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It's a grave mistake to ignore sex differences and dangerous when this ignorance is institutionalized. While people can be wrong about what those differences ar
by lo_zamoyski 4y ago
It's a grave mistake to ignore sex differences and dangerous when this ignorance is institutionalized. While people can be wrong about what those differences are exactly or may exaggerate certain differences in some respects or even go so far as to take a chauvinistic view, it is also possible to go to the other extreme and downplay or deny them altogether. Ideological framing and anti-intellectual misrepresentation can enable dismissive attitudes about these differences (which, frankly, are essentially beautiful and complementary and the basis for much of human dynamism). I think our understanding of men and women has suffered greatly under this infantile ideological pressure and the result is misery and disorientation.
How is this relevant? It is relevant because these sex differences influence what each sex contributes in this complementary relation. I mean this in a general sense as the particulars will be affected by circumstance. These differences affect what each sex seeks to provide and what each sex is drawn to. One does not desire what one already has. In this respect, it will not be surprising to find that unemployment or part-time employment will affect men differently than women. Men relate differently to people than women do. Women have a strong tendency to love regardless of merit while men tend to have a strong need to earn respect. A man without a job is, in most cases, going to be synonymous with a man who is aimless and has feelings of worthlessness. (This is why rich kids often become profligate, deranged, and depressed. Aimlessness, indolence, softness, helplessness, and self-absorption. Selfishness is the loneliest of states; only in living selflessly for the good of others in concrete ways and through self-sacrifice, forgetting about ourselves, are we liberated from the prison of selfishness.) This is going to affect his relationships, including his martial relationship. These sorts of men are more likely to wallow in self-pity, scapegoating (therapy is often a great way to obsessively blame one's parents, for everything), and self-destructive and hedonistic pursuits which further damage their ability to relate properly to women as human beings and in healthy ways to people in general. They are also dangerous because these alienated men are more likely to find appeal in ideologies of hatred, violence, and scapegoating.
Incidentally, this is one reason why UBI would be a terrible idea. Jobs are supposed to be ways in which both a family is served and the community is served. That's how we find purpose. For men, taking away their jobs is a way of ensuring their alienation from community, their sense of meaninglessness, and their aimlessness. It would deny them the ability to be who they are: men. There is a reason why so many retirees, especially men, have shorter lifespans than those that continue to work in some capacity.
- theGnuMe 4y ago>Ideological framing and anti-intellectual misrepresentation I am curious as to if you realize that this is what you are doing?
- paulryanrogers 4y agoSo jobs (and not being 'soft') define manhood? And this is an unchangeable, biological fact disconnected from cultural influence? Curious if you see any benefits to therapy, or does it all boil down to parental blaming?
- bloqs 4y agoPurpose defines manhood. In terms of living in western society, economic participation means unless you already have resources, you are required to procure resources to ensure survival, this is carefully balanced by female predisposition to a desire security and stability as their primary mating strategy, as this further reinforces the drive to procure resources. This is a management strategy that is as old as the written word.
- paulryanrogers 4y agoManhood is a cultural construct as much as whatever your culture considers 'purpose'. Both can and have been defined a variety of ways. Fundamental biological drives and evolutionarily stable strategies are one input, but certainly not the only one. As food is abundant today it's even less critical a factor than it once was. So let's drop all the social shaming and chest thumping. It benefits few and breeds discontent among the masses who didn't win the genetic lottery.
- astrange 4y ago> Incidentally, this is one reason why UBI would be a terrible idea. I am fairly sure giving people money causes them to be more employed, so it's funny when pop economics comes to the opposite conclusion. The mechanism being that money lets you invest in yourself, or spend more time searching for better higher paying jobs. But it doesn't motivate you to quit entirely because then you'd be relatively deprived compared to your more employed cohort. (When Bernie said "Walmart employees are so low paid they're on welfare", he was making a causal claim that being on welfare means you get paid less, or in other words that welfare is bad. Which is a weird thing for him to say, but you don't have to imitate him.) Also, two-income families are a sign of high paying jobs, not low paying jobs. True story.