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Men in trouble : Comments
By Andee Jones, published 24/10/2014It isn't just the Barry Spurrs of the world. The male of the species is in deep trouble and he doesn't seem to have the foggiest notion why.
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“Using ostracism to enforce cultural norms is not a minor matter. Humans are social animals and exclusion is extremely painful and, in some situations, can be fatal.”
Once again it escapes me how this relates to the comment I made which provoked it.
It’s an interesting topic, however, and I suspect I have a greater appreciation of the implications than you do. When I initially observed that “we are social animals,” above, I was pondering greater implications than you seem to appreciate. To begin with, here was the great lesson Marx failed to learn from Hegel, that his mythical proletariat was never going to spontaneously renounce its cultural identity, which goes deeper than ideology. Marx’s historical dialectic could only be sustained by a true populist uprising, confirmed in its commitment by gross and ongoing injustice—and not via an “awakening”. Capitalism proved just too agile and made sufficient concessions, post war, to put down the bulk of dissent. The demand for equality was bought off by the illusion of democracy. Democracy is the way the game’s played, but the decks are stacked and it’s democratic in name only.
What’s worse is the powers that be are now much wiser and realise the masses are no threat so long as a minimum standard, or rather a minimum percentage of the population, is maintained. In any case, any grumbling is quieted by the “manufacture of mass consent”. Ideology is a more sophisticated technology now than it’s ever been. So while I appreciate your concern at my pariah status—though I have no thoughts of suicide—I celebrate it. The worry is not that we are bereft without our peers and institutions, but that we are so dependent! Rather than confirming our social dependency, you should be mocking it. Our obsequiousness makes us incapable of reacting spontaneously; not to contingency, but to the ills generated and made invisible by the institutions we cleave to.