Was your school infested with bullies? Mine wasn’t. We had plenty of young men who were uncouth and fond of fighting, but in their world points were scored by busting the nose of another tough guy, not by taunting members of the chess club. I once had to fight a wanna-be tough who thought he could begin his rise from thuggish obscurity by giving me a shiner, but even I was a match for that weedy punk. And our great battle behind the school–the last I fought in my life–wasn’t the worst thing in the world for me. I recall that he also lost his interest in fighting, so it turned out to be a good thing all round.
Of course these gentle Minnesotans aren’t thinking of anything so Tom Sawyerish as scrapping in the schoolyard. They are worried about “taunts.” If “taunts” had been forbidden in my high school, the place would have resembled a Trappist monastery. Do they really expect that young men can be taught to give each other compliments? “Hey, Larry, thats a really swell haircut. Cool shoes, too!”
But, of course, the bullying the article describes is not bullying as practiced by my old classmate Junior Martin, a pumpkin-headed oaf who once pounded nails through the soles of his workbooks to prepare for a stomping. I could have gotten behind legislation to lock up Junior Martin, although he probably damaged to the floors of the high school more than he damaged any student.
The proposed legislation will, of course, be used by bullies, at both teacher and student rank, to harass students who would rather not use the pre-approved lexicon of sexuality. This will not stop at censure of crude epithets, which the community at large eschews and condemns, but will require terms approved by the object of those terms. The purpose of such an exercise–of forcing another to say what he believes is untrue–is humiliation. In other words, it’s bullying.
Bullying works. That’s what frightens me. They’re probably right that a generation of terrorizing gender essentialists (meaning mostly adherents of the Christian and Muslim religions) will eradicate us from the West. Of course, they will never really succeed in making men and women identical, in eliminating the presumption of heterosexuality, or in making people not raise their eyebrows when a man walks into a women’s restroom, but this just means that they never have to declare victory and stop tormenting us.
Bonald:
The fact that they fight against Nature and Nature’s God means that they will always have an oppressor against whom they set themselves as liberators. Because their total triumph over nature is not possible, there will always be more Solutions required after each Final Solution.
Thinking about it in the long view, even if “gender essentialists” pushed back, do you think they would ever prevail? It seems likely to me they would be demonized into an even worse position if they tried.
Many people compare Progressivism to a juggernaut, but I think it’s more like a virus, which in most cases will not die until it has run its course and mutated. We can only hope that our good innate qualities will kick in again once the scourge is over.
Was your school infested with bullies? Mine wasn’t. We had plenty of young men who were uncouth and fond of fighting, but in their world points were scored by busting the nose of another tough guy, not by taunting members of the chess club. I once had to fight a wanna-be tough who thought he could begin his rise from thuggish obscurity by giving me a shiner, but even I was a match for that weedy punk. And our great battle behind the school–the last I fought in my life–wasn’t the worst thing in the world for me. I recall that he also lost his interest in fighting, so it turned out to be a good thing all round.
Of course these gentle Minnesotans aren’t thinking of anything so Tom Sawyerish as scrapping in the schoolyard. They are worried about “taunts.” If “taunts” had been forbidden in my high school, the place would have resembled a Trappist monastery. Do they really expect that young men can be taught to give each other compliments? “Hey, Larry, thats a really swell haircut. Cool shoes, too!”
But, of course, the bullying the article describes is not bullying as practiced by my old classmate Junior Martin, a pumpkin-headed oaf who once pounded nails through the soles of his workbooks to prepare for a stomping. I could have gotten behind legislation to lock up Junior Martin, although he probably damaged to the floors of the high school more than he damaged any student.
The proposed legislation will, of course, be used by bullies, at both teacher and student rank, to harass students who would rather not use the pre-approved lexicon of sexuality. This will not stop at censure of crude epithets, which the community at large eschews and condemns, but will require terms approved by the object of those terms. The purpose of such an exercise–of forcing another to say what he believes is untrue–is humiliation. In other words, it’s bullying.
Bullying works. That’s what frightens me. They’re probably right that a generation of terrorizing gender essentialists (meaning mostly adherents of the Christian and Muslim religions) will eradicate us from the West. Of course, they will never really succeed in making men and women identical, in eliminating the presumption of heterosexuality, or in making people not raise their eyebrows when a man walks into a women’s restroom, but this just means that they never have to declare victory and stop tormenting us.
[…] By Bonald […]
Bonald:
The fact that they fight against Nature and Nature’s God means that they will always have an oppressor against whom they set themselves as liberators. Because their total triumph over nature is not possible, there will always be more Solutions required after each Final Solution.
May I take a moment to praise your blog. I am a new convert to Christian dominion worldview.
Thinking about it in the long view, even if “gender essentialists” pushed back, do you think they would ever prevail? It seems likely to me they would be demonized into an even worse position if they tried.
Many people compare Progressivism to a juggernaut, but I think it’s more like a virus, which in most cases will not die until it has run its course and mutated. We can only hope that our good innate qualities will kick in again once the scourge is over.
Hey, Progressives, good news for you! No need to even ask parents anymore – just indoctrinate away! If you get caught, just “apologize”.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/15/wisconsin-school-district-publicly-apologizes-for-propaganda-laden-pro-gay-marriage-video/