A WORD ON DEMOCRACY
Today Americans tend to consider democracy as the highest and most enlightened form of government. Why then, did the founders of our nation insist upon a representative republic rather than a democracy? And why, if they gave us a republic, do we insist on thinking we are a democracy?
Pundits, sages, and philosophers throughout the ages have known of the self-destructive nature of democracy as a form of government since ancient times. Current trends in America seem to support the validity of their warnings and wisdom. Our founding fathers were certainly aware of the shortcomings of democracy. But behold! Before our very eyes we are witnessing the once freest nation on earth, changed from a representative republic to a democracy, and changing, in turn, to an increasingly authoritarian state. Such is the nature of democracy. Democracy tends to squander its capital and strive toward self-destruction.
Evolution is a two way affair. It works both ways. Reverse evolution is called degeneration or regression. In the course of time, political and cultural degeneration are frequently confused with progress.
Of course, our democracy is a mock democracy at best. When did the people-at-large ever get to vote on anything of importance — like war, income tax, or the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday?
The right to vote is the most cherished of democratic rights. Universal suffrage is considered the very epitome of democracy — where the vote of the most ignorant, degenerate, feeble-minded man, woman, or child, of eighteen years of age or older, carries exactly the same weight as that of the wisest, most intelligent, most learned man (or woman) in the country.
That's democracy though. Is there any wonder that we find ourselves in somewhat of a confused mess?
In this issue I address one subject touching on the voting franchise. This one is a real hot potato. I'll probably regret writing it.
WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE
"Untold centuries of women's suffering has resulted in the rage that brought us women's suffer-rage. Pity the men who will forever-more carry the burden of that rage!" Anonymous
Something of profound consequence transpired in America shortly after WWI, the implications of which cannot be overstated but are yet seldom recognized or considered today. It represented a radical turning point on the curve of history of western civilization. I speak of women's suffrage. Few people today think of this as anything other than simple social justice. Perhaps it is. Suggest otherwise and you are labeled a male chauvinist and a bigoted one at that. With my sincerest apologies to the ladies, I venture here into treacherous political quicksand.
The political power and influence of women had become considerable decades prior to their gaining the right to vote. Throughout the ages, women have frequently proven capable of inciting men to unspeakable abominations, including murder and massive warfare. In this country women abolitionists vigorously helped fan the flames that resulted in the Civil War. The temperance and prohibitionist movements, which were largely female driven, resulted in Prohibition in 1919. While American men had been away fighting the for freedom, democracy, and supremacy of the British Empire in the war to end all wars, women at home where busy trying to take a very basic and elementary freedom away. Our all-male congress lacked the backbone to resist the onslaught of the feminine lobby. The women didn't want victory, or anything else, celebrated with alcoholic beverages. They were putting their collective foot down! The 18th Amendment, (Prohibition) was our very first patently absurd constitutional amendment.
"Wherever universal suffrage, or some close approach to it, is the primary axiom of government, the thing know as 'freak legislation' is a constant evil." H.L. Mencken
Finally the Suffragettes had become over- powering and irresistible. In the giddy-headed euphoria of victory in that war to end all wars, women finally won the right to vote. I suppose there is nothing more politically incorrect, or even perhaps suicidal, than to hint that the 19th Amendment could possibly have any negative consequences. That's because the majority of the voters of the nation are now women.
Of course, the representatives who voted for female suffrage can hardly be blamed for their short-sightedness. Short-sightedness seems to be one of the prime requisites of office. Undoubtedly they assumed, no big deal, that women would vote with their men-folk. This, of course, largely turned out to be the case. But few, if any, of our legislators envisioned a time when most women voters wouldn't have men. They failed to see the inevitable results of female suffrage — the end of society as they had known it. They didn't set out to change society in the most fundamental ways, they just tried to appease and accommodate the reasonable expectations (dare we say demands?) of the women of the day. Little did they consider that, in the course of time, the institutions of marriage and family, mom and apple pie, would come crashing down on the altar of the concept of the politically liberated (equal) woman. Who would have imagined in 1920 that a day could ever arrive when husbands, and even fathers, would become a rejected and endangered species? Who, even now, honestly acknowledges that a basic premise of the militant feminist psychic is the notion that husbands and fathers are fundamental symbols of female repression? That the traditional roles of womanhood would be discredited as being beneath the dignity of women?
