UNDER THE RUG

     So in the midst of the Media hoopla ahead of this Night of Nights in the Atlanta Thunderdome, issues actually effecting the future of our Civilization continue being swept under the rug. Blogger InsanityBytes had an interesting post up today relating to a scandal and cover-up involving Pastor Robert Morris, who leads a Texas-based Megachurch. 

    In the interests of full disclosure, I must confess that I don't know all the details of this case. Our culture's definition of sexual abuse is so elastic that skepticism isn't unwarranted; but at the same time, the known character of most of these Megachurch leaders and the Boards who run their enterprises also warrant not dismissing such allegations out-of-hand. The important thing about IB's article is that she has been the only writer so far who's actually discussed the impact of these scandals on the fathers involved. 

   "I wanted to speak about secondary victims, in this case, the victim’s family, especially her father. I don’t know his whole story. but in part he was angry and probably wanted to kill the man who had hurt his kid. We do know he confronted them. What some people don’t understand about child sexual abuse and an ensuing cover up is that you’ve just victimized a whole lot of people. The safety and well being of children and their healing is a priority, but I mean, often a father is decimated in the process, too. I’m not trying to speak for him, but I’m sure he must have struggled a sense of betrayal, with his own regrets and inadequacies, his own inability to protect one of his children through no fault of his own. I have no idea how he may have also wrestled with faith, wondered if that too may have been a deception, but those kind of things would be likely."

   I would say that based upon my own observations and experiences that this is very likely true. In Masculine Psychology, which our paid 'experts' today either dismiss as nonexistent or smear as inherently 'toxic,' the sense of feeling powerless in the face of blatant injustice, especially when it ties men's hands and prevents them from acting in self-defense or the defense of others is devastating to man's sense of self-worth and dignity. There's nothing quite like the anguish that a man feels when he knows that, on equal terms, he could prevail but is obliged to chafe knowing that the party who's injured him is wholly untouchable and could swat him down as easily as one would use a fly-swatter. 

   Young boys (at least the normal ones) have an instinctual hatred for bullies. Our first encounters with them reinforces our sense of duty to protect and defend. It's part of a young man's growth process and prepares him for his future social duties. Our rotten society, though, brutally suppresses masculinity not only boys, but in young men: and the despair that this generates is reflected in what is now called the Crisis of Masculinity and is reflected in things like the mounting suicide rates among younger men. 

    Suicide rates don't even include numbers of deaths by addiction or accidents which may have involved suicidal ideation and which also disproportionately affect young men. Our social policy of suppressing masculine instincts and psychological constructs doesn't make them go away; it simply causes men to repress them and this not infrequently builds into rage. The fact that the majority of mass-shooters are also male is another consequence of this policy. The more that our 'experts' spout off about 'toxic masculinity' and the need for further repression, the more that these violent reactions occur. Blaming the Scamdemic, access to guns, online radicalization, or lack of access to mental health facilities are the excuses---not the reasons---for this crisis. 

   The Crisis in Masculinity is not only reflected in other outward signs such as the widespread trend of drifting into homosexuality or otherwise men dropping out of society and their traditional roles. Those things involve repressed anger too, though it is expressed passively. An often overlooked reaction is the tendency of repressed males to seek vicarious expression in a strong leader who knows how to play on this psychology. This is a real danger. We saw it play out in Europe after WW1 when men who were disillusioned by the sting of military defeat endured additional depreciation by the Liberal social orders that rose up in the aftermath. They turned to manly Alpha leaders like Mussolini and Hitler who symbolically gave voice to that inner rage. The growing appeal of such caricatures of Masculinity in our own culture is no accident. 

    

       IB mentions the spiritual effect on men and it does have that effect too. It's noteworthy that in this connection, the Catholic Church holds two mortal sins: Unbelief and Despair. The first is self-explanatory, it denies God's existence; the second though denies God's goodness. Men are especially vulnerable to this when spiritual leaders have let them down, as most of our Megachurches do. It's excruciating enough for a man to realize that that his nation and culture have forsaken him, but when he becomes convinced that God has forsaken him too, he is truly beyond help. 

     Tonight, as we'll be treated to some of the worst examples of American Masculinity, we ought to reflect what all of this says about our culture and not simply sweep it all under the rug hoping that some Superman is coming to save us from ourselves.