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In search of a post-political masculinity

By Mark Christensen - posted Thursday, 21 February 2019


Men are unclear on how to go to war with women because we sense they already know, in a way that isn't obvious to us, that we're all on the same team.

Contemporary feminism is a post-political allegory, a conflict designed to end the conflict. It's not an argument to be won or an ideology to be actioned.

It trashes the presumption of innocence with a believe-the-victim strategy and agitates for quotas and gender pay equality, not because they're solutions. They clearly aren't - and that's the point. Ruinous initiatives signify it's time to shift the focus from impersonal systems of knowledge and power to authentic human relations. Similarly, it isn't hypocritical of the sisterhood to partake of the upsides of Western civilization while enthusiastically tearing it down. The historical achievements of a Willink-styled patriarchy are worthless if we don't go on to create a kind and benevolent world.

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Isn't that the defining task of category male?

The test is as simple as it is shocking: are we sufficiently stoic - sufficiently rational! - to acknowledge the truth that the balance men crave is not an intellectual midpoint between opposites? A bit of worldliness, a bit of spirituality. Some certainty, some faith. No, the sweet spot is an ironic all-or-nothing.

Man must let go unconditionally and in advance. For it is only when the answer-seeking, chaos-defeating ego is annihilated by his spontaneous right-side appreciation of things, that he will be truly free and worthy of the love and admiration of women.

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This was first published by the San Francisco Review of Books.



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About the Author

Mark is a social and political commentator, with a background in economics. He also has an abiding interest in philosophy and theology, and is trying to write a book on the nature of reality. He blogs here.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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