Whatever can be said of the justice of social and political equality for women, one thing is beyond dispute. That indisputable fact is this: It changed everything forever. If it be in error, there is no possibility of a political remedy short of a return to the law of the jungle. It also compounded all of the inherent problems associated with democracy. In time, the male vote was nullified, and man now finally stands relatively impotent in the society he had always dominated. Men, even some dominant men, had paradoxically often been dominated by women — that too is in the natural order. There have always been henpecked husbands. But now man, political man, is officially castrated and robbed of his manhood. He can no longer exclude women from his all-male social club. He can't even have a decent all male-military fighting force any more, or harass the girls at the office! Women are now empowered, and they can exclude men from their social clubs. They can still harass the hell out of men, and they are determined to excel, and exceed men, in combat!
To paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche, perhaps the most reviled of all the great philosophers: In a democracy the men become like women and the women like men. With the femininization of the military, homosexuality gaining social respectability, women becoming warriors, and men beginning to adopt feminine adornments such as ear studs, I'd have to say that Mr. Nietzche may have had a valid point.
Women should never have been given the vote. They are now politically much more powerful than men. Uncle Sam is undergoing a sex change. At best, he is now a eunuch. Not even God is spared. Even He is under attack and in danger of becoming a woman.
EIGHT POINTS OF LIGHT
1. There can be no equality between the sexes. They are, by nature, in a state of eternal war. Peace is only possible when one or the other is acknowledged master. Women will never be satisfied with mere equality. (Paraphrased from Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy, writing on Nietzsche)
2. Each woman now has one vote, and since there are more women than men, they constitute a natural majority of the electorate.
3. Though men are reluctantly relinquishing their natural dominance over women, women will never relinquish their natural powers and influences over men. Thus women control not only their own majority vote, but much of the minority male vote as well.
4. There isn't a man in the still male- dominated House, Senate, or Courts with the guts to stand up to the women. To do so is political suicide.
5. Women, already a powerful majority, have been awarded special minority, victim status by our spineless ruling wise men! This was the ultimate "divide and conquer" coup of the social engineers.
6. The Women's movement is, and will naturally be, dominated by domineering women who often disdain womanhood itself and, while hating men, ape the attributes of manhood.
7. Lesbians, who will, (or already do) comprise the militant cadre of the Women's movement, cannot realistically represent the hopes and aspirations of the majority of women who, after all, are still women.
8. Ultimately, nature's laws will prevail, of course. Men will be men and women will be women in spite of political and social attempts at erasing the gender gap. Pretending equality of the sexes is futile. More conflict is inevitable. In those conflicts, real women will tend to support their real men. So perhaps there is still hope.
For all of its many faults, successes, and accomplishments, western culture and civilization was the culmination of male- dominated thought and leadership, from pre-historic times on. Men and women had their clearly defined respective roles in society as a matter of natural order. When women gained political equality it radically changed our evolving social order and threw society out of balance. Social and moral constraints became mere obstacles for women to overcome. With these challenges now largely conquered, the very fabric of our society, as western man developed it, is severely threatened. The edifice of civilization as we still tend to perceive and believe it, is hardly relevant. Our every institution is either under attack or already vanquished.
It was once a so-called man's world, in which women enjoyed a special, protected status and influence. Certainly injustices were many, but so were the benefits. Now women refer to their special protected status as second-class citizenship. Yet they do not want to relinquish their special protections, they require those protections and even more in order to, not only compete, but dominate.
Once upon a time there was a modicum of order in society. There were strict moral values and social standards. There was continuous material, if not spiritual, progress. There was social progress. By the mid-twentieth century this civilization had reached a point where a family with one breadwinner could attain the American dream for himself and his family.
