Massless

Questions for myself

[but then where?] We should be careful when seeking and generating solidarity in small groups whose belief systems mirror our own and provide comfort but whose nature (or culture) inspires an increasing cultural divide.

[is this true?] Social groups tend to be more similar than dissimilar, but differences are seen first.

[aren't we on different sides?]
Their past is our past.
This Modern Barbarism
A Moebius view.

Hi, future self. I've prepared another benchmark and assessment for you.

The Trying Times continue. Some see an end to personal vulnerability and no end to terrorism (as if there was ever a time without -- a uniquely America sentiment , perhaps?), or, at least, not an end without great personal cost. Many are looking for hero archetypes upon which to focus their aggression and energy.

To wit: Peggy Noonan welcomes back "real men." :)

The link will disappear (Wall Street Journal, for future reference), but I have to tell you, it's almost too easy a target. In her article, the author bravely describes an anti-heroic archetype of a man. One whose appearance in our culture distresses her, an anti-John Wayne, the type of man who "became an intellectual, or a writer, and not a good man like a fireman or a businessman."

Not a good man? :|

Pretty unconstructive, huh? There's a lot of that These Days. What seems to be cathartic for many is often constructed at the expense of civil dialogue.

But maybe that's how we Heal. I dunno.

So, let's re-examine how I should I behave as a man. I'll bet even little ol' indiepop softie, me, could be Tough.

Here we go:

I'm willing to believe that she means well. That she didn't want to demonize people who consider themselves intellectual.

I'm willing to believe that she knows that the qualities of the "tough men" she admires can be found in the even most limp-wristed of us bleeding hearts.

But I can't believe that the insight of the Masculine Mystique gained over the last fourty years was backwards, evolutionarily, in making a Male.

And if anyone is crazy enough to want men to show what they can do without consideration, without equivocation, without intellectual contemplation, without thinking, and to act strongly - without speaking...

Well, recently, for both good and ill, they have.