Have We Really Made Progress?

Read up, people! Another installment from guest blogger Madame LaFarge:

Beginning with Neanderthal hunting and gathering, what most anthropologists will agree upon is that men tend to interact with other men in groups.

What do men want? This is a question usually asked about women, I know. But let’s take a look at what men want. We can begin by asking what do men do? Well, they usually work – outside the home. If men have made societal structures for the optimum aggrandizement of themselves, those main areas of work are: war, sports, and business. I suppose we may add art as a fourth category, for those so inclined. The American mythologist Joseph Campbell believed that men want to be heroes. Fair enough. Each of these work categories can claim heroes aplenty.

Little Johnny comes into world as preferred stock, no matter where he is born. His parents, grateful that they have a son to take care of them for the rest of their lives, shield and protect him from criticism, encourage him to develop his many talents, and warn him about those things that will ruin his life.

Depending on how much power and money his family has and where he lives will pretty much determine Johnny’s future. If he has drawn a short straw in both of the above, his work could be war. Of course, wars need generals too, so, as usual, the upper class men will dictate whatever ‘needs’ to be done. If you have an entire country made up of short straws, you may have tribal factions like the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, and other terrorist groups who, like the generals, have chosen war as their lifelong occupation.

By now, we all know that honor is writ large for these straw men particularly. How did honor come to play such an important role in their lives? Poverty surely, but also, I think, more importantly, embarrassment. Embarrassment because the rest of the world can see the backwardness which, while desperately clinging to old tribal customs, has left them totally unprepared to go forward as equals in the modern world.

In war, I can see the fairness somehow, of armed men killing other armed men. What fails to make sense to me is how anyone in any fit of rage, could commit atrocities against unarmed females; like throwing acid on the faces of little girls who dare to go to school; fathers, husbands, and brothers killing or disfiguring daughters, wives and sisters for the sake of their honor. These men consider women as entirely extraneous to themselves. After all, what society would cover their women in sacks from head to toe, like they were shameful things to be hidden? Again, the shame is with these men themselves.

The measurement of a man’s progress could be in the way that he views women. If hormones are the culprit, which seems to be the case, as the sexes become increasingly interchangeable, then must we wait patiently for men to evolve? Do we have the time necessary to achieve this goal? If business is the final frontier, if success for men is the adulation and recognition from other men, why not add saving the world to the list?

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February 22, 2009 | Filed Under Historical Context, Perfect World 

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