford.
The only concession to style was the Moorish bow;
The rest of the work, that of a rum-drinking local blacksmith.
No arduous ocean adventure was expected; none taken.
Raul puttered in the shallows, stopping while nets were raised
And fish hauled in, wriggling in the oily water of the bilge.
Short trips, safe, avoiding storms, with catches sufficient
To feed a growing family. “Raul”, the loyal and faithful guarentee of
Survival
And then – migration! The lure of a better life.
The children grown, the Cuban future uncertain.
Was this the decison of a moment, or was it a family decision
Talked over for months in whispered voices? We will never know.
Come what may, they embarked, old and young, as the sun set,
Steering hopefully into the night, trusting to “Raul” and fortune.
The wind came up in the early hours, and with it rain.
It came from the East, to the starboard side,
Whipping the blue Carib waters into froth.
The humans, sick and fearful, huddled from the wind,
While the old engine coughed and spluttered
And the skipper struggled with the beam-on waves.
Would they reach the Florida Keys alive, or perish like others?
For two whole days they tossed upon the water.
Fearful of foundering, the bow was turned into the wind
To face the oncoming waves. And there they sat,
Carried by wind and current, wet to the skin,
“Raul” struggling, half submerged, until the wind abated.
Early in the dawn light “Raul”, battered and drenched,
Brought his family to the reef off Islamorada.
In the shallow water the young men disembarked unseen.
They hauled “Raul” over the sandbank to the beach.
He had brought the family safely across the water.
Faithful servant! Good old friend! Great!
“Thank you and goodbye”. In an instant they were gone!
Vanished! Disappeared! No one knows what became of them.
Disconsolate, “Raul” sat on the sandy beach, only one of the Cuban many.
Feeling lonely andbetrayed, and in a foreign land, depression soon set in.
His rivets began to rust, the transmission seize up,
The wooden gunwhales rot in wind and rain. A sad picture, barely noticed.
But then fate stepped in, as if to admit the raw deal dealt out.
“Raul” found a new career. Yes!
Unseaworthy though he is, he is now a prop for mass-market catalog photo-shoots;
For mood views of the latest fashions for magazines from
New York, London, Milan and Paris.
Beautiful girls in swimsuits drape themselves upon him
Or suggestively, against a nearby palm tree, with “Raul” as backdrop.
“Raul” is now world-famous, featured in movies and photos,
Drooled over by those dreaming of the good life and the South Pacific
(which is the illusion intended).
He no longer has to brave the shoals and rocks, even less rough seas and
Actual daily work.
No. He simply sits on the beach by the tropical water and the white sand
and coconut palms, surrounded by Directors, Assistant Directors, cameramen,
Property and Costume assistants – and those beautiful girls,
No longer anonymous, not longer unremarkable.
Robert Hanrott
Quote of the day
“The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore crash helmets.” – Al McGuire
My comment: I was brought up to believe that they were not crash helmets, but head-dresses you wore in deference to the Emperor. Death was clearly nothing to these poor, wretched pilots. Just shows the danger of cults and “religions”, unaccompanied by intelligent thought.
Getting a hairdrier through Customs
This blog has carried numerous postings that are less than enthusiastic about organised religion. Here is something positive; at least it will make you laugh.
In British parochial schools students are taught that lying is a sin, but using a bit of imagination to express the truth differently, without lying, is OK.
An attractive young woman on a flight from Ireland asked the Priest beside her, “Father, may I ask you a favour?
“Of course, my child. What may I do for you?’
“Well, I bought my mother an expensive hairdrier for her birthday. It’s unopened, but well over the Customs limits, and I’m afraid they’ll confiscate it. Is there any way you could carry it through Customs for me? Hide it, perhaps, under your robes?”
“I would love to help you, dear, but I must warn you , I will not lie”.
When they got to Customs, she let the priest go first . The official asked, “Father, do you have anything to declare?”
“From the top of my head down to my waist I have nothing to declare.”
The official thought this answer strange, so he asked, ” And what do you have to declare from your waist down to the floor?”
“I have a marvelous instrument designed to be used on a woman, but which is, to date, unused”.
Roaring with laughter, the official said, “Go ahead, Father. Next please”.