We Need The Traditional Agenda More Than 'The New Agenda'

by Smitty (from The New Agenda via No Quarter)

As part of National Offend a Feminist Week, let's observe a sample of the Agents of Societal Destruction in action. We have the standard hand-wringing over a serious problem:

What can we do to stop the “normalization” of violence in youth culture? What can we do to stop assault in the next generation? That was a major topic at The New Agenda’s Violence Against Women forum on April 18. Here’s the video: Please help us to spread it far and wide!

The gist: as part of the overall decay of public schools, women are seeing escalating violence, in addition to a spate of Big Numbers.

What we never manage to hear escape the lips of these purveyors of dismal is any recognition of possible societal factors involved:

• The ongoing destruction of the family (i.e. male, female, children) as a unit of societal organization.
• The denigration of the male role as a leader and servant in the relationship.
• The promotion of government policy, process and procedure as a source of authority for societal organization.

The specific case these women are on about?

In the weeks after hip-hop artist Chris Brown allegedly beat and strangled singer Rihanna, a stomach-turning phenomenon happened across America: acceptance.

I will admit to a jaded cynicism: my first thought when Rihanna bobbed to the surface of the stream of effluent that is the cable news was that the whole thing was a publicity stunt. While Jane's Addiction falls short of the John Bohnam Criteria, the observation that "...the news is just another show, with sex and violence." remains spot on.

So, what do we do? I tell the kids in the youth group:

• Don't worry about being serious with anyone until after college. Figure yourself out first.
• Don't date in numbers smaller than four--keep the fun level up and the pressure level down.
• Don't date outside of the community of faith. If they're too cool to show up at the house of worship at the appointed time, this is a good indicator of their actual interest level.

Of course, I'm ignored, but they can't say they're not getting sound advice.

The community of faith is valuable at the adult level, too. I wouldn't accuse church members who attend steadily of perfection. However, I'd like to see a serious comparison study of their overall problems against society in general. My gut feeling is that the ugly numbers are significantly lower amidst those who have some grasp of the meaning of life, and for a good reason. Regular negative feedback on the "don't do" aspects of life, and positive feedback on the "do this" aspects produce a superior product.

On the other hand, we have feminists who produce, in my severely biased opinion, a stream of marginally useful bumperstickers that will achieve little beyond short-term empathy for victims. If a community of faith is a nutritious spiritual diet, I'm accusing these feminists of pushing Snickers and Doritos, washed down with soda pop. If the real goal is minimizing violence against women, you're going to have to return to the traditional modes of turning boys into men. The platitudes on offer here do little, AFAICT, besides open up more government programs and career paths for people to maintain the problem. So let's discuss a broader "come to Beavis" meeting about the root causes, and ignore limited value approaches, please. Finally, remember that the "come to Beavis" meeting is an individual thing. We can do all of the rah-rah and statistics we want, but as with Fireproof, it remains an individual life-long challenge to avoid idiocy, irrespective of gender.