This progress, (from 1920 through say 1950) happened through social inertia, before woman's evolving emancipation really took hold. But they had the vote and were gaining ground all the while. Now, in the decade of the nineties, women are finally coming into their own. (They haven't gained numerical parity through the elective process as yet, but they have attained disproportionate political power to their elected numbers. Even now it is uncertain who is the real president — Bill or his wife Hillary) The order we once knew, the civilization we once had, and the government our founders bequeathed us, may no longer be feasible.
Women (with numerous exceptions, of course) are born liberals, (of the modern variety, which bears little resemblance to the classic variety) and they added "bleeding heart" to the term. Women are natural nurturers and, having abandoned the home, are now intent on creating a maternalistic state to nurture the helpless subjects of the realm. These women are perfect tools of Big Brother ( or Big Sister) government, socialism, the New World Order, and the forces of Mammon.
Women are invading a shrinking industrial and corporate job force en mass. Consequently, unemployment is up, and the traditional family as a basic social unit is in ruins and two breadwinners are now required to support surviving families. Women have gained special minority and victim status (so they are not only politically equal to men but more than equal!); abortion has become a mere matter of female convenience; gay marriages and gays in the military are ideas whose time has come (homosexuals of every stripe have a natural ally in women); women warriors are literally clambering for the right to draw blood on the field of battle. Too many liberated women are choosing to ape the follies of men rather than contribute constructively to the advancement of civilization.
Maleness is discounted as a negative attribute in men but admired in women, while femininity in both sexes carries no negative connotation. Men can no longer be trained to be men and take pride in maleness, but women can not only be trained to take pride in their femaleness, but be trained in place of men in manliness. Men are obliged to take all of this — and more is in store. The successful crashing of the gates of the Citadel by Shannon Faulkner is ample illustration of this. She couldn't care less about the Citadel or education, she is simply a point-person determined to be instrumental in destroying yet another male institution. The Tailhook affair is further clear evidence of the necessity of weeding maleness and male instincts out of military men. Man's last legitimate official bastions of refuge no longer exist. The male warrior is being supplanted by the Amazon and she-man. Real men are becoming rare, or are being forced underground. She-men are coming to the fore. Lamentably, only in the world of crime do men still maintain their supremacy.
These are some of the natural consequences of democracy and equality for women. All of this may be for the best, but a person can hardly be faulted for having a few resounding reservations.
Women's suffrage is now written in stone as a basis for American democracy. It cannot be changed under democratic processes. Why, you may ask, do I bring this touchy subject up in the first place? Not only is it ancient history, but it seems clear that nothing can be done about it — and I am certainly laying myself open to a considerable amount of hostility and criticism. Why brand myself a male chauvinist warthog and flirt with the possibility of becoming a main course at a feminist barbecue?
My point is that our societal dislocations and the now recognized deterioration of social mores, morals, and standards did not begin in the 50's and 60's with the advent of the welfare state. The roots of these disorders were much earlier and much more fundamental. Almost everybody acknowledges that we have a problem, but nobody dares to mention one of the major root causes. If problems are to be correctly solved, it is necessary to recognize, understand, and honestly confront the whole issue. Leave out the root causes, and solutions become superficial or patently impossible. This doesn't necessarily make the solution easy. There may not be a completely satisfactory solution, but at least the true nature and depth of the problem becomes more clear and honesty in dealing with the problem possible.
I do not advocate disenfranchising the ladies or turning the clock back. New realities prevent any such thing. The "for better or worse, until death do us part" clause now applies to the political marriage long ago consummated between the sexes. The relationship will always be a troubled one, but it is imperative that we make the marriage work, because divorce, in this case, isn't an option.
Without doubt, there are women who possess more political savvy than men. Some understand and appreciate our constitution more than men. And some have more guts than most men. Wisdom itself may not be any rarer in women than in men. So, obviously, there are a lot of women who are in the right political camp who serve the causes of liberty and justice as skillfully as men. No matter what course the inevitable battle of the sexes takes, at the political level we must work together as Americans to accomplish the just goal of thwarting impending tyranny. Our hope must be that there is a large enough coalition of right-minded persons of both sexes to persevere in the fight to correct the evils now confronting us as a nation. Men and women of good mind and will must work together to return the nation to American Constitutional rule. Only if that happens will we ever know the justice in law we all aspire to.
Camden
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